Some dealers have not owned paperwork and now the owners, who counted on tax discounts, pay for that
–>
- Buyers from the United States have rejected income declarations due to paperwork errors.
- Although cars are eligible for discounts, dealers have made mistakes on the documents.
- We do not know how many buyers are out of their tax discount, but IRS could offer a solution.
Electric vehicles and rechargeable hybrids promise savings on energy costs – and sometimes in the dealership. But while federal incentives have helped to push the adoption, they are not guaranteed to last eternally and could disappear soon. In 2024, many buyers took these discounts into account in their purchasing decisions, to find out later that paperwork errors left them empty.
Each year, the taxes concerning electric vehicles pass to one degree or another. This was certainly also the case in 2024. The biggest change may be that buyers could have access to their discount at the time of purchase. For this to work, however, the dealers had to register for the program, then use a specific portal to report when the buyers took advantage of their discount at the time of the sale.
Read: California to restore EV flaps if Trump Schec Tax Credit, but not for Tesla
According to NPRHowever, thousands of dealers have not respected these guidelines. Those who have not registered should still provide buyers with documents to obtain their tax discount at the end of the year. In many cases, the form provided was obsolete and, therefore, devoid of meaning.
Kristina Meier, who bought a PHEV mini-dinner last September, says that her dealer provided forms that worked in 2023 but not in 2024. Without the dealer correctly submitting documents in time, customers are not eligible for tax delivery, even if they have done the rest of the book.

A thin chance for a solution
The deadline for a concessionaire to submit documents to the IRS is only three days after the sale, which means that it is currently impossible for Meier and others like it to claim their tax delivery. However, there is still a glimmer of hope: the IRS has allowed retroactive submissions in the past.
If the agency starts again, this would allow buyers like Meier to obtain their tax delivery despite the fact that the dealer cracks on the front. Whether it happens or not, however, remains unknown. For the moment, we do not know how many buyers are affected by this problem, but the more people are expressed, the more likely the IRS can do something.
