Tax

The Canadian Government released its Fall Economic Statement (“FES 2023”) on November 21, 2023 outlining the government’s fiscal update. FES 2023 focuses on housing, affordability, and fighting climate change. However, buried in the middle of the 131-page document is a paragraph highlighting a proposed tax change regarding the recent tax rules implementing Employee Ownership Trusts (“EOTs”).

When President Biden’s signature Build Back Better Act faltered last year, many viewed the effort to be a failure. However, negotiations continued before Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) announced the package in late July. Nearly half of the $737 billion in revenue will be invested in clean energy and includes many direct funding opportunities in the form of grants, loans, and rebates focused on climate, energy, and energy efficiency. 

Read about the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 enacted August 16, 2022, which extends and expands existing tax credits and adds several new energy tax credits to encourage the production of electricity using clean energy and the reduction of carbon emissions.

Late on December 21, 2020, the Senate debated and approved a COVID-19 relief package and omnibus spending bill for 2021 that included, deep in its 5,500-plus pages, tax extenders for a selection of renewables tax credits, including a one-year extension for the wind production tax credit ("ITC") and a two-year extension for the solar investment tax credit ("ITC"), as well as a five-year extension for offshore wind projects taking the ITC. The bill, which was earlier approved by the House, is expected to be signed by President Trump later this week.

On October 2, 2020, the Internal Revenue Service released final regulations providing guidance for Section 529A “qualified ABLE programs” established by states under the Stephen Beck Jr. Achieving a Better Life Experience Act of 2014 (the “ABLE Act”) to provide tax-favored savings and investment accounts for individuals with disabilities.  Building on proposed regulations issued in 2015 and 2019 and several prior IRS notices as to how the final regulations would resolve specific issues under the ABLE Act, the final regulations clearly seek to avoid, within statutory constraints, imposing major administrative burdens on ABLE programs. Nonetheless, several key provisions contain ambiguities or raise concerns.  As indicated by prior IRS guidance, the regulations provide a transition period of at least two years for ABLE programs operating in good faith to implement provisions applicable to such programs, and thus an opportunity for the IRS address such ambiguities and concerns through notices or other guidance prior to their full implementation.

This article summarizes the most recent pandemic-era proposals for wind, solar, and carbon capture federal tax incentives and attempts to discern potential trends for the future.

In February 2020, the IRS issued Notice 2020-12, which provides long-awaited guidance on when a “qualified facility” or carbon capture equipment, in each case within the meaning of section 45Q, is considered to have “begun construction.” This question is of paramount significance because section 45Q allows a carbon capture credit for carbon oxide that is captured using carbon capture equipment that is originally placed in service at a qualified facility, and a qualified facility means an industrial or direct air capture facility, the construction of which began before January 1, 2024.

In a May 21 letter to Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, three Republican senators—Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), Senator Susan M. Collins (R-ME), and Senator Thom Tillis (R-NC)—have requested that Treasury modify existing Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”) guidance on “start of construction” to provide production tax credit (“PTC”) and investment tax credit (“ITC”) relief to wind and solar projects affected by COVID-19 related disruptions.

On December 31, 2018, the Department of Treasury and Internal Revenue Service released long-awaited proposed regulations (the “Proposed Regulations”) that address when modifications to the terms of tax-exempt bonds are treated as an exchange of existing bonds for newly issued (or “reissued”) bonds for purposes of section 103 and sections 141 through 150 of the Internal Revenue Code and when an issuer’s acquisition of its bonds results in such bonds ceasing to be outstanding for federal tax purposes.

The IRS on April 11, 2018 released Revenue Procedure 2018-26 (Rev. Proc. 2018-26), which expands remedial action options in connection with certain post-issuance leases to private parties of facilities financed with tax-exempt bonds.

A company’s past NOLs can be used to offset taxable income in future years, subject to certain limitations. For companies that have operated at a significant loss and expect to turn a profit in the foreseeable future, the value of their NOL carryforward may be one of their most valuable assets on their balance sheet.