Is North Carolina’s Renewable Energy Tax Credit Saga Reaching Its End?

The North Carolina General Assembly had offered tax credits to encourage private investment in renewable energy projects, making North Carolina a leading producer of renewable energy. But ever since the program expired in 2016, the state’s Department of Revenue (DOR) has attempted to claw back some of the credits by launching a major audit program targeted toward investors in syndicated projects.

In the article “Is North Carolina’s Renewable Energy Tax Credit Saga Reaching Its End?” published by Tax Notes, Smith Anderson tax attorney Bill Nelson reviews the years of litigation sparked by the DOR’s attempt to rescind hundreds of millions of dollars of renewable energy tax credits, with a focus on the four tax credit cases currently under review in the state’s courts. Bill writes that the issues raised in these cases - respect for the legislature’s intent in offering incentives, the role of federal tax law in resolving state tax controversies and the DOR’s ability to deprive administrative tax tribunals of jurisdiction to avoid adverse results - will have important consequences for other tax controversies for years to come.

Read the full article here.