701—52.26  (422,476B)  Wind energy production tax credit.  Effective for tax years beginning on or after July 1, 2006, an owner of a qualified wind energy production facility that has been approved by the Iowa utilities board may claim a wind energy production tax credit for qualified electricity sold by the owner or used for on-site consumption against a taxpayer’s Iowa corporation income tax liability. The administrative rules for the certification of eligibility for the wind energy production tax credit for the Iowa utilities board may be found in rule 199—15.18(476B).
	   52.26(1) Application and review process for the wind energy production tax credit. An owner of a wind energy production facility must be approved by the Iowa utilities board in order to qualify for the wind energy production tax credit. The facility must be an electrical production facility that produces electricity from wind, is located in Iowa, and must be placed in service on or after July 1, 2005, but before July 1, 2012. For applications filed on or after March 1, 2008, a facility must consist of one or more wind turbines which have a combined nameplate generating capacity of at least 2 megawatts and no more than 30 megawatts. For applications filed on or after July 1, 2009, by a private college or university, community college, institution under the control of the state board of regents, public or accredited nonpublic elementary and secondary school, or public hospital as defined in Iowa Code section 249J.3, the facility must have a combined nameplate capacity of no less than ¾ of a megawatt.
The maximum amount of nameplate generating capacity for all qualified wind energy production facilities cannot exceed 50 megawatts of nameplate generating capacity. An owner shall not own more than two qualified facilities. A facility that is not operational within 18 months after issuance of the approval from the Iowa utilities board will no longer be considered a qualified facility. However, a facility that is not operational within 18 months due to the unavailability of necessary equipment shall be granted an additional 12 months to become operational.
An owner of the qualified facility must apply to the Iowa utilities board for the wind energy production tax credit. The application for the tax credit must be filed no later than 30 days after the close of the tax year for which the credit is applied. The information to be included in the application is set forth in 199—subrule 15.20(1).
	   52.26(2) Computation of the credit. The wind energy production credit equals one cent multiplied by the number of kilowatt-hours of qualified electricity sold or used for on-site consumption by the owner during the tax year. For the first tax year in which the credit is applied, the kilowatt-hours of qualified electricity sold may exceed 12 months.
Example: A qualified facility was placed in service on April 1, 2006, and the taxpayer files on a calendar-year basis. The first year for which the credit can be claimed is the period ending December 31, 2007, since that is the first tax year that began on or after July 1, 2006. The credit for the 2007 tax year can include electricity sold between April 1, 2006, and December 31, 2007.
The credit is not allowed for any kilowatt-hours of electricity sold to a related person. The definition of “related person” uses the same criteria set forth in Section 45(e)(4) of the Internal Revenue Code relating to the federal renewable electricity production credit. Persons shall be treated as related to each other if such persons are treated as a single employer under Treasury Regulation §1.52-1. In the case of a corporation that is a member of an affiliated group of corporations filing a federal consolidated return, such corporation shall be treated as selling electricity to an unrelated person if such electricity is sold to the person by another member of the affiliated group.
The utilities board will notify the department of the number of kilowatt-hours of electricity sold by the qualified facility or generated and used on site by the qualified facility during the tax year. The department will calculate the credit and issue a tax credit certificate to the owner. The tax credit certificate will include the taxpayer’s name, address and federal identification number, the tax type for which the credit will be claimed, the amount of the credit and the tax year for which the credit may be claimed. In addition, the tax credit certificate will include a place for the name and tax identification number of a transferee and the amount of the tax credit certificate, as provided in subrule 52.26(3). If the department refuses to issue the tax credit certificate, the taxpayer shall be notified in writing and the taxpayer will have 60 days from the date of denial to file a protest in accordance with rule 701—7.8(17A). The department will not issue a tax credit certificate if the facility is not operational within 18 months after approval was given by the utilities board, unless a 12-month extension is granted by the utilities board as provided in subrule 52.26(1).
If the taxpayer is a partnership, limited liability company, S corporation, or estate or trust requesting a credit for individual or corporation income tax, the tax credit certificate will be issued to the partners, members, shareholders or beneficiaries based on the partner’s, member’s, shareholder’s or beneficiary’s pro rata share of earnings of the partnership, limited liability company, S corporation, or estate or trust, except when the taxpayer is eligible to receive renewable electricity production tax credits authorized under Section 45 of the Internal Revenue Code. In cases where the taxpayer is eligible to receive renewable electricity production tax credits under Section 45 of the Internal Revenue Code, the partnership, limited liability company or S corporation may designate the amount of the tax credit to be allocated to each partner, member or shareholder. In addition, if a taxpayer is a partnership, limited liability company, S corporation, or estate or trust that is eligible to receive renewable electricity production tax credits under Section 45 of the Internal Revenue Code, the taxpayer may distribute the tax credit to an equity holder or beneficiary as a liquidating distribution or portion thereof, of an equity holder’s interest in the partnership, limited liability company or S corporation, or the beneficiary’s interest in the estate or trust.
The credit can be allowed for a ten-year period beginning on the date the qualified facility was originally placed in service. For example, if a facility was placed in service on April 1, 2006, the credit can be claimed for kilowatt-hours of electricity sold between April 1, 2006, and March 31, 2016.
To claim the tax credit, the taxpayer must include the tax credit certificate with the tax return for the tax year set forth on the certificate. Any tax credit in excess of the tax liability may be carried forward for seven years or until it is used, whichever is the earlier.
	   52.26(3) Transfer of the wind energy production tax credit certificate. The wind energy production tax credit certificate may be transferred to any person or entity.
Within 30 days of transfer of the tax credit certificate, the transferee must submit the transferred tax credit certificate to the department, along with a statement which contains the transferee’s name, address and tax identification number and the amount of the tax credit being transferred. Within 30 days of receiving the transferred tax credit certificate and the statement from the transferee, the department will issue a replacement tax credit certificate to the transferee. If the transferee is a partnership, limited liability company, S corporation, or estate or trust claiming the credit for individual or corporation income tax, the transferee shall provide a list of the partners, members, shareholders or beneficiaries and information on how the wind energy production tax credit should be divided among the partners, members, shareholders or beneficiaries. The transferee shall also provide the tax identification numbers and addresses of the partners, members, shareholders or beneficiaries. The replacement tax credit certificate must contain the same information as that on the original tax credit certificate and must have the same effective taxable year and the same expiration date as the original tax credit certificate. The replacement tax credit certificate may reflect a different tax type than the original tax credit certificate.
The transferee may use the amount of the tax credit for any tax year for which the original transferor could have claimed the tax credit. Any consideration received for the transfer of the tax credit certificate shall not be included in Iowa taxable income for individual income, corporation income or franchise tax purposes. Any consideration paid for the transfer of the tax credit certificate shall not be deducted from Iowa taxable income for individual income, corporation income or franchise tax purposes.
This rule is intended to implement Iowa Code section 422.33 and chapter 476B as amended by 2011 Iowa Acts, House File 672.
[ ARC 8589B , IAB 3/10/10, effective 4/14/10;    ARC 9876B , IAB 11/30/11, effective 1/4/12;    ARC 0251C , IAB 8/8/12, effective 9/12/12;    ARC 1744C , IAB 11/26/14, effective 12/31/14]