The 30% Tax Credit Is Gone. This Discount Isn't.

If you've been researching solar in 2026, you've already run into the same headline everywhere: the 30% federal tax credit is dead. Expired December 31, 2025. Gone.

That part is true. If you buy a solar system with cash or a loan this year, the IRS isn't sending you anything back.

What most of that coverage leaves out is that there's a second federal tax credit — a commercial one — and it's still active. It's not available to homeowners directly. But there's a financing path that lets you access a real portion of it anyway, and most installers either don't explain it clearly or don't mention it at all.

Here's the honest breakdown.

Two Tax Credits, Not One

For nearly two decades, homeowners who bought a solar system outright could claim 30% of the cost directly on their federal taxes. That credit — Section 25D — expired at the end of 2025 and isn't coming back.

But there's a separate credit, Section 48E, built for businesses that own and operate solar systems. It's still active and currently runs through 2027. It was never designed for individual homeowners — it's designed for companies.

That distinction is the entire story.

When you buy a system outright, you're the owner. No business entity involved, no Section 48E access. But when you sign a solar lease or a Power Purchase Agreement (PPA), you don't own the system — a financing company does. And because that company is a business, it can still claim the Section 48E credit on the system installed on your roof.

The company gets the tax break. You don't, directly. But here's what actually matters to you: most financing companies pass a portion of that savings back to you — not as a check, but as a lower monthly lease payment, or a lower rate per kilowatt-hour on a PPA.

What the Discount Actually Looks Like

This is where a lot of content out there gets sloppy, and it's worth being precise.

You'll see articles and ads implying you can still get "30% off" through a lease or PPA. That's the credit the financing company claims — not necessarily what reaches you. What we're actually seeing pass through to homeowners typically lands in the range of 8 to 18 percent of system cost, depending on the financing structure and the company.

In select cases, when a provider stacks additional incentives — domestic content bonuses, for example — that pass-through can climb higher. But the responsible way to think about this is: expect something closer to the lower end, and treat anything above that as a genuine win rather than the baseline.

There's also a newer structure worth knowing about specifically: the prepaid PPA, sometimes called lease-to-own solar. Instead of a standard 25-year lease, you pay for the system upfront or finance it. A leasing company technically owns the system for a shorter window — typically around six years — claims the Section 48E credit during that period, and passes a portion of that value to you as a reduced upfront price. Once the term ends, ownership transfers fully to you.

For homeowners who want a path to outright ownership without giving up access to the tax credit value entirely, this is currently one of the more competitive structures available. The trade-off is straightforward: you don't own the panels during that initial window, the company does. If outright ownership from day one matters to you more than the discount, a cash purchase or solar loan remains the more direct path — just without any federal credit attached to it in 2026.

One more honest note: which companies offer prepaid PPAs, and in which states, is genuinely still in motion. This is a newer financing model, and availability is expanding as more providers enter the market. Rather than publish a state list that could be outdated by the time you read this, the more useful approach is to confirm directly during a consultation whether this structure is available for your specific property and state.

The Part With an Actual Deadline

Here's what almost nobody mentions, and it's the most time-sensitive piece of this entire topic.

The Section 48E commercial credit isn't open-ended for new projects. Financing companies need to begin construction on a project before a federal deadline — July 4th, 2026 — to lock in full access to the credit for systems placed in service by 2028. That deadline is sometimes referred to as the Safe Harbor cutoff.

Miss that window, and accessing the credit for new lease or PPA projects becomes significantly more difficult. It doesn't disappear entirely, but the path narrows.

If you've been telling yourself you'll "get to solar eventually" once things settle down post-tax-credit, this is the actual clock that matters right now — not a vague sense that prices might come down, but a specific federal construction deadline less than a month away as of this writing.

What This Means If You're on the Fence

If you've been holding off on solar because the tax credit disappeared and the math no longer seemed to work, the honest answer is: don't assume. Run the actual numbers for your situation before writing solar off.

The financial structure that used to come from a direct tax credit hasn't vanished — it's just relocated into a financing arrangement most homeowners have never had explained to them clearly. That's not a loophole. It's simply how Section 48E was designed to work, and very few installers are walking customers through it in plain language.

Before assuming solar doesn't pencil out in 2026, there's one direct question worth asking any installer you're considering: does your lease, PPA, or prepaid PPA option pass through a portion of the Section 48E credit, and can you show that number in writing?

If the answer is vague, that's worth noticing.

Get the Real Numbers for Your Home

Every property is different — your state, your roof, your energy usage, and which financing partners currently operate in your area all affect what's actually available to you.

A free consultation with IntegrateSun walks through every current option side by side: cash purchase, solar loan, standard lease/PPA, and prepaid PPA where available — including whether you're still inside the July 4th deadline window.

No pressure. No pitch. Just the real numbers for your specific situation.