Incremental cost won’t influence Clean Vehicle Credit: IRS

New guidance from the Internal Revenue Service and the Treasury in Notice 2024-05, regarding the Commercial Clean Vehicle Credit for commercial vehicles placed in service next year, provides a safe harbor for certain qualified commercial clean vehicles that allows for reliance on the Department of Energy analysis of incremental costs.

That analysis shows that the incremental cost of all street electric vehicles (other than in the case of compact car plug-in hybrids, or PHEVs) that have a gross vehicle weight rating of less than 14,000 pounds will be greater than $7,500 in calendar 2024. Accordingly, the incremental cost will not limit the available credit amount for such street electric vehicles.

When calculating the credit amount for PHEVs placed in service during calendar 2024 for which the incremental cost was calculated to be less than $7,500, the IRS will accept a taxpayer’s use of the incremental cost published by the DOE.

The DOE analysis also provided an incremental cost analysis of current costs for several representative classes of street electric vehicles with a gross vehicle weight rating of 14,000 pounds or more. For those vehicles placed in service during calendar 2024, the IRS will accept a taxpayer’s use, in calculating the credit amount, of the incremental cost published by the DOE.