25C Heat Pump Tax Credit Ended: What to Fix

The federal heat pump tax credit is gone for new installs. Under current law, the federal Energy Efficient Home Improvement Credit (section 25C) doesn’t apply to any property placed in service after December 31, 2025. A heat pump installed in 2026 earns no 25C credit. If your website, quotes or ads still promise “up to $2,000 back,” take that line down or rewrite it in the past tense.

This post reflects IRS guidance and the law text as checked on October 23, 2026. It’s general information for contractors, not tax advice.

Is the 25C heat pump tax credit still available in 2026?

No. The IRS page on the Energy Efficient Home Improvement Credit says homeowners “can claim the credit for improvements made through December 31, 2025,” and the law itself now reads: “This section shall not apply with respect to any property placed in service after December 31, 2025” (26 U.S.C. § 25C(i)).

Some customers may have read that the credit is coming back. Bills that would restore it have been introduced in Congress, including S. 3722 (introduced January 29, 2026, and referred to the Senate Finance Committee) and H.R. 7977 (introduced March 18, 2026, and referred to House committees). As of October 23, 2026, neither has passed either chamber or become law. Unless Congress changes the law, a heat pump installed this year doesn’t qualify for 25C.

What exactly ended, and when?

The law signed on July 4, 2025 (Public Law 119-21, often called the One Big Beautiful Bill) moved the end date up. Before that change, 25C ran through 2032. The IRS published the new dates in its FAQs on the OBBB energy credit changes. The two that matter for residential HVAC:

Credit	What it covered that HVAC shops sold	IRS termination date
25C, Energy efficient home improvement credit	Heat pumps, heat pump water heaters, central AC, gas, propane and oil furnaces and boilers, panel upgrades installed with them	Not allowed for any property placed in service after December 31, 2025
25D, Residential clean energy credit	Geothermal heat pumps (along with solar and battery storage)	Not allowed for any expenditures made after December 31, 2025

For context, here’s what 25C was worth, so you can recognize the numbers to remove. The IRS page lists a credit of 30% of qualified costs, up to $2,000 a year for qualified heat pumps and heat pump water heaters, and up to $1,200 a year for other qualifying items, with a $600 cap per item for things like central air conditioners and gas furnaces. Combined, that’s where the “up to $3,200” figure on so many websites came from.

The phrase that decides everything is “placed in service.” The IRS says the credit is claimed “for the tax year when the property is installed, not merely purchased.” A customer who signed and paid a deposit in December 2025 but had the heat pump installed in January 2026 doesn’t get 25C.

What should you remove from your website, quotes and ads?

Anything that tells a 2026 customer they’ll get a federal tax credit for a heat pump or other HVAC equipment. Search your website, Google Business Profile, quote templates, financing pages and ads for “tax credit,” “25C,” “30%,” “$2,000,” “$3,200,” “Inflation Reduction Act” and “federal rebate.” Then delete each hit or rewrite it in the past tense.

The usual hiding places:

• The homepage banner or pop-up that went up when the credit was new
• Heat pump, heat pump water heater and AC replacement service pages
• Your financing page, where “tax credit” often got bundled into “lower your cost”
• PDF quote templates and the boilerplate in your proposal software
• Google Business Profile posts, service descriptions and offer posts
• Paid ads, their landing pages and any pinned social posts
• Door hangers, yard signs, truck wraps and leave-behind brochures
• The talk track your comfort advisors and CSRs use on the phone

If you’d rather keep a mention, make it accurate and dated: “The federal 25C tax credit applied to qualifying heat pumps placed in service through December 31, 2025. It isn’t available for installs after that date.”

Why bother? Because a homeowner who budgets around a $2,000 credit and then finds out from their tax preparer it doesn’t exist won’t blame the IRS. They’ll blame the company whose quote said it, and that story has a way of ending up in a review.

What can you tell customers instead?

Point them to programs that may still apply, such as utility rebates, state programs and manufacturer promotions, and let them confirm eligibility themselves. Link to official finders instead of quoting amounts you can’t stand behind.

Two good starting points:

• The ENERGY STAR Rebate Finder, where homeowners can find rebates and special offers near them on ENERGY STAR certified products.
• The Department of Energy’s Home Energy Rebates page. These are state-run programs, separate from 25C. DOE says they’re “now available in select states” and tells homeowners to contact their state or territory energy office about status and eligibility.

Your local utility’s rebate page belongs on that list too, if it has one. Utility programs change, so link to the page rather than copying the amount.

A simple line for your website or quote footer:

Rebates and incentives (updated {month year}): The federal 25C tax credit ended for installs after December 31, 2025. Some utilities and states offer heat pump rebates. Check the ENERGY STAR Rebate Finder or your state energy office, and confirm eligibility before counting on it.

And a version for techs and comfort advisors to say out loud: “The federal tax credit ended for installs after 2025. Some utilities and states still have rebates, and I can show you where to check. I just can’t promise what you’ll qualify for.”

Then sell the equipment on what it does: comfort, the right size for the house, the warranty, the quality of the install. Those didn’t expire.

How do you keep rebate info current without promising money?

Keep one short “Rebates and incentives” section on your site with a date on it, links to the official programs, and a line telling customers to confirm eligibility. Review it every quarter, and any time a program you link to changes.

Small, dated and linked is the whole formula. A date tells the reader how fresh the information is. Links send them to the source that’s responsible for the program, so you’re not the one on the hook for an amount that changed last month. And one section, rather than rebate claims scattered across ten pages, means one place to fix next time the rules move.

Old pages don’t expire on their own. Anyone who lands on a 2024 heat pump page, from search or a bookmark, reads it as current. That’s why the search-and-fix pass above is worth an afternoon, even if you only find two or three stale lines.

If your site is on one of our HVAC websites, swapping a rebate banner or rewriting that section is the kind of change you send us in a message; you can see how updates work and what each plan includes on the pricing page. Whoever runs your site, the job is the same: take down the old promise, put up a dated, linked note, and check it again next quarter.