Tax incentives - Federal and Illinois

[Nielubie]

Well I went to the Dealer today near me and they have a DEMO leaf and one on the lot that I saw. I was very interested and the bummer part is they only had one person that knows anything about incentives or anything about the leaf in general. I guess the dealers have to go to some training before selling these cars. Which is good, but bad because I spend 30min waiting and paging the guy and they couldn't find the sales person.

so I come here for some answers.

There are three Tax incentives offered in my area when I go to nissanusa.com and enter in my zip code. Is this 7500 taken off the top of the price when purchasing, or do I need to wait for a rebate check next year and I'm pretty much forking over the whole cost now?

Also in Illinois there are two other incentives that I don't quite understand what they mean. "Electric Vehicle Purchase Rebate
Rebates of zero to $4,000 toward the incremental cost of purchasing an electric vehicle to be claimed by purchaser. Rebates will be awarded on a first come, first served basis. " It says up to $4,000 but when reading further, it has a whole bunch of other restrictions. So are we actually getting another 4k in IL or what? Anyone buy a leaf lately in IL that was able to take advantage of this?

If anyone has time to decipher all this, a IL zip that you can use is 60191.

Thanks in advance for your answers and help.

-Possibly a future Leaf owner.

 

[planet4ever]

The $7500 is taken off the top only if you lease. Otherwise it is a tax credit (not a rebate) on your next year's income tax, so you probably won't see it for a year or so. And, as Nissan warns, it is up to $7500 depending on your tax situation. In most cases you can anticipate the credit by reducing withholding this year.

I'll let others speak to Illinois incentives.

Ray

 

[redLEAF]

Well I went to the Dealer today near me and they have a DEMO leaf and one on the lot that I saw. I was very interested and the bummer part is they only had one person that knows anything about incentives or anything about the leaf in general. I guess the dealers have to go to some training before selling these cars. Which is good, but bad because I spend 30min waiting and paging the guy and they couldn't find the sales person.

so I come here for some answers.

There are three Tax incentives offered in my area when I go to nissanusa.com and enter in my zip code. Is this 7500 taken off the top of the price when purchasing, or do I need to wait for a rebate check next year and I'm pretty much forking over the whole cost now?

Also in Illinois there are two other incentives that I don't quite understand what they mean. "Electric Vehicle Purchase Rebate
Rebates of zero to $4,000 toward the incremental cost of purchasing an electric vehicle to be claimed by purchaser. Rebates will be awarded on a first come, first served basis. " It says up to $4,000 but when reading further, it has a whole bunch of other restrictions. So are we actually getting another 4k in IL or what? Anyone buy a leaf lately in IL that was able to take advantage of this?

If anyone has time to decipher all this, a IL zip that you can use is 60191.

Thanks in advance for your answers and help.

-Possibly a future Leaf owner.

Welcome 'Nielubie' -- be sure to check out the close to 90 pages of posts from the Chicagoland LEAF folks; you'll find a lot of locally related info on charging stations, local dealer's, IL SOS, etc. -- it starts at:

http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?f=24&t=357

In any case, quick answers to your IL related questions:

Chicago area Nissan LEAF dealers -- yes, those who now have a LEAF demo should have gone through training but not necessarily about the local incentive and licensing issues related to IL, some are good some don't have a clue -- I see you listed the zip for Wood Dale, I bought my LEAF from McGrath Nissan in Elgin not too far away from you and they are aware of the state programs for both the less expensive 'EL' EV plate series (2 year registration for $36 versus standard plate for $99/yr) as well as what paperwork you'll need to submit for the IL EPA rebate. Their designated LEAF guy is Darryl Watson ([email protected]) general number is 847-695-6700. Others on the forum have used other dealers so they may want to chime in as well.

As 'planet4ever' stated, the Fed Tax Credit is just that a credit against the fed taxes you've already paid OR it goes back to Nissan if you lease the car; the catch-22 here for IL is that they only offer their rebate for PURCHASED cars, no leases. The IL EPA has already certified that the LEAF qualifies for it ... it's UP TO $4K and set at 10% of MSRP and comes in the form of a check several months after you've paid for the entire car so as the MSRP of the LEAF (regardless of model) is less than that you'll get for example $3,725 back on an SL, NOT $4,000. As far as the other incentive on the IL EPA site, that refers to EV converted cars so would not apply to the LEAF. Even though as you know the state is almost broke, we've been informed that these rebates are in budget so if you buy this year you should be OK; just take notice that they only process these twice per year (still waiting on mine but others have already received theirs -- again check towards the end of the Chicagoland thread).

