Brammo Owners Forum
The Brammo Buying Experience => Taxes, Incentives, Advantages => Topic started by: protomech on August 03, 2012, 10:41:04 AM
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http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20120803/AUTO01/208030348/1148/AUTO01/Senate-panel-passes-electric-bike-credit (http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20120803/AUTO01/208030348/1148/AUTO01/Senate-panel-passes-electric-bike-credit)
10% up to $2500. I guess the Lightnings and the Brutus bikes can max out the credit.
No word yet on whether this applies to bikes purchased in 2012, but it almost certainly will apply to bikes in 2013.
Apparently part of a big bundle of tax credits and incentives. Don't know if this goes anyplace else after or if it's good as is. It'd be a good guess that Brammo and their Oregon representatives pushed hard for this.
http://www.syracuse.com/news/index.ssf/2012/08/senate_panel_revives_dozens_of.html (http://www.syracuse.com/news/index.ssf/2012/08/senate_panel_revives_dozens_of.html)
Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., a longtime sponsor of tax reform, won a committee vote to revive a tax credit of $2,500 for purchasers of electric motorcycles. Oregon is home to two manufacturers of high-end electric motorcycles, Arcimoto and Brammo Inc. “I’ve spent 10 years working for tax reform,” Wyden said after the vote. “But until you get it, you’re not a purist who sits around and says, ‘Oh, my constituents don’t matter.’”
Edit: It looks like this covers bikes purchased in 2012 and 2013.
http://www.finance.senate.gov/newsroom/chairman/release/?id=e3290a69-8fa4-4a6d-8c3a-756ea03a4224 (http://www.finance.senate.gov/newsroom/chairman/release/?id=e3290a69-8fa4-4a6d-8c3a-756ea03a4224)
Plug-in Electric Motorcycles and Highway Vehicles. The provision reforms and extends for two years, through 2013, the individual income tax credit for highway-capable plug-in motorcycles and 3-wheeled vehicles. This proposal replaces a 10 percent tax credit that expired at the end of 2011 for plug-in electric motorcycles, three-wheeled vehicles and low-speed vehicles. Thus it repeals the ability for golf carts and other low-speed vehicles to qualify for the credit. Revenue estimate pending.
I bought the Zero without expectation of a tax incentive, but I'm not too proud to take one when available.
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Great news...I had a number of people asking about the tax credit when I was "playing" at being a Brammo Employee at Laguna Seca.
Every bit helps.
And great news that it passed.
Gavin
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Plus at 10,995 becomes just under 10k, a good number (9995 is better that 10000 for some reason)
Empulse drops almost 2k...bringing it back to the original price range.
very nice.
Is it an instant "rebate" or money off on your tax returns. Instant rebate would be really really nice.
Gavin
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Awesome! :D
Now, if Virginia added another discount on top of that... ::)
Empulse drops almost 2k...bringing it back to the original price range.
Sorry, but it does not. It will still be over $15K, which is above the highest original price for the Empulse.
The Empulse R doesn't even get close. >:(
Anyway, great news and anyone living in a decent forward-looking state should be happy. The Plus under $10K is the biggest piece of news, I think. That makes it a great elmoto within the affordability threshold many people expected. Hmmm... a clip-on on that eclipse black... Nah... I've been waiting for too long. I'm pretty sure 2013 will bring some amazing and affordable elmotos.
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"Range"...I gave some leeway :)
Gavin
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Not an instant rebate in the past, so unless they changed that this time around (dont think so), its the same deal. I know they were working on making the federal EV rebate an instant one, but have not heard anything else about it.
Almost drops 2k from the Empulse R!!!
18995 - 1899 = 17095
Cost to the taxpayer 15 million... chump change to kickstart the e-bike industry. Especially considering that the states will benefit from sales tax and licensing fees from the increased sales. I really cant see the downside to this when you consider all the benefits. :)
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This is good to hear, but there is still a long way to go for this be become law. Heck, it hasn't even been assigned a Senate Bill number yet.
This bill still has to go to the full Senate for a vote. Then the House has to do their thing. Final votes aren't expected until September according to one source.
Still a long-shot.
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Makes sense. This bill was passed by the committee just before Congress high-tails it out of town for a five week break.
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This bill has gotten a Senate Bill number assigned to it, for anyone who wants to track its progress (mostly just me?)
