Form 8834 Qualified Electric and Plug-in Electronic Vehicle Credit

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Form

8834

Department of the Treasury
Internal Revenue Service
Name(s) shown on return

OMB No. 1545-1374

Qualified Plug-in Electric and Electric Vehicle Credit
▶ Attach

2011

to your tax return.

Attachment
Sequence No. 111
Identifying number

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Note.
• Use this form to claim the credit for certain two- or three-wheeled vehicles or low-speed four-wheeled plug-in electric vehicles.
• Claim the credit for certain other plug-in electric vehicles on Form 8936.
• Claim the credit for certain alternative motor vehicles or plug-in electric vehicle conversions on Form 8910.

Part I
Qualified Plug-in Electric Vehicle Credit
Section A—Vehicle Information

(a)
Vehicle 1

Use a separate column for each vehicle. If you need more columns,
use additional Forms 8834 and include the totals on lines 12 and 19.

1

Year, make, and model of vehicle .

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Vehicle identification number (see instructions) .

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Enter date vehicle was placed in service (MM/DD/YYYY)

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(b)
Vehicle 2

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Cost of the vehicle . . . . . . . . . . . .
Next: If you did NOT use your vehicle for business or investment purposes and did not have a credit from a partnership or S
corporation, skip Section B and go to Section C. All others, go to Section B.

Section B—Credit for Business/Investment Use Part of Vehicle
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Business/investment use percentage (see instructions)
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%
Multiply line 4 by line 5 . . . . . . . . . .
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Section 179 expense deduction (see instructions) .
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Subtract line 7 from line 6 . . . . . . . . .
8
Multiply line 8 by 10% (.10) . . . . . . . . .
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2,500 00
Maximum credit per vehicle . . . . . . . . .
10
Enter the smaller of line 9 or line 10 . . . . . .
11
Add columns (a) and (b) on line 11
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Qualified plug-in electric vehicle credit from partnerships and S corporations . . . . . . .
Business/investment use part of credit. Add lines 12 and 13. Partnerships and S corporations,
report this amount on Schedule K. All others, report this amount on Form 3800, line 1z . . . .

%

2,500

00

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Section C—Credit for Personal Use Part of Vehicle
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If you skipped Section B, enter the amount from line 4.
If you completed Section B, subtract line 6 from line 4

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Multiply line 15 by 10% (.10) . . . . . . . .
Maximum credit per vehicle. If you skipped Section B,
enter $2,500. If you completed Section B, subtract line
11 from line 10 . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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Enter the smaller of line 16 or line 17
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Add columns (a) and (b) on line 18
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Enter the amount from Form 1040, line 46, or Form 1040NR, line 44 . .
Personal credits from Form 1040 or 1040NR (see instructions) . . . .
Subtract line 21 from line 20. If zero or less, stop. You cannot claim the
credit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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personal
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use part
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Personal use part of credit. Enter the smaller of line 19 or line 22. Report the total of this amount
and the amount, if any, from line 30 on Form 1040, line 53 (or Form 1040NR, line 50). Check box c
on that line and enter “8834” in the space next to that box. If line 22 is smaller than line 19, see
instructions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

For Paperwork Reduction Act Notice, see instructions.

Cat. No. 14953G

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Form 8834 (2011)

Page 2

Form 8834 (2011)

Part II

Qualified Electric Vehicle Credit

Caution. This part only applies to qualified electric vehicle passive activity credits from prior years (allowed on Form 8582-CR or Form 8810).
24

Qualified electric vehicle passive activity credits allowed for 2011 (see instructions)

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Regular tax before credits:
• Individuals. Enter the amount from Form 1040, line 44, or Form 1040NR, line 42.
• Corporations. Enter the amount from Form 1120, Schedule J, line 2; or the
applicable line of your return.
• Estates and trusts. Enter the sum of the amounts from Form 1041, Schedule G,
lines 1a and 1b, or the amount from the applicable line of your return.

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Credits that reduce regular tax before the qualified electric vehicle credit:
Foreign tax credit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26a
Personal credits from Form 1040 or 1040NR (see instructions) . . . 26b
American Samoa economic development credit (Form 5735) . . . . 26c
Add lines 26a through 26c . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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Net regular tax. Subtract line 26d from line 25. If zero or less, stop here; do not file this form
unless you are claiming the qualified plug-in electric vehicle credit in Part I . . . . . . . .
Tentative minimum tax:
• Individuals. Enter the amount from Form 6251, line 33.
• Corporations. Enter the amount from Form 4626, line 12.
• Estates and trusts. Enter the amount from Schedule I (Form 1041), line 54.