We've owned our LEAF for a little over 4 months and a few others were about a month or so before us; the car has been great and we love it, we charge it in our garage overnight and the extra cost for electricity has been minimal. It may take some time but explore this forum (use the Google search built-in for specifics) and you should find lots of discussions that will give you answers before making any decision.

 

[cracovian]

No matter what incentives you qualify for later on, you have to fork over the whole amount unless you lease and in that case the cap cost is reduced by 7.5K automatically.

However, to qualify for the 10% rebate of the purchase price (up to $4K) in IL, you need to PURCHASE the vehicle. In this case it is the rebate check that they're sending you up to 5 months later and that's nice. I'm assuming the third incentive is the 50% charging station cost rebate. It's a pretty good deal overall and it will work quite well for you if you pay a lot in federal taxes (most people don't.)

Tez nie lubie, ale nic sie nie da zrobic

 

[lipower]

50% charging station cost DEDUCTION OFF MY TAXES(I also made the assumption these were rebates) expired at the end of 2011. The 10% DEDUCTION OFF MY TAXES of the purchase price is also limited or nonexistent based on Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT). I like to tell people that the $4k from the state of Illinois was my sales tax being returned to me. Some people think the car is being subsidized but that could not be farther from the truth.

 

[cracovian]

It is more subsidized if they're sending you the rebate - up to 4K comes out of someone else's pocket in IL. On the other hand, with tax credits, you could technically claim that it's your own money you're just keeping.

I read through their web site and, indeed, if that 4K is the tax credit and not the rebate as the state is positioning it then it's a scam.

 

[lipower]

I sent 4k in December to the state of IL for sales tax of the Leaf and the state sent it back to me 4 months later. I suppose the 4k went through lots of pockets in that time but ultimately it came back into mine.

 

[rmay635703]

A dealer in IL is claiming that I can get the full $4k IL rebate on a $16k (heavily discounted) EV even though I don't live in IL just by registering it and paying the taxes on it in IL for use on IL roads.

Just curious if this is remotely true at all, my guess is since I have no IL addy and no relatives or friends in IL there is simply no way, am I right?

 

[redLEAF]

A dealer in IL is claiming that I can get the full $4k IL rebate on a $16k (heavily discounted) EV even though I don't live in IL just by registering it and paying the taxes on it in IL for use on IL roads.

Just curious if this is remotely true at all, my guess is since I have no IL addy and no relatives or friends in IL there is simply no way, am I right?

sounds like a real stretch … plus, IL EPA doesn't pay these right away so rebate check (if approved) would need to go months later to whatever address the dealer used; plus it's 10% MSRP up to $4K (unless you're buying an EV that exceeds $40K, like a Tesla) … no question to get the IL EPA rebate, an IL based dealer needs to sell the car. I'd be highly suspicious of anything like this and stay away from it … $16K to me sounds 'used' as well and the IL EPA rebate goes to the 'first' purchaser, not a used one; just too many things could go wrong with trying to do this IMHO

 

[rmay635703]

"For a new alternate fuel vehicle that has a conventional gasoline or diesel make and model counterpart, the amount of the rebate is 80 percent of the incremental cost of the alternate fuel vehicle versus its conventional counterpart (same make, model, and model year) up to $4,000."

What exactly does the language above mean??? I see 10% in some places and the above 80% incremental cost jargon in others.

 

[redLEAF]

"For a new alternate fuel vehicle that has a conventional gasoline or diesel make and model counterpart, the amount of the rebate is 80 percent of the incremental cost of the alternate fuel vehicle versus its conventional counterpart (same make, model, and model year) up to $4,000."

What exactly does the language above mean??? I see 10% in some places and the above 80% incremental cost jargon in others.

Regardless of the actual language like this the IL EPA certifies each EV or plug-in HEV (like the Volt) as they choose; Volt gets the rebate because it's gas 'engine' serves as a generator for the battery while a Ford C-Max Energi does not as it's a conventional gas engine being used. We're still waiting for some EV's not yet available here to get added to the list (like the smart Ed, etc.) but as long as they're 100% battery powered they should go through OK. The state is broke though so who knows how long the funds will hold out.