“The 30% Solar Tax Credit Is Still Around”
Walk into a solar conversation in 2026 — see an ad, read a sales sheet, talk to a door-knocker — and there's a good chance you'll still see “30% federal tax credit” referenced as if it applies to you. Some installers still have it baked into their proposal templates. Some are running creative that was written in 2024 and never refreshed. Some genuinely don't know the law changed. The result is the same: a customer-owned residential install in 2026 gets quoted with a 30% federal tax credit baked into the numbers, and that credit doesn't exist anymore.
The residential 25D credit is over. The marketing didn't catch up.
For more than a decade, Section 25D of the Internal Revenue Code provided a federal tax credit for solar systems installed on a homeowner's primary or secondary residence. By 2022-2024, the credit sat at 30% of installed cost. A homeowner who paid cash or financed an owned solar system could claim that credit against federal income tax on the return for the year the system was placed in service — the IRS term for when the system can produce power and the utility has approved interconnection.
The One Big Beautiful Bill Act — OBBBA, enacted in 2025 — terminated §25D effective December 31, 2025. Systems placed in service in 2025 still qualify; homeowners who turned on their systems by year-end 2025 can claim the 30% credit on their 2025 federal return. Systems placed in service in 2026 or later do not qualify. Customer-owned residential solar in 2026 has no direct federal tax credit.
There are two ways the “30% credit” language shows up in 2026 sales material:
Stale legacy creative. Ads, brochures, and proposal templates written in 2024-2025 that named the credit accurately at the time and were never refreshed after OBBBA. Most of this isn't malicious — it's a marketing operations failure. But it's misleading to a 2026 customer because the math the ad implies no longer holds.
Conflating §25D with §48E. The commercial Clean Electricity Investment Credit — §48E, walked through in Myth 01 — is alive in 2026, and a TPO investor on a leased system captures it. A sales pitch that says “30% tax credit” in a TPO context isn't lying per se — the §48E base is 30%. But the homeowner hearing the claim usually thinks they're receiving the credit. They aren't. The credit goes to the entity that owns the equipment.
For a customer-owned 2026 residential install, the federal tax credit math is straightforward: there isn't one. State and utility incentives still exist — Austin Energy continues to offer a residential solar rebate, and a more complete inventory is coming in a later entry — but those are separate programs at much smaller dollar values than 25D ever was. If a 2026 proposal you receive shows a “30% federal tax credit” line item reducing your cost, that line item is wrong.
When the credit reference is genuine
There are situations where “tax credit” language in 2026 solar marketing is genuine. The distinctions matter:
Systems placed in service by December 31, 2025. A homeowner whose system was turned on and interconnected in 2025 — even if final paperwork or utility true-up extended into 2026 — qualifies for §25D on their 2025 tax return. The IRS metric is the placed-in-service date, not the contract or purchase date.
TPO and lease arrangements, in the investor's hands. §48E is alive at a 30% base, with the domestic-content and energy-community adders walked through in Myth 01. References to this credit in a TPO sales pitch are technically accurate. They're often misleading about who captures the value and how much of it reaches the customer.
State and utility programs. Texas doesn't have a state-level solar tax credit, but Austin Energy's residential rebate is real, and some surrounding utilities and municipalities have additional programs. These are smaller in dollar value than 25D was, but they exist and they're legitimate to reference.
Commercial and utility-scale projects. §48E and its adders are the entire financing backbone of large-scale solar in 2026. If you're considering solar for a business property, a rental, or a community-solar arrangement, credit references are real and the math is meaningful.
If you're shown a 2026 proposal for a customer-owned residential install and the math includes a “30% federal tax credit” line, the question to ask is the one the proposal is structured not to surface: which Internal Revenue Code section is that credit under, and what date is the system being placed in service? If the answer is §25D and 2026, the proposal is wrong. If the answer is §48E, the credit isn't yours — it belongs to whoever owns the equipment.