Our Seattle tax attorneys (listed below) have told us about Washington Department of Revenue’s  ("DOR") public hearing on May 11 regarding proposed amendments to its rule governing administration of the Renewable Energy System Cost Recovery program.

Kim Risenmay at (206) 386-7525 or gkrisenmay@stoel.com
Carl Lewis at (206) 386-7688 or cslewis@stoel.com
Erin Toland at (206) 386-7563 or emtoland@stoel.com

Pursuant to this program, participating light and power companies may make incentive payments to customers who purchase and use renewable energy systems, and the light and power companies then receive offsetting tax credits against their Washington Public Utility Tax liabilities.

The DOR has indicated that the rule will be updated to reflect recent changes to Washington law, (1) increasing the annual payments that light and power businesses can make to individual customers; (2) increasing the total amount of incentive payments that participating light and power businesses can make to their customers; (3) changing the formula used to determine payment amounts based on “economic development kilowatt-hours;” (4) extending the incentive program to include community solar projects; (5) creating three categories of eligible community solar projects; (6) setting limitations on total incentive payments for community solar projects; and (7) setting capacity generating restrictions on systems in community solar projects.

If you’re interested in attending the hearing which begins at 10:00 a.m. on Tuesday, May 11, 2010, go to the  DOR’s Fourth Floor Executive Conference Room at Capital Plaza Building,
1025 Union Avenue SE, Olympia, WA 98501

IRS Circular 230 notice: Any tax advice contained herein was not intended or written to be used, and cannot be used, by you or any other person (i) in promoting, marketing or recommending any transaction, plan or arrangement or (ii) for the purpose of avoiding penalties that may be imposed under federal tax law.