Energy Efficient Home Credit (Section 45L)
A federal tax credit for contractors who owned and built certified energy-efficient US homes sold or leased for residential use by 30 June 2026.
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Section 45L provides a tax credit as part of the general business credit for qualifying homes acquired by another person. Acquisition eligibility ended on 30 June 2026; qualifying earlier acquisitions are claimed for the relevant tax year. Construction can include substantial reconstruction and rehabilitation.
For homes acquired from 2023 through 30 June 2026, the amount is per dwelling unit. A qualifying single-family or manufactured home earns $2,500 under the applicable ENERGY STAR requirements, or $5,000 if certified under the Department of Energy Zero Energy Ready Home (ZERH) programme. Multifamily units earn $500 under the applicable ENERGY STAR requirements or $1,000 with ZERH certification; meeting the prevailing wage requirements raises these amounts to $2,500 and $5,000 respectively. Homes acquired before 2023 had different energy-saving rules and credits of $1,000 or $2,000.
Generally, reduce the construction expenses used to calculate your tax basis in the property by the credit amount. This reduction does not apply when calculating a building’s adjusted basis for the low-income housing credit. Expenses already counted for the rehabilitation credit or the energy-credit part of the investment credit cannot also count for Section 45L.
Eligibility
- You must be the person or business that constructed the home and owned it with a tax basis during construction; for manufactured homes, you must be its producing owner. If the owner hires a third-party builder, the owner is the eligible contractor, rather than the hired builder.
- The home must be in one of the 50 states or the District of Columbia; US territories are excluded. Construction must have been substantially completed after 8 August 2005. Another person must have acquired it by 30 June 2026 for use as a residence. A residential lease counts; keeping the home for your own residence does not. A manufactured home can qualify through a dealer’s onward sale or residential lease.
- Obtain the applicable home-efficiency certification from a certifier authorised under the relevant ENERGY STAR or ZERH programme before the home is acquired and before claiming. Certification establishes compliance with the programme’s energy-saving requirements; participating without the required certification is insufficient.
- For the ENERGY STAR single-family route, the national standard is version 3.1 for homes acquired before 2025 and version 3.2 for later acquisitions. The location-specific requirements are those effective on 1 January 2023 or 1 January two calendar years before acquisition, whichever is later. The manufactured-home route instead uses the manufactured-home national requirements effective on those dates. For multifamily homes, both national and location-specific requirements use 1 January 2023 or 1 January three calendar years before acquisition, whichever is later. A later effective certification version also satisfies prior versions of the same programme.
- For the ZERH amount, the dwelling unit must be certified under the Department of Energy programme effective on 1 January 2023 or a Treasury-recognised successor programme. Use the certification rules for the relevant building type.
- For the higher multifamily credit, ensure that labourers and mechanics employed by you or subcontractors on construction receive at least the applicable prevailing wage rates. Keep sufficient records to establish compliance and file Form 7220 to claim the increase.
How to apply
- Statut
- indisponibil
- Se deschide
- Se închide
- Condițiile sesiunii de finanțare
- These dates govern acquisition of the home by another person for residential use, rather than the tax-return filing deadline.[^c26][^c9][^c2]
Use IRS Form 8908 to claim for each eligible home acquired by another person during the tax year. Use the December 2025 revision for tax years beginning in 2025 or later, and the relevant earlier revision for earlier years. Partnerships and S corporations must file Form 8908; taxpayers whose only credit comes from a partnership or S corporation can report it directly on Form 3800, Part III, line 1p.
Keep the certifications rather than filing them with the return. Retain supporting records of the home’s address, your eligible-contractor status, its acquisition for residential use, and prevailing-wage compliance where applicable, for as long as they may be material to tax administration. Manufactured-home producers may use a qualifying dealer statement to substantiate the onward acquisition.