GreatSouthernSeminars's Blog

Contractor Help: The Wind, Solar, Geothermal and Fuel Cell Tax Credit (25D)

greatsouthernseminars — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 16:04:06 +0000

The Wind, Solar, Geothermal and Fuel Cell Tax Credit (25D)

Well, once again I am standing at Uncle Sam’s door looking for a handout to help me with my construction business. Let’ see what else he has in his “fix the economy” toolbox.

Previously, I told you about the Existing Home Retrofit Tax Credit (25C). Well, there is more good news. Tax Code Section 25D makes even more money available to your customers who choose to get serious about going green. Where 25C has $1,500 lifetime limit, 25D has no cap through December 31^st, 2016 and still allows 30% of the cost to be credited back to your customer. No cap… that allows for some genuine upgrades for those who are willing and able.

Tax Code Section 25D credits are available for:

Fuel Cells
Solar Panels
Solar Water Heaters
Geothermal Heat Pumps
Small Wind Energy Systems

These credits are available for both new construction and existing homes. Also, it is my understanding the cost of installation can be included when calculating the cost of the improvement. This is great news for your customer as it allows for a larger tax credit than if labor was not included. I had to say it.

Your homeowner will need to claim the 25D Tax Credit on IRS Form 5695 when they file their federal income tax return. To do this correctly they will need to have the following documents.

Receipts for materials and labor.
Name and address of manufacturers involved.
Identification of the class of eligible building envelope component.
Make and model numbers of products that have these.
A statement that the component is eligible for the credit.

I make light of looking for help from Uncle Sam, but intelligent business people (like us licensed contractors) are always looking for an edge. Going green has been in the news for quite some time now and for several good reasons. There are people among us who care about the environment and they are willing to spend the money required to make things better. Whether they are trying to “keep up with the Jones’s” or they genuinely feel like being good stewards for mother earth is of no consequence. You, as an entrepreneur in the shelter industry, need to be attentive to the changing of the times and be available to collect your fair share. Customers are looking to go green and the current administration has no problem with handing out money. Apparently, it’s just like Doritos… we’ll just make more.

ps…don’t wait any longer – get your contractors license and start benefiting.

Stuart Winston

www.mycontractorslicense.com

New Construction: First Time Home Buyer Tax Credit

greatsouthernseminars — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 13:30:58 +0000

For those of you that are unaware, the Worker, Homeownership, and Business Assistance Act of 2009, aka “the First-Time Home Buyers Tax Credit” has once again been extended to April 30, 2010. If you are spending money on advertising, I do hope you are including this opportunity in your marketing campaign. While it has been extended a couple of times, there is no guarantee it will be extended again.
I would like to bring to your attention some of the finer points of the act.
• The law defines a “first-time home buyer” as a buyer who has not owned a principal residence in the past 3 years. I bet you didn’t know about that 3 year part, did you?
• The home can be a new home or a resale, but it has to be their principle residence. It cannot be a 2nd home or vacation home.
• The tax credit is not automatically $8,000 as many people think. It is 10% of the home’s purchase price up to a maximum of $8,000.
• There is an income limit for your buyer(s) as well. For a single person it is $125,000 and for a married couple filing a joint return it is $225,000.
• To receive the tax credit, you will claim the tax credit on your federal income tax return.
• The purchase price of the home cannot exceed $800,000. Friends, this is not a typo. There’s nothing about the first time home buyers fleet of Mercedes fitting in the 4 car garage, so we should be good here…

Nevertheless, this is an opportunity that you should not let slip by. April 30th will be here a fortnight after your taxes are due. Take advantage, everyone else is.

PS. If your buyer signs a contract to build a new home with you prior to April 30, 2010, this is okay, as long as the home is completed and delivered to your buyer prior to June 30, 2010. Better make hay.

Stuart Winston
www.mycontractorslicense.com

NASCLA Accredited Contractors Exam

greatsouthernseminars — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 20:31:11 +0000

On March 12th 2008, the National Association of State Contractors Licensing Agencies (NASCLA) named Psychological Services Inc. (PSI) as the first NASCLA-Approved Provider for the Accredited Examination for Commercial General Building Contractors. A short time later on May 14th 2009, Professional Examination Service (PES) was also added to the list as an approved provider of the new exam.

So, what is the new exam and how does it affect you? Let’s assume you are a state certified Commercial Contractor. Opportunity knocks and you have a chance to build in another state. While some states do have a reciprocal agreement with regard to accepting another states contractor license to work in their state, most do not. You can be sure that the state you need to go to will not have a reciprocal agreement with your state if your luck is like mine. This means you must begin preparation for another states General Contractor exam in order to work there.

Wouldn’t it be great if there was just one General Contractor exam that was accepted by every state? This is what NASCLA is working towards and Alabama was the first state to jump on board with the new Accredited Examination in September of 2009. Since then, South Carolina has also started administering the Accredited Examination. While North Carolina and Tennessee are not yet administering the exam, they are accepting the Accredited Examination if you have passed it in another state. PSI is the exam administrator for these four states and I’m sure they are putting the hard sell on the other states they conduct examinations for. Those other states are Connecticut, Georgia, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Mississippi, Nevada, New Mexico, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Texas, Utah, Virginia and Washington. That’s 19 states in all.

The new Accredited Examination is a multiple choice, open book exam that is non-code focused. There are 125 questions; 115 of them are scored while the remaining 10 are pretest questions. After passing the exam your results are sent to the NASCLA Examination Program Database (NED). Both applicants and states will be able to access NED to send or retrieve examination results.
Here’s a breakdown of the content on the exam:

Estimating, Bidding, and Preconstruction Services 20%
Project Management 24%
Project Construction 28%
Project Closeout 8%
Organizational and Financial Management 20%

The allotted time for the exam is 4 hours and you must score 70% or better to pass.

Just in case you didn’t pick up on this at the beginning, this is for Commercial Contractor’s only. This change has no bearing on the Residential Builder at this time. Obviously, for those of you are hoping to become a Commercial Contractor in one of the participating states, this is good news, especially if your plans are to grow your company and operate in other states. In the event your plans are to stay local to your area, this new exam is probably not earth shattering news… but, it is a great improvement to the industry as a whole.

Stuart Winston
www.mycontractorslicense.com

About the Author:
Stuart Winston is a state-certified contractor in multiple states in the US. His career in building construction started in the 1980’s when he was a regional manager for one of the largest lumber companies in the US. He began his general contracting career in Florida in the early 90’s as a custom home builder. Stuart is a highly sought after speaker and trainer in the construction industry, and the founder and principal author of Great Southern Seminars contractor licensing exam preparation courses. During his career, Stuart has trained thousands of students though his contractor licensing programs. www.mycontractorslicense.com

Welcome to Great Southern Seminars!

greatsouthernseminars — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 20:20:56 +0000

We have created this blog site to enable our authors and customers to discuss news, issues, and just about anything related to construction and contractor licensing. Our focus is to bring you news and events as they relate to the licensing and contractor license exams so that our community is aware of the issues facing our industry today. Please share your thoughts, questions, concerns, or any useful information that will help your fellow contractors in the future….