Change in the way Atlanta area dealing with Fed Tax Credit

[mafuada]

I leased a FFE in 2014. My lease is coming up so went back up to Ford today and ran some numbers on a 2016 lease with the sales guy.
In 2014 Ford took the Federal Tax Credit and deducted it off the price of the car when negotiating lease terms. This time the
lease payment kept coming in $54/month higher and at first i could not figure out why. I assumed the $8250 rebate on their paper work
included the Federal Tax Credit. It turned out that was not the case. I guess that is all just incentives. Now instead of Ford taking
the tax credit they let the leasee take the credit. I am not sure why or when the change was made but my sales guy said he would
make a couple of calls for me and try to figure out the story. Are other states doing this? Has anyone else figured out the same?
This new set up works for me. Actually i think its a much better deal . The lease payment for $0 down, 10,500 miles per year for 24 months
was $464. But $7500 comes to $312/month ($7500/24) so your net lease amount is $152/month in essence. That seems like a great
deal...

 

[NightHawk]

I don't think the Fed tax credit is for leases, its only for the owner of the vehicle and in the case of a lease thats Ford's leasing company?
Perhaps the dealer doesn't know most of that lease incentive on EVs is the Fed tax credit.
However for leases, you can also get a rebate check from some states separately, I got $2500 for my 2014 FFE lease last year from California. And the state sends a check, vs the Fed tax credit which is only good if you owe enough on taxes to take advantage of it.

 

[mafuada]

Thanks NightHawk. The reason i posted is this seems too good to be true and there is 30% of me that thinks the sales
guy is just not informed. They have not sold that many evs in Georgia since the state tax credit ended. But we went
around and around about it. Ill let you know if this turns out to be bad info. I have not signed any paper work yet.

The sales gave me a copy of the page from the IRS website and it says "The vehicles must be acquired for use or lease
and not for resale"....

 

[mafuada]

I was googling a bit and there are definitely several websites saying it can only be claimed by the purchaser. Sounding more
and more like the sales team at Sandy Springs Ford in Atlanta was wrong. I am not sure why the lease payment is $54
more than 2 years ago. Thoughts?

Rob

 

[michael]

24 x 54 is about $1300. Was there $1500 incentive earlier that isn't there now? Is the dealer offering not as much a discount as last time? Is the residual lower now than last time?

 

[scottt]

Most salespeople don't know (or don't give a rat's a$$ to learn). My salesperson (a very nice guy BTW, I'd go back to him in a heartbeat) said that I couldn't combine two rebates that I wanted to take. Several phone calls to Ford (one to confirm the right answer, and the others to double and triple check that answer) and I found out that I could.

Never, ever take a salesperson's word (ESPECIALLY on tax matters). Always check everything. I must have called Ford over a dozen times during my research to check/confirm information.