The Energy Efficient Home Improvement Credit, section 25C of the tax code, gave a homeowner back 30% of the cost of qualifying equipment: up to $2,000 a year for a heat pump, up to $600 for a central air conditioner or a furnace that met the efficiency tier. The One Big Beautiful Bill Act, signed July 4, 2025, ended it for property placed in service after December 31, 2025. Anything installed this year gets nothing from the federal government.
The credit is still all over the web, though.
Take it off your site this week
Search your own site for "tax credit," "25C," "$2,000" and "Inflation Reduction Act." We did this for every client in January and found the claim on service pages, in FAQ answers, in a footer banner, and in one case in a Google Ads sitelink that had been running since 2023. A page that says "get up to $2,000 back" in August 2026 is a false advertising claim, and it is the kind the FTC and state attorneys general act on when a homeowner complains after the tax return comes back short.
Check the ad accounts too: sitelinks, callouts, responsive ad headlines, Local Services Ads business bio. Then check the review replies, where "ask us about the federal credit" got pasted a few hundred times.
What to say on the phone
The question comes in as "is there still a tax credit?" The answer is one sentence: "The federal one ended December 31, and we tell everyone that up front." Then move to what does exist. Utility rebates on heat pumps and high-efficiency equipment are set by each utility and change through the year, so the CSR should have the current list for your service area on the desk, dated. State programs funded under the IRA (HEAR and HOMES) are run state by state and several were paused or reworked in 2025. Say what is true in your state this month, or say you will check.
Do not say "there might be something." That sentence turns into a callback, and the callback turns into an argument.
Selling the replacement without it
The credit was never the reason a homeowner replaced a system. The reason is a 17-year-old unit that failed on a 98-degree day, or a repair quote that is a third of a new system. The credit lowered the price by a few hundred dollars a month of financing. Financing still does that, so the landing page for replacements now leads with the monthly number, the age of the system that makes replacement the better math, and the earliest install date.
The December rush pulled a lot of replacements forward. Some of the homeowners you would have replaced this summer did it in December to catch the deadline. Keep that in mind if the install calendar looks thinner than last July.
What the replacement page needs
- A monthly financing figure for a typical system in your metro, with the rate and term written next to it.
- The repair-or-replace rule you actually use on the truck, in numbers.
- A sentence about the refrigerant change, since the homeowner has heard something about it and will ask.
- The earliest install date you can honor this week.
- No mention of a federal credit.
The page comes out shorter than the one it replaces. It converts on the install date and the monthly number; the credit paragraph mostly made the old page look complete.