There's the spirit, Lisa. Several months after we bought I discovered that Oregon offered a $1500 tax credit! A surprise like that is always nice, but we bought the car for other reasons.

Anyway, the tax credits are phasing downward. As a consequence I believe, price discounts are now available and selection has improved on most Toyota hybrids. A healthy trend, imo.

 

Bump.

Two Hybrids, Two Kids, Two Incomes, One House, Zero Tax Credit.

01/03/2007 - 1.5k credit available on Toyota Prius
11/26/2007 - 3.0k credit available on Mercury Mariner Hybrid.

Of the 4.5k, we didn't qualify for any.

Go FairTax.org!

Messing with quicken we figured out that if my wife and I would have filed for divorce in May, we would have gotten all 4.5k of credits. Love those tax incentives.

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Sounds about right. Anybody with a mortgage, average middle class income, and more than a kid or two just isn't going to get the maximum credit if any. This whole thing has us soured on the financial aspects of other alternative energy changes for our home as well. Basically, anything we do is going to cost us full price as far as federal taxes are concerned. It doesn't reduce our taxes, but it also doesn't increase our credits either. The only saving grace is that there is still a modest state tax credit eligibility, but it's not really enough to justify upgrading anything.

It's pretty sad that the people who would stand to benefit the most from cost saving alternative energy solutions are the people who stand to benefit from it the least in the tax code. It's a financial 'why bother?'

 

In the case of Toyota especially, it's difficult to tell whether the credit benefits consumers at all. More likely, it enabled Toyota to maintain a higher price. When the rebate credit for the hybrid Camry expired, Toyota quickly reconfigured the car's standard equipment and dropeed its price. It looks to me like the net post-credit price of a Camry hybrid is about the same as before expiration.

 

The really sad part is if we would have gotten a guzzler we could have taken the 3 ton work vehicle deduction no problem.

Ohh well... At least I'm not stuck with a guzzler at the pump every month. Heck I think I think I've already saved the 1.5k tax credit on the Prius in gas alone this year.So the lesson here kids is that the IRS is really hoping I leave my wife and buy a Chevy Tahoe. I begin to understand why all these CEO's are such despicable people. In order to save their company from crippling tax burdens they are enticed to do horrible things. Perhaps they need an Honesty and Morality tax credit. I would hope I could qualify for that rather readily.

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I got absolutely nothing, as expected, due to the AMT. This points out that the AMT and energy saving initiatives are incompatible. I went ahead and bought the hybrid in spite of not expecting the credit because I needed a car and think the technology is great.

However, if I knew I could get energy credits for installing a geothermal heating system in my house, I would have done it last year. In the current situation I'm going to limp along with my gas furnace as long as possible in hopes the tax laws will finally change.

 

I got all $2100 of mine.