You’re a church, in which case you don’t pay taxes and can’t take advantage of tax credits.
You’re a non-profit, in which case see above.
You’re a school or other public building, in which case also see above.
You’re a landlord, in which case somebody else is paying the electric bills.
You’re a business, in which case your electric bills are tax deductible.
There are plenty of good solutions to this, and the point of this diary isn’t to point them all out, but rather to point out that these are stumbling blocks in the fight against climate change. How do we get these places to put up solar panels? Okay, here are a few idea.
1. Make churches pay taxes. That’s pretty obvious. I don’t have a problem with donations being tax deductible for the church provided the person who makes the donation has paid taxes on that money, but plenty of churches, especially the LDS engage in profit driven activities. Side note: that puts secular business which compete with them at a disadvantage.
2. Electric bills can’t be deducted from the taxes of a business. That’ll get some panels up there pretty quickly.
3. What if landlords had to pay a fraction of the electric bill? Not sure if that will work or not, but it’s a thought.
Please share your ideas.