Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Solar and tax breaks

[Philip Semanchuk (philip]

> On Apr 17, 2026, at 12:08 PM, Sharon Villines via Cohousing-L <cohousing-l 
> [at] cohousing.org> wrote:
> 
>> On Apr 17, 2026, at 11:14 AM, Philip Semanchuk <philip [at] semanchuk.com> 
>> wrote:
> 
>> Under this scheme, our HOA is a for-profit entity, and we are eligible for 
>> the tax credits. However, our income is nominal, so we pay less than $100 in 
>> tax each year. As a result, the tax credit is basically meaningless to us. 
>> If for example we got an $8k tax credit and paid $100 a year in tax, it 
>> would take 80 years to enjoy the full benefit of the tax credit.
> 
> I think there is a misapprehension about non-profits receiving huge tax 
> benefits. Tax benefits are related to income. This is a good example from 
> Pacifica cohousing. They only pay $100 a year in taxes. To lower the tax by 
> $100 would require a lot of work on the part of the finance team, their 
> lawyer, or an accountant. It woud cost more than $100 every year to do that.

In the particular case of non-profits and the federal solar ITC, eligible 
tax-exempt organizations (including 501(c) non-profits) can elect to receive 
the tax credit as cash. One could argue whether or not it’s really a tax 
benefit since they're getting cash, but the IRS seems to categorize it that 
way. It does help nominally for-profit HOAs like us, but it's *great* for 
non-profits. 

https://www.irs.gov/credits-deductions/elective-pay-and-transferability-frequently-asked-questions-elective-pay