Tax Credit Question

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qwerty11

New member
Joined
May 25, 2015
Messages
3
Hi all,

I am really wanting to be a leaf owner, and from what I am reading, the tax credit may be what will enable that to come to fruition. I have two questions though. Tax is withheld from my paycheck, and during tax time, I usually come out around even. However, the total tax that is collected from my paycheck is over $7500 per year. Will I be able to receive the $7500 back as a tax return? The second question is, is there a minimum duration I have to own the leaf? I would like to change cars annually.

Thanks for the help!
 
You should qualify, if that total is for federal taxes only. If you lease a Leaf, the full $7500 is applied as a down payment, and you can then buy the car for the low residual (roughly $9000). I'm just presenting that as an option if you don't qualify for the full $7500 to buy. The credit is attached to the car, not the person, so you should be able to buy one every year, although that isn't a great option financially...
 
qwerty11 said:
Hi all,

I am really wanting to be a leaf owner, and from what I am reading, the tax credit may be what will enable that to come to fruition.
I would like to change cars annually.
These two statements make no sense together

A couple of months ago I bought a 2013 LEAF model S for $8300 in like-new condition, 22k miles on the car.
So figure the wholesale price was around 5 - 6,000. On a car that has an MSRP of ~ 30k
If you require the $7,500 tax credit to buy the car, it stands to reason you are not going to be able to absorb the depreciation an annual swap entails.

Get real. You have not discovered the never ending, free new car scheme of the century.
 
So figure the wholesale price was around 5 - 6,000. On a car that has an MSRP of ~ 30k
If you require the $7,500 tax credit to buy the car, it stands to reason you are not going to be able to absorb the depreciation an annual swap entails.

Get real.

Yeah, the tax credit value gets lost when the car is resold, and when traded in the loss of value is enormous.
 
qwerty11 said:
It looks like I can get a new leaf for around $18k. One year old leafs are around 13k.

It could work depending on your situation and risk tolerance. Tax credit arbitrage was something that worked on the Volt a few years ago.

I ran some numbers assuming eligibility for tax credit and one of the $10K power company rebates.

2017SV approx price 34,000

negotiated discount - say 4000 off MSRP, so net purchase price is $30K

Tax is around $2500 in my state bringing the total to $32.5K

Power company rebate of 10K - net price of $22.5K

Full federal tax credit later - $7,500 - brings effective price to $15K.

Current trade in on a one year old 2016SV with 10,000 miles is in the $13K to $15K range, so it shouldn't cost you much more than a few thousand to make the one-year trade assuming you can negotiate a big discount up front.

That's a lot of assumptions, but you should know most of them up front.

By the way, the Volt arbitrage stopped working well when Gen 2 came out and the Gen 1 cars dropped in value much more than previously. Gen 2 Leaf is just around the corner.
 
silverone said:
By the way, the Volt arbitrage stopped working well when Gen 2 came out and the Gen 1 cars dropped in value much more than previously. Gen 2 Leaf is just around the corner.
Bingo. This is probably not a good time to gamble on the resale value of a 2017 LEAF one year out.
 
SageBrush said:
qwerty11 said:
A couple of months ago I bought a 2013 LEAF model S for $8300 in like-new condition, 22k miles on the car.
So figure the wholesale price was around 5 - 6,000. On a car that has an MSRP of ~ 30k
If you require the $7,500 tax credit to buy the car, it stands to reason you are not going to be able to absorb the depreciation an annual swap entails.

Get real. You have not discovered the never ending, free new car scheme of the century.

I traded my 2016 SV in for a new 2017 SV + Premium Package.

On paper I made $500 and change after tax credits, rebates and sales taxes.
 
remarquian said:
SageBrush said:
qwerty11 said:
A couple of months ago I bought a 2013 LEAF model S for $8300 in like-new condition, 22k miles on the car.
So figure the wholesale price was around 5 - 6,000. On a car that has an MSRP of ~ 30k
If you require the $7,500 tax credit to buy the car, it stands to reason you are not going to be able to absorb the depreciation an annual swap entails.

Get real. You have not discovered the never ending, free new car scheme of the century.

I traded my 2016 SV in for a new 2017 SV + Premium Package.

On paper I made $500 and change after tax credits, rebates and sales taxes.
OP does not live in Colorado
 
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