$7500 EV Federal credit for LEASES?

Ask the Hackrs
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Can someone confirm if the Federal $7500 tax credit applies to leasing an EV/PHEV car?

My current 2018 PHEV was not eligible for the $7500 tax credit under a lease as the credit was given to the manufacturer / leasing bank.

Looking at the new Ford Lightning EV truck I placed a deposit on…

Has something changed recently regarding this IRS tax credit ?

Found this on Jeep’s EV PDF:
https://www.jeep.com/content/dam/fca-brands/na/jeep/en_us/4xe/wrangler-4xe/incentives/pdf/Federal-Plug-In-Electric-Drive-Vehicle-Credit-4xe.pdf

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It’s claimed by the leasing company, and they can choose whether to pass it on to the lessee.

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They still qualify for the credit. The difference is that the credit goes to the leading company. You can’t claim it. Sometimes the leasing company passes it on the the customer, other times they don’t.

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Yes it does. But only if not Tesla or GM. You need to be the owner to get it.

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To be a bit pedantic here, the federal tax credit only applies to purchases. In the case of a lease, the lessor is purchasing the car and then leasing it to you. As they are the owner of the vehicle, they get to claim the tax credit.

Some banks pass on an equivalent amount incentive to the lessee, but there is no obligation to.

The Jeep pdf is effectively, but not technically, correct, in that currently CCAP passes on an equivalent incentive.

Ford generally does not pass on the incentive, at least not directly. One could argue that they may use the incentive amount to subvene the mf/boost the rv. They also offer some balloon purchase programs that behave similarly to a lease, in that there is a pre-arranged repurchase amount, but you are the owner. In those cases, you get to claim the ev tax credit.

As mentioned, tesla and GM don’t get it at all currently because they have exceeded the maximum number of units sold already.

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Just forget about the fed credit for leases.

Whatever lease cash is being offered by the bank at the time is it. There is no fed tax credit to be stacked on top.

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  1. what everyone already said about the credit belonging to whomever purchases it
  2. Ford will decide when the Lightning lease programs come out how much (if any) of tax credit to pass on as leasw cash
  3. you may be able to use balloon financing to get the entire tax credit and only commit to a shorter term, but that has it’s downsides and has been discussed elsewhere
  4. The Lightning isn’t scheduled to start deliveries until 2022, and there are discussions about changes to the EV tax credit that would take affect 1/1/2022 (still TBD, stay tuned)
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Thanks for everyone’s input!

Appreciated that as we are looking for an EV to replace current leased PHEV.

Currently, we have a leased Honda Clarity PHEV and love the 50 mile range per charge without the range anxiety of a full blown EV. Now that we have dabbled in the battery reality, we are ready to switch over…

Wife wants the Jeep 4XE, I want the Ford Lightning.

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Unless you can wait a LONG time for your next car, get the 4xE now. It is a Wrangler, so it will hold its value very well and you can sell it/swap it whenever you manage to get your hands on a Lightning.

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