OK, I feel like I'm losing my mind here. When I did my research to purchase my 2005 FEH, I found that there was a $2000 federal deduction, a NYS sales tax exemption on $3000 of the purchase price, and a $2000 NYS income tax credit.

Now, everything I see, including the 2005 NYS Alternative Fuels Credit form, says there is no credit and that it ended in 2004.

Any NYers out there with any more info?

Thanks!
Randy

Yeah, the NY tax credit ended at the end of February, 2005 (about 2 months before I bought my FEH! I didn't realize it had expired either... ). According to news reports, Gov. Pataki's proposed budget (for '06-07) would "restore" the credit, but I don't know if it would be retroactive back into '05, begin with the '06 tax year, or what. I guess if it is retroactive we will all have to file amended returns (but it would be worth it to get $2K in the pocket!). And that's only if the proposal is actually enacted; there's some opposition to it, but I don't know how much - at least a few lawmakers are of the opinion that hybrids are getting "mainstream" and there's no need to encourage their purchase, or that we shouldn't give a tax credit to someone who can afford a Lexus SUV.

There was a sales tax exemption also, but that also expired sometime before I bought my FEH; not sure if it was at the same time as the tax credit, or if that one was replaced by the flat $2K credit when it took effect.

Hi Cynthia,

Thanks for the reply. But what you're telling me has actually confirmed my confusion.

I bought mine in Feb... a few days before the Sales Tax Exemption expired. I claimed that quite easily. But if the Income Tax Credit expired at the same time, or some time at the end of Feb. I should still get it.

Yet everything I see now states that it ended 12/31/2004 - contrary to what my pre-purchase research turned up.

Oops, looks like you're right, I must have been confusing the dates of the sales tax and income tax credits.

NY Tax Law section 606 (p)(5) provided the $2,000 credit (against income tax) for "qualified hybrid vehicles", and (p)(9) states "This subsection [i.e., "p"] shall not apply to property placed in service in taxable years beginning after December thirty-first, two thousand four."

Sorry for the misinformation.

I am extremely upset at this whole thing. I was doing my taxed last weekend, when I noticed this as well. Here's the deal, though, I called the NYS IRS office 5 times in 2005... twice in March and 3 times in May before we made our purchase in late May-early June. I asked 5 different NYS IRS people.... "Has this $2000 credit expired? Will this be in effect for all of 2005?" Each time I was told, Yes it is in effect. I even had my tax lady call herself, which means that we were told 6 times that the tax credit was in affect after it had actually expired. I am considering contacting elected officials to complain about the mis-information and see if they are considering the retro-active to 2005 vehicles.

Thank you! I really do remember confirming the information pre-purchase, and now I can't find anything (even the web sites I had bookmarked now show that it expired 12/31/2004). This is really troubling...

Anybody else finding any additional info about this (other than it looks like we were duped and have no paper trail to prove it)?