Clean energy tax breaks more popular than expected, as U.S. households claimed $8.4 billion in Inflation Reduction Act credits for 2023, officials say

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1. “American consumers claimed $8.4 billion in Inflation Reduction Act tax breaks tied to boosting the energy efficiency of their homes in 2023, according to Internal Revenue Service data, a sum that exceeded officials’ projections.

   More than 3.4 million U.S. households claimed at least one of two tax breaks — the residential clean energy credit and the energy efficient home improvement credit — on their 2023 tax returns, the IRS reported Wednesday.

   The average household got a $5,084 residential clean energy credit and an $882 energy efficient home improvement credit, according to a U.S. Treasury Department analysis.

   California, Florida, New York, Pennsylvania and Texas were the top five states for claims, IRS data showed.

   These tax breaks existed before the Inflation Reduction Act. However, the law, which President Joe Biden signed in 2022, extended them for a decade and raised their value for taxpayers.

   The tax breaks have proven more popular than initially projected for 2023, the first full year for which the tax benefits were in effect, Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo said on a press call Tuesday.

   The most popular projects were adding home insulation, and windows and skylights, each claimed by almost 700,000 taxpayers.”