10 Mar Solar Property Tax Exemption

A new law in Maine, LD 1430, is impacting solar system owners. This solar bill passed last year and offers an exemption on increased property taxes related to solar systems and components.

To receive an exemption, you need to file a form with your local tax assessor by April 1, 2020. You only need to file this once and not on an annual basis. Here is a link to the form.

Please note that this is not official tax guidance and we recommend directing questions to the Maine Revenue Service at 207-624-9784.

We recommend referring to your project proposal from Sundog Solar and your SolarEdge solar monitoring portal (if applicable) for information about your solar system when filling out the form. If you no longer have a copy of your proposal, please call our office at 207-548-1100 or email us and we will send you one. We recommend being as thorough as possible when filling out the form.

Here is some helpful information in filling out your form:

Question 4: Refer to tax maps for your town. These can often be found on your town’s website.

Questions 6 & 7: Refer to your Sundog Solar contract

Question 8: Can be found in the proposal or by looking at your solar system monitoring data (if you have at least a year of solar energy production)

Question 9: This only applies to systems that are generating SRECs and is a “0” for Sundog Solar customers

Questions 10: The DC system size is the headline number on your proposal

Question 11: The AC system size is the inverter size

Question 13: The answer is the warranty term for your panels

Question 14: You can put down, “0.5% per year”

Question 15: This is 0.5% X the age of the system in years (example for a 4-year old system: 0.5% x 4 = 2%

Questions 16: Put “fixed solar electric system” if your system doesn’t track the sun. If your solar system tracks the sun, refer to the instructions at the bottom of the form.

Question 17: You can find this data via the “Physical Layout” tab on their SolarEdge monitoring site (if applicable) or on the Sundog Solar proposal. If it’s a ground mount, it is typically 43 degrees.

Question 18: Azimuth can be found in the same location as tilt in the SolarEdge monitoring site

Question 19: The inverter size is the same as the AC system size

Question 20: Can be answered by looking at the warranty information in your proposal (unless you opted for an extended warranty).

Question 21: If unknown, enter the age of the solar system (unless the inverter was replaced)

Question 23: This could be the warranty term or you can leave the line blank

Question 24: Leave this blank unless you have replaced your inverter