Arkansas HVACR NewsMagazine September 2023

HVACR NewsMagazine September 2022

State National Chapter News

Energy Efficient Home Improvement Credit It is a CREDIT — not a rebate. Why is this important? a. It reduces your tax burden. b. It cannot be used to get a refund. c. It cannot be carried over from year to year. As you can see, it is valuable but has its limitations. In addition, it is generally limited to 30% of the cost of the installation but then also has caps. For Example: Heat Pump 30% Capped at $2,000 Central Air 30% Capped at $ 600 Gas Furnace 30% Capped at $ 600 Electric Panel 30% Capped at $ 600 Doors, windows, and insulation can also qualify but ours is HVAC so we’ll stay in that lane. It is important to check with your distributor and manufacturer to be assured that the equipment you are purchasing complies with CEE and the tax credit requirement. Frankly, I am not sure of the standard. Our goal is to have more information as it becomes available. That means, when the Arkansas Energy Office publishes the “how much and how to.” I encourage you to stay tuned. My crystal ball says that by the November issue, we should have a better fix on what we all want to know — "What about that big rebate money we ’ re all hearing about. ” As to that, nobody knows today so focus on what you do know and help your customers afford that new equipment using tax credits.

IRA This much we know! Seems everyone has questions and there are lots of folks with answers about the Inflation Reduction Act. I can’t help myself--it should have never been called anything related to inflation reduction. Even Fortune Magazine on August 13 quoted President Biden saying, “‘ I wish I hadn’t called it that because it has less to do with reducing inflation’ than other things.” Ok, enough spiking the football. This win doesn’t mean much except a bit of self congratulations. We were right. We all know that there is a big pot of money waiting on its stage coach ticket to get to Arkansas. In fact the IRA has allocated up to $105,172,730 for Arkansas. Sounds like a lot but equally distributed it’s only about $35 each for the 3.026 million Arkansans. The total is divided into two pots. (1.) $52,739,720 for the Home Energy Performance-Based, Whole-House Rebate Allocations and (2.) $52,433,000 for High Efficiency Electric Home Rebate allocations. So, what are these pots, how can Arkansans access these pots, and when will the money be available. Well, we don’t know. A menagerie of reasons--some at the federal level and some at the state. No need to focus on these. It only confuses and frustrates. We’ll focus on th e program we can use to help our customers afford that new equipment.

We’ll focus on th e program we can use to help our customers afford that new equipment.