On Aug. 16, 2022, P.L. 117-169 (commonly known as the Inflation Reduction Act) was signed into law.  Among other things, the Act drastically expanded the scope of green energy tax credits and other tax incentives, many of which could benefit rental property owners.  In addition, last June, the Treasury Department released proposed regulations that have the potential to allow even taxpayers with no income tax liability to more easily monetize some of these tax credits.

Prior to 2022, the Internal Revenue Code allowed an investment tax credit for certain energy property, including solar panels, generally equal to 30% of the cost of such property.  However, the credit for solar panels was being phased out and was set to expire completely for projects for which construction began in 2024 or later.  In addition, the credits were nonrefundable, so if a taxpayer had little or no income tax liability, it would obtain little benefit from the credits.

The law prior to 2022 did not permit a taxpayer to directly "sell" any type of federal income tax credits to any person.  As a workaround, taxpayers who were expected to generate large amounts of tax credits would sometimes enter into partnership or lease structures designed to allocate credits to a bank or other person with a large income tax liability.  However, the structures were very complicated and would typically involve significant legal fees to implement.  For a taxpayer with a relatively small amount of credits, such as the owner of a rental building who installed solar panels on the rooftop, the costs of monetizing the credits might not have been worth it.