Federal tax credit
The federal window credit has ended
It stopped applying to property placed in service after December 31, 2025, and here is what that means for your windows.
The short answer
There is no federal window credit in 2026
If you have been waiting to replace your windows because you wanted to claim the federal energy credit, stop waiting. Section 25C was the Energy Efficient Home Improvement Credit, the one that covered exterior windows, skylights and doors, among other improvements. The One Big Beautiful Bill Act set a hard end date on it, and that date has passed.
Read the IRS guidance“The credit will not be allowed for any property placed in service after December 31, 2025.”
The code section
25C
Energy Efficient Home Improvement Credit, now terminated
Federal window credit in 2026
$0
Nothing federal replaced it
This page describes what the statute and the IRS guidance say. It is general information, not tax advice, and it is not a substitute for asking a tax professional about your own return.
What is left
Nothing federal replaced it
There is no successor credit for windows. What is left is how you pay for the work and what the energy code already requires of it.
Financing
Available
Financing is available on our work. Terms depend on the lender and on you, so we do not publish numbers we cannot stand behind. Ask when we come out and you get the current options in writing.
How financing works →The energy code
Zone 10 limits
Not money, but it is the reason the cheap option is not on the table anyway. Replacement windows in Riverside County have to hit a U-factor of 0.30 and an SHGC of 0.23 on a standard job, and the window that does that is a dual-pane unit with a low-E coating.
What the code requires →We will say so plainly: in 2026 there is no window tax credit. The job has to make sense on comfort and on running cost alone. Sometimes it does. Sometimes it does not yet, and we will tell you that too.
How it happened
Three dates worth knowing
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Through December 31, 2025
Section 25C, the Energy Efficient Home Improvement Credit, was available. For exterior windows and skylights it was worth 30 percent of product cost up to a $600 annual cap, and it required ENERGY STAR Most Efficient certification.
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July 4, 2025
Public Law 119-21, 139 Stat. 72, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, was enacted. Among many other changes it set a termination date on 25C.
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January 1, 2026 onward
No federal credit. In the words of the IRS: the credit will not be allowed for any property placed in service after December 31, 2025. The trigger is the placed-in-service date, not the order date, the deposit date or the contract date.
Worth being blunt about
If someone is still selling you the tax credit
It is still appearing in quotes, in mailers and on home show banners. Some of it is honest lag, sales material written in 2024 that nobody has revisited. Some of it is not.
Either way, two things protect you:
- Ask for the code section. The federal energy credit is a phrase. Section 25C is a citation you can check in about ninety seconds.
- Never accept an incentive as a line on the quote. A credit is money that may come back to you later from a third party. It is not a discount from the contractor, and it should never be netted off the price you are asked to sign for.
Questions
About the credit ending
I signed a contract in 2025 but the windows went in this year. Do I qualify?
The IRS guidance keys the credit to when property is placed in service, not when it was ordered or paid for. Property placed in service after December 31, 2025 is outside the credit. If your situation is close to that line, that is a question for your tax preparer with your actual dates in front of them, not for a window company.
Did the solar credit end too?
The residential clean energy credit under section 25D was also terminated by the same law, for expenditures made after December 31, 2025. Different section, different wording, same cliff.
A company just quoted me and mentioned a tax credit. What now?
Ask them, in writing, which Internal Revenue Code section they mean and what its current expiration date is. There is no federal credit for replacement windows in 2026. A firm still building it into a sales pitch is either working from a script nobody has updated since 2024, or is counting on you not checking.
Could Congress bring it back?
It could. It has restored and extended residential energy credits more than once. Nothing on this page should be read as a prediction. What we can tell you is what the law says today, and today it says the credit is not available.
Sources
Where these facts come from
- Internal Revenue Service, FAQs on the modification of sections 25C, 25D and others under Public Law 119-21 Section 25C: the credit will not be allowed for any property placed in service after December 31, 2025. Section 25D: no expenditures after the same date. Retrieved September 1, 2026.
The math without the credit still works for a lot of houses
We price the job and tell you which measure buys the most comfort per dollar. Financing is available if you would rather spread it.