S. 3521 The Family and Business Tax Cut Certainty Act of 2012
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d112:s.3521: (http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d112:s.3521:)
The US House will be going home at the end of this week until after the elections, so even if this bill got out of the Senate this week, it won't even hit the House until after the elections. Between the beginning of August and the November elections, the US House is only going to be in session in Washington for about 2 weeks total. :o >:(
http://www.house.gov/legislative/date/2012-09-21 (http://www.house.gov/legislative/date/2012-09-21)
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This bill looks dead. Here is the last status on it:
"Latest Major Action: 9/19/2012 Senate floor actions. Status: Motion to proceed to consideration of measure withdrawn in Senate."
Romney just attacked everything green, making everything green into an even more partisan issue. Short of an overwhelming Democratic electoral victory, the chances of getting this passed into law is almost none.
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No further change in status.
Thanks for posting the thomas.loc.gov link, 860.
From the minority opinion (PDF) (http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/CRPT-112srpt208/pdf/CRPT-112srpt208.pdf) objecting to passing the bill on for consideration:
Minority Views of Senators Kyl, Coburn, and Burr [Republicans from AZ, NC, ID (http://www.finance.senate.gov/about/) on the Committee]
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In addition, it was our understanding that this package would only extend items that enjoyed broad consensus. We were disheartened to see provisions included that were supported only by members of one party. This continued during the amendment process, when members of the other party added back a subsidy for plugin motorcycles that we previously believed the committee had decided to end.
In other words, plugin credits continue to be a partisan whipping boy.
Per wiki (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Senate_elections,_2012), the Democrats picked up two more seats in the recent election (giving them a total of 53 seats, plus two independents who are expected to lean towards the Democrats). The Senate minority party leader, Senator Jon Kyl, retired and his seat was filled (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Senate_election_in_Arizona,_2012#Fundraising) with another Republican.
If Senator Kyl was the primary roadblock to the bill in the Senate, it's possible this could be picked up again. I would be a little surprised, though; I figure most of the Congress's attention will be spent on haggling over the rapidly approaching "fiscal cliff".
Again, per wiki (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_fiscal_cliff):
The year-over-year changes for fiscal years 2012–2013 include a 19.63% increase in tax revenue and 0.25% reduction in spending.
:D
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Looks like the 10% motorcycle credit got packaged into the HR8 bill that just passed the house. We'll see if it survives the senate.
See discussion on elmoto (http://www.elmoto.net/showthread.php?2743-2-and-3-wheel-EV-credits-Extended!).
Short version: All new manufactured electric 2-3 wheeled vehicles with > 2.5 kWh and > 45 mph top speed acquired in 2012-2013 get a 10% credit up to a maximum credit of $2500.
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OK, so Im gonna hold off on updating the TCO calculator until this all gets sorted out. Im just lazy and I dont want to have to upload the code twice in a matter of days.
The Colorado Income 67 document is up finally so I have that data... though i will have to calculate the exact numbers myself, since they are no longer listed for each vehicle.
No mention of the Empulse so thats way up in the air at this point. I believe Brian had mentioned that the comp they used was the Kawasaki 650R though (which coincidentally weighs 460 lbs)
In that case: (16995 - 7599) * .75 = 7047
So both models should qualify for the full 6000 rebate.
If the federal tax credit passes: 16995 - 6000 - 1699.50 = 9295.50 for a base Empulse in Colorado.
The only way you could do better than that was if you won one ;) BUT who knows what Uncle Sam is going to want me to pay for that privilege.
UPDATE: THE CO TAX REBATE NO LONGER APPLIES TO ELECTRIC MOTORCYCLES:
http://brammoforum.com/index.php?topic=1764.0 (http://brammoforum.com/index.php?topic=1764.0)
:'(
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Maybe add the 2013 Zero information too? : )
It might also be good to shift to the "highway commuting" combined city/highway range estimate as a default .. or allow the user to choose a primary usage scenario (city / suburban / highway / sport riding). It won't affect the EV bike cost much but it will affect the 80% original capacity lifetime spec.
The set of people purchasing an Empulse R and regularly getting 121 miles out of it (4 hours of riding per charge) is probably small. I don't get anywhere close to 114 miles from the Zero, but I'm also riding at higher speeds than the EPA UDDS test.
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Maybe add the 2013 Zero information too? : )
It might also be good to shift to the "highway commuting" combined city/highway range estimate as a default .. or allow the user to choose a primary usage scenario (city / suburban / highway / sport riding). It won't affect the EV bike cost much but it will affect the 80% original capacity lifetime spec.
