{"id":946,"date":"2013-07-12T15:20:13","date_gmt":"2013-07-12T19:20:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.law.harvard.edu\/environmentallawprogram\/?p=946"},"modified":"2019-05-09T19:06:11","modified_gmt":"2019-05-09T19:06:11","slug":"clinic-study-recommends-changes-to-state-property-tax-exemption-for-solar-projects","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/clinics.law.harvard.edu\/environment\/2013\/07\/12\/clinic-study-recommends-changes-to-state-property-tax-exemption-for-solar-projects\/","title":{"rendered":"Clinic Study Recommends Changes to State Property Tax Exemption for Solar Projects"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.law.harvard.edu\/environmentallawprogram\/clinic-study-recommends-changes-to-state-property-tax-exemption-for-solar-projects\/westford-solar-array_reformatted\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-945\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-945\" title=\"Solar Taxation paper cover image\" src=\"http:\/\/blogs.law.harvard.edu\/environmentallawprogram\/files\/2013\/07\/westford-solar-array_reformatted-300x193.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"193\" \/><\/a>A new analysis by the Emmett Environmental Law and Policy Clinic at Harvard Law School recommends the Massachusetts legislature remove confusion about tax incentives for solar photovoltaic (PV) projects, to enable more homeowners and business owners to install renewable energy.<\/p>\n<p>Under a state law that dates back to the 1970s, some solar PV installations are eligible for a 20-year exemption from local property taxes.\u00a0 For many years, solar developers believed that this important renewable energy incentive applied to virtually all solar installations in Massachusetts.\u00a0 Recently, however, the Department of Revenue has interpreted the exemption to apply only when energy produced by the system is \u201cconsumed on site at all times.\u201d\u00a0 Because even the smallest rooftop PV system will send energy back to the electric grid at least some of the time, this interpretation eviscerates the exemption.\u00a0 Even though many local assessors have not followed the Department\u2019s interpretation, the Department\u2019s action has created uncertainty for the solar industry.\u00a0 To make matters worse, there is also significant legal uncertainty both about whether solar PV systems should be taxed as real or personal property, and about when municipalities have the authority to enter into payment-in-lieu-of-taxes (PILOT) agreements with solar developers.<\/p>\n<p>The paper, titled <em><a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.law.harvard.edu\/environmentallawprogram\/files\/2013\/10\/Solar-Taxation-white-paper-FINAL_revised-10-2-13.pdf\">The Solar Property Tax Exemption in Massachusetts: Interpretations of Existing Law and Recommendations for Amendments<\/a><\/em>, reviews the sources of legal uncertainty and surveys the approaches taken by other states to exempt solar projects from property taxes.\u00a0 The report recommends that:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The legislature create a property tax exemption for small solar PV systems (a capacity of less than 60 kW and\/or less than 125 per cent of the historic annual energy needs of the property);<\/li>\n<li>The legislature authorize municipalities to enter into PILOT agreements for larger PV installations; and<\/li>\n<li>The Department of Revenue issue guidance clarifying that solar PV installations should usually be assessed as personal property.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The paper was co-authored by Irina Rodina (JD &#8217;14) and Senior Clinical Instructor Shaun Goho.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A new analysis by the Emmett Environmental Law and Policy Clinic at Harvard Law School recommends the Massachusetts legislature remove&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":158,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[38,5,3],"tags":[35,15,17],"class_list":["post-946","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-clinic-publications","category-elp-news-events","category-news","tag-irina-rodina","tag-goho","tag-solar","post-archive"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/clinics.law.harvard.edu\/environment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/946","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/clinics.law.harvard.edu\/environment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/clinics.law.harvard.edu\/environment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clinics.law.harvard.edu\/environment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/158"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clinics.law.harvard.edu\/environment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=946"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/clinics.law.harvard.edu\/environment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/946\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/clinics.law.harvard.edu\/environment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=946"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clinics.law.harvard.edu\/environment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=946"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clinics.law.harvard.edu\/environment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=946"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}