I've got a $788 credit from the Prius. I am ending up paying $5422 in taxes, yet I can't set the $788 against it because of the AMT calculations. Form 8910 calculates my net regular tax as $8481. It calculates the tentative minimum tax as $8615. Since line 16 is larger than line 15, Tax Cut is telling me the only bit of my rebate I can claim is $53, because I use the car for my business. That sucks. It doesn't seem right that if you figure what you WOULD HAVE owed you get screwed out of credits. I can figure out what I WOULD HAVE owed if I were a millionaire...but I'm not a millionaire, so I don't owe it. I thought I would get at least the $130 or so difference between the regular and minimum, from reading other posts here. It doesn't look like that happened.
Sorry to hear about that, pyccku. Our tax system really should be simplified. I'm all for progressive and even heavy progressive taxing. But everything about a tax system should be bright line, black & white. If an incentive credit is going to be issued, one should know ahead of time and with certainty that you will or will not get it. Otherwise, it's not 100% effective as incentives go. And for many, it operates as an outright deception.
you think you got screwed... you just bought a hybrid. i bought a 100% BEV and got a tax deduction of ZERO
Been a long time since I paid that little income tax. Last year I paid over $11,000US. There is no tax incentive to buy a Prius here so my cheeks are dry.
OK, let me clarify...I didn't pay $5422. I owe $5422 IN ADDITION TO all of the tax I've already paid.
Well at least you can pay some of that out of the fuel savings you're making..we don't have a direct tax incentive now (but I think there was one a few years ago). Our incentive, apart from the environmental ones are lower road tax £15 a year instead of £200+ for a gas guzzler, cheaper insurance 'cos of all the safety and security features. The biggest cash saving though is driving for free through London avoiding a current £8 a day charge and avoiding a much larger £25 a day charge for gas guzzlers (e.g. Audi A8). Unfortunately I don't travel thru London, but its nice that it is free were I to be so bold as to try it.
Wow, I didn't know about London's congestion pricing waiver for the Prius. Here in New York City, the Mayor is trying to force congestion pricing for Manhattan. I personally wouldn't mind it so much if he included a waiver for Prius and other less gas consuming cars.
They ought to follow the London model, which is now changing to reflect CO2 emissions. I think initially it was a way to screw all the motorists going there, but it has now evolved into an almost environmental charge with another name and it's game on! Instead of having just one flat charge of £5 which was the case, they can now tier the charges to the vehicle dependent on its emissions, so pretty soon all the BAD CO2 vehicles (not just SUVs any more) will pay £25 per day for the privilege of wading through our capital city at 2 mph. However all the GOOD CO2 vehicles, certain small diesels and Prius included, pay nothing except a one off £10 registration fee (a bit of a rip off but still cheap). Could be the way to go for NY ?
I don't know offhand the details of the Mayor's proposal. He always points to London as an example of how well congestion pricing works, but I don't know if he's actually proposing the old flat-fee way or the newer CO2 scaled way. Either way, he's getting a lot of resistance. I'm not certain his proposed law will pass.
