Form 8911 section for Electric Vehicle Charging Stations doesn't work. The credit always computes as zero dollars.

Forum|Forum|5 years ago
April 19, 2021
2 replies
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I purchased a EV Charger for my house for my EV that I both purchased in 2020. When I use Form 8911 on TurboTax, and enter my cost for purchasing the charger and then the paying an electrician to install it - it always calculates as $0.

I look at the requirements of the credit per TurboTax, and it states the following. We meet all the requirements (my answers in RED).

Credit Requirements
The following conditions must be met to qualify for this credit:
- You started using the station in the current tax year (2020). PURCHASED & INSTALLED SEPT 2020
- You are the original owner of the station. YES, THE ONLY OWNER
- The station is used primarily in the United States. YES, IN NY
- The station is installed at a residential or business location. AT MY HOUSE

Eligible Expenses to Claim
The cost of the charging or fueling station include:
- The amount you paid to purchase the station PURCHASED FROM TESLA, I HAVE THE RECEIPT
- The fees you paid to have the station installed in your home or business location (i.e., electrician fees). PAID AN ELECTRICIAN
- Permit fees DOES NOT APPLY
- Any city, local, or state fees that you were required to pay in order to be able to install your station. DOES NOT APPLY

Example: You purchased your charging station for $850, paid an electrician $2,000 for installation and hardware. You would enter total cost as $2,850 for your station. YES AND MY TOTAL IS OVER $1000

So I can't figure out why this is happening. We also called into TurboTax and the basic support I received was unable to answer my question, and suggested I upgrade to speak with a CPA. I wanted to check to see if anyone had an ideas as to why the form wasn't working before paying extra....

Also as a hail mary, I tried two different browsers, and that didn't make a difference. Still rang up as $0.

Would appreciate some help.... thank you!

TurboTax Deluxe Online

Best answer by AnnetteB6

There are a couple of things that can cause the Alternative Fuel Vehicle Refueling Property Credit to be reduced to zero.

First, the credit is non-refundable and you must have a tax liability in order to take advantage of the credit. Also, the calculation of possible Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT) is involved in the calculation of the credit and may reduce it to zero.

There is a tentative minimum tax for AMT that is calculated in the background as your return is completed. Form 8911 compares that tentative minimum tax to the net regular tax after certain other credits have been taken into account. If the tentative minimum tax is greater than the net regular tax, then the Form 8911 credit is disallowed.

Take a look at your Form 8911, lines 16, 17, and 18. If line 17 is greater than line 16, then your personal credit for Form 8911 will be disallowed.

@Woodchucked

WoodchuckedAuthor

Howdy - any tax experts have any idea about this? Thank you 🙂

AnnetteB6Answer

There are a couple of things that can cause the Alternative Fuel Vehicle Refueling Property Credit to be reduced to zero.

Take a look at your Form 8911, lines 16, 17, and 18. If line 17 is greater than line 16, then your personal credit for Form 8911 will be disallowed.

@Woodchucked

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WoodchuckedAuthor

OK that's it! I didn't realized that I had to have a tax liability. That's the part I missed. And that would be why it's coming up as zero! Thank you very much!

pfkalin450564

The problem in in line 12 where the federal instructions say to enter $1,000 for each house in which that you installed EV charging. TurboTax does not tell you that you should enter something on line 12. However, if you click on the field you get a subform where you can enter one or more address and $1,000 for each address. This info then gets put in line 12 and becomes the Federal EV tax credit.

I look at this as a TurboTax bug for not letting you know that you need to enter something in line 12.

rrawat77

I am also of the same opinion. I did form 8911 manually and I am getting some credit for EV charger installed at home but when I do in turbo tax, credit is zero. I checked the location of charger (census tract GeoID) qualifies for the credit. My AGI is less than $150K filling married jointly. I don't think there is income limit to get the credit. I am still getting zero credit for Energy-Efficient Vehicle Charging Station.

Is this form fixed now?