Refundable, federal, and running to the end of 2033. It is the largest single source of money available on a commercial energy project in Canada, and it is routinely left out of proposals entirely.
A refundable federal investment tax credit of 30% on qualifying clean technology property. Refundable is the important word: it is paid out as cash whether or not the corporation has tax payable, which makes it fundamentally different from a deduction against profit.
It applies to property that becomes available for use between 28 March 2023 and 31 December 2033. It falls to 15% for property available for use during 2034, and disappears entirely from 2035.
Residential systems are excluded. So are on-road passenger electric vehicles, hydrogen production equipment and manufacturing equipment — several of which fall under separate credits with different rules.
This exclusion is the reason our commercial and residential pages read so differently. On a house, this credit does not exist.
Taxable Canadian corporations, and mutual fund trusts that are real estate investment trusts.
Not individuals. Not sole proprietorships. Not most trusts. For partnerships, the credit flows through to corporate partners via T5013 slips.
In practice this rules out municipalities, school boards and non-profits, which are not taxable corporations. Those owners are not without options — utility incentive programs are not restricted by tax status — but they should not be shown a proposal with a 30% line in it.
This is the part almost nobody explains, and it is worth ten percent of the project cost.
To receive the full 30%, the claimant must make a written election at filing and meet two conditions:
Fail to meet them, or fail to make the election, and the rate drops to 20%.
On a $400,000 commercial installation the difference between 30% and 20% is $40,000.
It is decided before anyone picks up a tool — in how the contract is written, how the crews are paid and what records are kept from the first day on site. It cannot be retrofitted at filing time, which is exactly when most owners first hear about it.
The credit is triggered by the date the property becomes available for use. Not the date you signed the contract, not the date you paid the deposit, not the date the equipment arrived.
On projects straddling a rate change — and there is one at the end of 2033, and another at the end of 2034 — commissioning slipping by a few weeks can move the rate. Schedule matters to the claim, so we treat the in-service date as a deliverable rather than an outcome.
We are not your tax advisor and we do not file your return. What we do is make sure the project does not quietly disqualify itself before your accountant ever sees it.
Yes. It is paid out whether or not the corporation has tax payable in the year, which is what distinguishes it from a deduction and why it matters so much to the cash case.
They are separate programs. Provincial utility incentives may reduce the capital cost base against which the credit is calculated, so the interaction should be modelled rather than assumed — but claiming both is normal.
The credit is not available to you, because it requires a taxable Canadian corporation. Utility programs are not restricted by tax status and should be the focus instead. We will not show you a proposal with a credit line you cannot claim.
30% for property available for use through 31 December 2033, 15% through 2034, and nothing from 2035. The trigger is the in-service date, not the contract date.
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Send the building type, the approximate size and what prompted the project. You will get a scoped proposal with the incentive position set out line by line — not a number on a page.