IRS Announces Program to Allocate Energy Credits

IRS and Treasury provide guidance on the Qualifying Advanced Energy Project Credit

Feb. 13, 2023

WASHINGTON — The Department of the Treasury and the Internal Revenue Service today provided guidance following the enactment of the Inflation Reduction Act to establish a program to allocate credits for qualified investments in eligible qualifying advanced energy projects.

Notice 2023-18 establishes the section 48C(e) program to allocate $10 billion in credits ($4 billion of which may only be allocated to projects located in certain energy communities census tracts). The notice also provides initial program guidance.

The Treasury Department and the IRS anticipate allocating $4 billion of section 48C credits in the first allocation round, with approximately $1.6 billion of these credits to be allocated to projects located in certain energy communities. The Treasury Department and the IRS will allocate the remaining credits in future allocation rounds. This notice also provides the general rules for determining the section 48C credit, definitions of qualifying advanced energy projects, and the procedures for allocating the credits.

The Treasury Department and the IRS will issue additional guidance by May 31, 2023, to provide more details regarding information applicants will be required to submit to request a credit allocation.

More information may be found on the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 page on IRS.gov.