The set of people purchasing an Empulse R and regularly getting 121 miles out of it (4 hours of riding per charge) is probably small. I don't get anywhere close to 114 miles from the Zero, but I'm also riding at higher speeds than the EPA UDDS test.
The 2013 Zeros are already in my sandbox code. No more CO rebate :'( I also need to verify other states still have their programs in effect too. I will upload the new code once the federal rebate is verified. Should help greatly with the TCO comps!
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hmmm...
it's got me thinking of my options....
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The old IRS Form 8834 is still available, but only used for vehicles acquired before 2012.
What's New
The qualified plug-in electric vehicle credit expired for vehicles acquired after 2011. However, if you acquired the plug-in vehicle before 2012, but placed that vehicle in service during 2012, you may still be able to claim the credit for 2012. You can claim a credit for certain two- or three-wheeled vehicles acquired after 2011 on Form 8936.
Here's Form 8936, which is what will be used for bike bought in 2012 and 2013.
http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f8936.pdf (http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f8936.pdf)
What's New
The credit is now available for certain two- or three-wheeled vehicles acquired after 2011 and before 2014.
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For the past few years I have had my simple tax return prepared by a local tax service, who recently moved out of town. So that left me with the local H&R Block tax office. Today I visited them to have my tax return prepared and was surprised to discover that they could not access IRS Form 8936 - even though I could and actually gave them a hard copy. It turns out that they can only deal with IRS forms that their IT department has entered into the database. Right now all of the new IRS forms are labeled as "TBD". When my tax preparer called the IT department to ask when Form 8936 would be available so that he could complete my return, he was told that they would get around to it when could and to keep checking back on the H&R Block website for recent updates. That was not what I wanted to hear as I expect to get a refund this year and I want to hit the trough before the government runs out of money again. Right now H&R Block is not giving me a warm and fuzzy feeling. >:(
However, I was (so far) pleasantly surprised that I have not received a 1099 from the California EV Rebaters and it looks like I will not have to pay State or Federal income taxes on the $900 that I received for buying my 2012 Zero. (Unless, of course, I am unpleasantly surprised by some sort of government form letter later this year.)
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After bugging H&R, I received a call today informing me that the EV credit rebate form would be in their computer system next Tuesday, February 19. I am not too happy about the delay, but I bet there are people who bought EV autos who are even less happy about the situation than I am. :(
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It looks like the wait may be over. I received a call from H&R Block yesterday setting up an appointment with my tax preparer for tomorrow afternoon, Saturday, February 15, to complete my tax return.
On the other hand, I hear that another "Fiscal Cliff" budget crisis is heading our way at the end of the month - and Congress just adjourned for a ski-week vacation. My suggestion is that if you are expecting a tax refund get your return in as soon as possible - before another fiscal crisis causes a delay in cutting the checks. :(
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When I went to my appointment last week, H&R Block still didn't have IRS form 8936 in their computer program. But it showed up over the weekend. So today they finally were able to complete my tax return. However, when they went to file the return electronically (which is why I went to them in the first place), a warning statement came up that said that the IRS would not accept my tax return electronically because the EV credit form was attached. :( I was instructed to file by snail mail, so that is what I did. I wish I had known that a month ago. :'(
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Hmm... thanks for the heads up. That probably applies to filing electronically through TurboTax which is what I always do. Let's do the logic:
EV = hi tech.
Hi Tech promoted by feds.
eFile = hi tech.
eFile promoted by feds.
Feds won't accept eFile for EV.
Yeah, THAT makes sense!
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What I was told by my tax preparer, was that the IRS apparently decided that there would be relatively few people in the U.S. (other than in CA, I was thinking as he was saying this) that would need this rebate form and therefore they could wait to fit that form into their electronic filing system last, while they too care of all of the other changes made to the tax code by Congress last year.
I was told that it should be sometime in early March before they can accept electronic filing of returns requesting an EV rebate.
Then I thought: Every little bit of rebate delay does its part to reduce the effect of the "sequester" fun. ::)
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Bleh. Knew I shouldn't have waited 'til the last minute to file.
Taxslayer and H&R Block do not list form 8936, or at least I couldn't find it. Turbotax did have the form.
Next year I need to start earlier and look at self-file options.
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You could always file an amended return with the 8936.
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I had my taxes prepared by $$$ H&R Block. You are right, they didn't have the EV tax credit form in their computer system. So I had to mail in my tax forms, instead of filing electronically. I received my tax refund from the IRS within 3 weeks, but my CA state income tax refund (which did not have an EV credit form - or anything else weird) took 5 weeks to be deposited into my account. Go figure. ???