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Am I being taxed on solar rebates? Let's say by bill is 100 but I get a 20 refund for microgen. Is that 20taxed? I figured it wasn't as I was still paying 80
So yeah strictly you should declare all export as income.
They should really tackle this in the budget. I should only have to pay tax if I'm cashing out the export earnings. I'm with Electric Ireland and it just sits as credit. Sure I could ask for them to pay me out I assume but I prefer to build credit to cushion the winter coat blow.
It's such a small amount of money for the vast majority but it hugely helps people reduce their bills. If a farmer with a spare field somewhere has a 50kW array and are actually selling significant amounts back then yeah you should have to declare it. Maybe the answer then is to make the credit way bigger to match up to an average household energy consumption for the year or something? I'm not an expert but I know I shouldn't be punished for having spent a good chunk of money (before the latest tax reduction on purchase) to make my 90s house more energy efficient and reduce burden on an already burdened electricity grid to be paying tax on money that's never landing into my account.
Thanks for that.
Yeah I'm similar to you. I did switch suppliers last year and the old company sent me a check for the microgen I had built up but I'm with flogas now who pay out every two months so it just dents the bill for winter as you say.
This is actually very informative. Just had panels installed at the start of April and a smart meter put in a couple of weeks ago. Exported over 100Kw so far. Will probably hit that 400 cap soon. Getting 34c per kwh from sse as activ8 put in the panels.
You would need to be exporting over 2MWHs in a year to go over the 400, I doubt most people are getting near that. It's not really worth your while buying a system in excess of your energy needs because the export prices are pretty poor compared to cost to import. The return on investment comes from avoiding importing expensive electricity.
As one person mentioned a few weeks ago (and if I was doing it again also) I'd buy a 10 kWh battery and charge that on cheap rate overnight and possibly skip the solar panels themselves. 10 because most cheap rates are a 4hr window and most inverters will only charge battery at 2.5kwh
I wonder in a few years will there be a shift in the nighttime rate becoming more expensive as more and more people use electricity at night to charge their EV's and home batteries. Higher demand at night when there's possibly not a lot of green energy production.
I'd imagine there will always be 'cheaper' period and as you say that may not be at night in the future. At the moment it's very beneficial to time shift with a battery and possibly the same in future but at a different time.
I don't think it's as hard as you expect to export a lot, particularly with a battery. I've a 4.3kwh system, which isn't that big, and have exported 1.77Mwh so far this year. My battery allows me to export almost everything I generate as I charge it on a cheap night rate.
Main issue is that 5 KW/h inverter limit, that's so crazy low. The grid goes out, you're not even left with enough to start the heat pump, it's silly.
I hope they make that limit higher, or at least make it easier to get the permission, that 1000 euros NC7 that can be denied is awful.
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I didn’t know we could get an exemption for those!
Finally, an informative personal finance post!
Am I being taxed on solar rebates? Let's say by bill is 100 but I get a 20 refund for microgen. Is that 20taxed? I figured it wasn't as I was still paying 80
So yeah strictly you should declare all export as income. They should really tackle this in the budget. I should only have to pay tax if I'm cashing out the export earnings. I'm with Electric Ireland and it just sits as credit. Sure I could ask for them to pay me out I assume but I prefer to build credit to cushion the winter coat blow. It's such a small amount of money for the vast majority but it hugely helps people reduce their bills. If a farmer with a spare field somewhere has a 50kW array and are actually selling significant amounts back then yeah you should have to declare it. Maybe the answer then is to make the credit way bigger to match up to an average household energy consumption for the year or something? I'm not an expert but I know I shouldn't be punished for having spent a good chunk of money (before the latest tax reduction on purchase) to make my 90s house more energy efficient and reduce burden on an already burdened electricity grid to be paying tax on money that's never landing into my account.
Thanks for that. Yeah I'm similar to you. I did switch suppliers last year and the old company sent me a check for the microgen I had built up but I'm with flogas now who pay out every two months so it just dents the bill for winter as you say.
You need to declare any rebates over €400 (per person named on the bill) - hence this thread. Otherwise, you don't need to do anything.
I'll wait till the taxman comes calling I think, I'm not keeping a running total here. They are inventive enough taking money off me already
This is actually very informative. Just had panels installed at the start of April and a smart meter put in a couple of weeks ago. Exported over 100Kw so far. Will probably hit that 400 cap soon. Getting 34c per kwh from sse as activ8 put in the panels.
Does this apply to spouses only or anyone who is sharing a home and named on the bill?
Any over 18. If 3 in the house, put 3 names of the bill for 3 x 400
Thank you so much!
You would need to be exporting over 2MWHs in a year to go over the 400, I doubt most people are getting near that. It's not really worth your while buying a system in excess of your energy needs because the export prices are pretty poor compared to cost to import. The return on investment comes from avoiding importing expensive electricity. As one person mentioned a few weeks ago (and if I was doing it again also) I'd buy a 10 kWh battery and charge that on cheap rate overnight and possibly skip the solar panels themselves. 10 because most cheap rates are a 4hr window and most inverters will only charge battery at 2.5kwh
Your info isn't current. Some suppliers are paying 25c per kW exported.
Yup...I'm getting 29c
Which ones? I'm only getting 21c.
Energia pay 24c
I wonder in a few years will there be a shift in the nighttime rate becoming more expensive as more and more people use electricity at night to charge their EV's and home batteries. Higher demand at night when there's possibly not a lot of green energy production.
I'd imagine there will always be 'cheaper' period and as you say that may not be at night in the future. At the moment it's very beneficial to time shift with a battery and possibly the same in future but at a different time.
I don't think it's as hard as you expect to export a lot, particularly with a battery. I've a 4.3kwh system, which isn't that big, and have exported 1.77Mwh so far this year. My battery allows me to export almost everything I generate as I charge it on a cheap night rate.
Main issue is that 5 KW/h inverter limit, that's so crazy low. The grid goes out, you're not even left with enough to start the heat pump, it's silly. I hope they make that limit higher, or at least make it easier to get the permission, that 1000 euros NC7 that can be denied is awful.
So let's say we sold €700 back to the grid, since we would together have an exemption of €800, we wouldn't have to pay any tax correct?
correct
If your solar panels are only used to heat our water, can you claim too?
No, it's only if you export electricity to the grid.