Just curious, since we just bought one ... is there any US Federal tax credit left on the 2007 Prius, as of April 2007? (Obviously this would be for 2007 taxes, not 2006.)

 

Yes if you buy a Prius between 4-1-07 and 9-30-07 you should qualiify for a $788 tax credit on next year's return. This as was always the case depends on your personal tax situation. Check if you were subject to AMT this year.

At 10-1-07 the credit will got to $0 .....( sigh ).

 

Bob, thanks for the speedy reply. Looks like we are set then!

RE: "Check if you were subject to AMT this year."

I wish! Don't think we're ever going to be in that territory.

 

Probably better to say "you could qualify for up to $788."

 

..........as long as you bought it on the 4th Tuesday of the month between 2:55 and 4:30 in the afternoon.

Just for grins, yesterday I reopened my 2006 Turbo Tax file and played as if I had bought my Prius in '06. Guess what.........no credit for me, although I'm eligable for $1575. Unless Congress changes the AMT structure this year, I won't get my credit on this year's taxes.

FWIW, in 2006 I filed MFJ and my combined gross income was around 120k, and I have 3 kids and a fair amount of Schedule-A write offs (mtg interest, property taxes, charitable cont, etc) so my taxable income was around $59k after the $16500 exemption credit for dependents. I had Turbo Tax calculat the 6251 AMT form, and the 8910 Alternative Motor Vehicle Credit forms to determine what my credit would have been had I bought the car last year, and it was a big goose egg. I spent about an hour going over the two forms trying to understand how everything was calculated, and where/why I didn't qualify.

It basically came down to this: Even though I did not have to pay AMT in 2006 , the 8910 compares my actual tax paid (after child tax credits) to a "tentative minimum tax". Since that number fell below the tentative minimum tax amount, I didn't get the credit. You'd have to see the form to understand this "tentative minimum tax", but it's related to AMT. I was close to getting some credit, but it just fell below the magical number. I think that I having 3 kids, which gave me $2400 in tax credits, is where I basically lost my vehicle tax credit. If I hadn't had the 3 dependents, then I believe I would have gotten the $1575. I'm disappointed because I bought the vehicle fully expecting a tax credit, and that just ain't so. I love the car, but I'm not happy about this. And from the sounds of things, more people than not are finding this to be true for them as well.

Caveat emptor!!!!