EV buyers who missed out on their tax credits now have a fix from the IRS

After some car owners were not able to claim the EV tax credit this spring, the IRS has created a fix, according to the trade group representing auto dealers.

As NPR previously reported, some electric car shoppers across the country discovered this spring that they couldn’t get the EV tax credit they expected, because their car dealer had not correctly reported their 2024 purchase to the IRS through a new online portal.

And because the reports had to be entered within three days of the sale, there appeared to be no way for dealerships to fix the oversight belatedly.

But now the National Automobile Dealers Association (NADA) says there’s a solution. In an alert to its members, the group says the IRS is now allowing dealers to report sales “for qualifying clean vehicle credit transactions that occurred in 2024.” Essentially, the 3-day requirement is being waived.

The option to report sales retroactively was opened for testing as of Tuesday, March 25, and will officially be rolled out today, the group said. “It is unclear how long the functionality will remain open but, according to the IRS, dealers can begin using the portal now,” NADA informed dealers.

A spokesperson for the IRS would not comment on the record but did not dispute the information in the NADA bulletin.

In its message to members, NADA — which did not offer any additional comment to NPR, and did not comment for NPR’s original story — indicated that in addition to consumers, some auto dealers were also affected by this problem. Some dealers had provided the tax credit to shoppers up front, a new option in 2024, but did not report the sale to the IRS in a timely fashion. In those cases, it was the dealer, not the shopper, missing out on thousands of dollars they expected to receive.

NADA says it “advocated aggressively” for the IRS to introduce a remedy, and also indicated that members of Congress were aware of the issue thanks to messages received from their constituents.

In order to benefit from the reopened portal, taxpayers will need to work with the car dealer who originally sold them the car. Only a dealer can sign up for the system, called the ECO portal, and submit sales to the IRS.