Golf Carts

[Black Bart]

Form 8936 -- anybody happen to know how much credit you get? Is it a percentage or the whole purchase price up to...what amount? My software shows only a draft form, credit amount says see instructions, and I can't find any instructions on it anywhere.

[BP.]

Maybe try this:
This is from the form instructions:

"Enter the credit allowable for the year, make, and model
of vehicle you entered on line 1. You can generally rely
on the manufacturer’s (or domestic distributor’s)
certification of the credit allowable as explained above.

Tentative Credit
Tentative credit amounts acknowledged by the IRS
are available at www.irs.gov. To view these amounts or
check for updates, visit www.irs.gov and search for
Qualified Plug-in Electric Drive Motor Vehicles
(IRC 30D).”

So if the mfr hasn't provided the credit amount per paragraph one, do the search on irs.gov as described in paragraph two. The search returns a list of mfr's and the credit for each mfr's model. Hope that'll help.

[DTS]

Golf carts

Bart,

Does this help you? John H found this in November and posted to a thread pertaining to golf carts.

http://www.irs.gov/businesses/article/0,,id=214841,00.html

[erchess]

Frim the IRS Website

http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f8936.pdf

That PDF contains the fill in form and the instructions. Guess you don't need the form but oh well. I found it by going to the IRS Website and putting "F8936 Instructions" in the box at the top right and clicking. That took me to a page where there were a lot of instructions to choose from but the one I wanted was at the top so I clicked it and hey presto there I was at the above page.

[taxea]

3 questions: Is registrations/licensing by the state required? Is it legal to drive on a public roadway? Does it qualify as one of the listed vehicles in the instructions?

[erchess]

Three Questions

3 questions: Is registrations/licensing by the state required? Is it legal to drive on a public roadway? Does it qualify as one of the listed vehicles in the instructions?

In North Carolina no vehicle must be registered or licensed by the state. The only reason someone would register and license with the state would be if the vehicle qualified for use on the public roads and the owner actually intended to use it there. People can and do have street legal vehicles that they do not drive except on private property and these are not registered or licensed. My understanding would be that a vehicle that is going to be used in this way is not eligible for the credit in question.

Legality to drive in a public roadway would vary by state and perhaps by locale within the state. In NC I believe that there are subdivisions around golf courses which have government built and maintained roads and I believe that it is an accepted practice to drive any golf cart between the course and one's home. Anyway I assume that the rules for the location where it is to be used would be the ones in play at this point.

Does it qualify as one of the vehicles listed in the instructions is a clear and objective test.

[taxea]

3 questions: Is registrations/licensing by the state required? Is it legal to drive on a public roadway? Does it qualify as one of the listed vehicles in the instructions?

Perhaps my post wasn't clear enough. In order to drive the "vehicle" on a public roadway every state requires registration/licensing of the vehicle. Even bicycles are required to be registered in most states/cities if they are going to be used on public roadways.

Erchess if you do more research I bet you will find that the golf cart "roads" are actually private roads (not maintained by the city, not enforced by law enforcement) that are accessable to the public. In fact if you are referring to roads within places like golf course neighborhoods you will find that all the roads are private roads with public access. The fact they are private roads is the reason why unregistered golf carts are allowed to drive on them.
It is the same thing as your walkway from the sidewalk to your front door or your driveway. It is private property however it has public access for mailman, UPS, etc. The police would not arrest for trespassing a person standing in that area unless you have told them they are trespassing and you want them to leave.
Same with shopping center parking lots. They are private property and stops signs are not enforcable. Police under normal circumstances do not enforce the local vehicle code other than four violations that I know of.

[STEVE1]

No Credit

I talked to a representative of a golf cart dealer several weeks ago. As of now, there is no credit. They expired 12/31/09. At some point, they may be reinstated/extended, but for now, nothing.

[erchess]

TY Tax EA

Much clearer. I had formed the opinion based on reading on this board that in some places golf carts were allowed on publicly maintained roads in suburban neighborhoods, I had also formed the impression that at least one golf cart manufacturer had managed to produce a cart that technically can be licensed for public roads in most if not all states.

[Black Bart]

Thanx to everybody for your responses

My guy showed up this morning and decided not to take the credit. He had heard they weren't eligible if not street-legal and his has no lights, mirrors, etc. I agreed because of that and also his brand isn't on the IRS "approved" list. Still, it doesn't make sense in light of what IRS is saying out of the other side of its mouth.

On the one hand, John H.'s IRS link that Dennis referred to gives a list of "qualified" golf carts, but later I found this: Notice 2009-54, I.R.B. 2009-26 states that a low-speed vehicle must not be manufactured primarily for off-road use, such as primarily for use on a golf course. Which, I assume, most of them were made for that purpose, but the IRS list calls them "cars," so maybe that's the loophole/escape hatch.

Too bad -- he owed about $3K, the credit would've wiped that out, and he'll probably hear about "the guy down the street" who's taking it for all golf carts and figure he lost that much money with me.