Windows and Hybrids

[Possi]

My poor client bought windows thinking they qualified for the energy credit this year.

He was also told that his new Nissan Altra EV qualified for the Alternative Motor Vehicle Credit.

I feel so bad telling my clients the bad news when they do not qualify for the credits that someone else told them they could get.

=(

not a good day.....

[BP.]

My poor client bought windows thinking they qualified for the energy credit this year.

He was also told that his new Nissan Altra EV qualified for the Alternative Motor Vehicle Credit.

I feel so bad telling my clients the bad news when they do not qualify for the credits that someone else told them they could get.

=(

not a good day.....

Same here . . . have had so many people who got their windows, insulation and new furnaces in 2008. Such a disappointment that the credit isn't available.

[veritas]

I lucked out

In 2008 I was going to have my basement insulated. Fortunately for me and typical of contractors they didn't show up when they were supposed to. I fired them.

So I'm going to do it this year.


That is if I can find a contractor who can remember to show up.

[Nashville]

Salesmen

Salesmen who sell these things purported the credit too.

It returns in 2009 but not in 2008. Talk about opportunities for tax simplification!

The energy credits is just another in a long list of tax breaks that keep getting extended on a "temporary" basis. Does anyone remember how long the exemption for "Tuition Refund" has been going on? Some of these, like the schoolteacher's $250 adjustment and the itemization of sales taxes actually have been on Death Watch a couple of times and then revived just before Christmas.

Obama's latest deficit-cutting announcement would put a stop to some of this, by rescinding the "Bush" tax cuts forever. Only two years ago, Congress was talking about making these tax cuts permanent.

Also increasing taxes on small businesses, and rescinding the dividends/capital gains breaks. Brilliant.

I think all this talk about suddenly being interested in cutting the deficit stems from the bally-hooed signing of the stimulus last week and the immediately the stock market goes into another tail-spin. Since the stimulus had an adverse effect, there is now a sudden interest in fiscal restraint.

Attaboy!! Let's go after those capital gain/dividend tax rates! The stock market would really love that, wouldn't it?

[Possi]

"THEY" said.....

If only "THEY" would stop telling their customers that there is a credit for this stuff, our lives would be so much better.

"THEY" even make me second guess what I know to be true... then I'm "chasing bunnies" and wasting time. My own fault... I should have more confidence.

Oh well, back to work...

[joanmcq]

Well, when all these credits & deductions were first initiated 7 or 8 years ago, the sunset provisions were put into place in order to make the long term projections for the budget deficits based on these tax decreases not look like the big red ink generators they were. So the sales tax deduction was good for two years, for example. But anytime one of 'em sunsets, it gets put back in because that would be 'raising taxes'. So what we've had is the patches and last minute reanimations of the tax cuts that has made our life hell, although more profitable (or would if we could bill for all the time it takes to keep up with this crap).

[Possi]

indeed!

(or would if we could bill for all the time it takes to keep up with this crap).

Ah... yes... if we COULD bill for all the bunnies I've been chasing, we'd be rich.

[Gary]

Plug-In Hybrid

I am considering getting a plug-in hybrid. The new stimulus package, as I understand it, gives a credit up to $7000 for plug-in hybrids in 2010 for the first xxx(I don't know the number) of a given brand produced. If the 2010 plug-in hybrid is introduced in the fall of 2009, do i have to wait until January 2 2010 to buy it? I assume that if they sell more than xxx of that brand of car before 2010, they won't count because they are not eligible for the credit. Are my assumptions correct?