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28

Subtract line 28 from line 27. If zero or less, stop here; do not file this form unless you are
claiming the qualified plug-in electric vehicle credit in Part I . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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Qualified electric vehicle credit. Enter the smaller of line 24 or line 29. Report the total of this
amount and the amount, if any, from line 23 on Form 1040, line 53; Form 1040NR, line 50; Form
1120, Schedule J, line 5b; or the appropriate line of your return. If line 29 is smaller than line 24,
see instructions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ▶

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What's New

Qualified Plug-in Electric Vehicle Credit

The qualified plug-in electric vehicle credit is scheduled to
expire for vehicles acquired after 2011. Do not report these
vehicles on Form 8834 unless the credit is extended. See
www.irs.gov/form8834 for the latest information about this
credit.

Qualified Plug-in Electric Vehicle

General Instructions
Section references are to the Internal Revenue Code unless
otherwise noted.

Purpose of Form

This is a vehicle made by a manufacturer that is propelled to a
significant extent by an electric motor that draws electricity from
a battery that can be recharged from an external source of
electricity and has a capacity of not less than:
• 2.5 kilowatt hours if the vehicle has 2 or 3 wheels, or
• 4 kilowatt hours if the vehicle has 4 wheels.
The vehicle must also be either:
• A low speed vehicle, or

Use Form 8834 to claim the qualified plug-in electric vehicle
credit and any qualified electric vehicle passive activity credits
allowed for the current tax year.

• A vehicle with 2 or 3 wheels that, according to the
manufacturer, has a loaded weight (GVWR) of less than 14,000
pounds.

The qualified plug-in electric vehicle credit attributable to
depreciable property (vehicles used for business or investment
purposes) is treated as a general business credit. Any credit not
attributable to depreciable property is treated as a personal
credit allowed against both the regular tax and the alternative
minimum tax.

A low speed vehicle is a vehicle that:

Taxpayers that are not partnerships or S corporations, and
whose only source of this credit is from those pass-through
entities, are not required to complete or file this form. Instead,
they can report this credit directly on Form 3800.

• Has 4 wheels,
• Can attain a speed of more than 20 but not more than 25
miles per hour after 1 mile on a paved level surface, and
• According to the manufacturer, has a loaded weight (GVWR)
of less than 3,000 pounds.
Certification and other requirements. Generally, you can rely
on the manufacturer’s (or, in the case of a foreign manufacturer,
its domestic distributor’s) certification that a specific make,
model, and model year vehicle qualifies for the credit.

Page 3

Form 8834 (2011)

If, however, the IRS publishes an announcement that the
certification for any specific make, model, and model year
vehicle has been withdrawn, you cannot rely on the certification
for such a vehicle purchased after the date of publication of the
withdrawal announcement.

Specific Instructions

If you purchased a vehicle and its certification was withdrawn
on or after the date of purchase, you can rely on such
certification even if you had not placed the vehicle in service or
claimed the credit by the date the withdrawal announcement
was published by the IRS. The IRS will not attempt to collect
any understatement of tax liability attributable to reliance on the
certification as long as you purchased the vehicle on or before
the date the IRS published the withdrawal announcement.

Line 2

Part I

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In addition to certification, the following requirements must be
met to qualify for the credit:
• You are the owner of the vehicle. If the vehicle is leased, only
the lessor and not the lessee, is entitled to the credit;
• You acquired (a vehicle is not “acquired” before the date on
which title to that vehicle passes under state law) the vehicle
after February 17, 2009, and before January 1, 2012;
• You placed the vehicle in service during your tax year;

• The vehicle is manufactured primarily for use on public streets,
roads, and highways, and not for off-road use, such as on a golf
course;
• The original use of the vehicle began with you;

• You acquired the vehicle for use or to lease to others, and not
for resale; and
• You use the vehicle primarily in the United States.

Exception. If you are the seller of a qualified plug-in electric
vehicle to a tax-exempt organization, governmental unit, or a
foreign person or entity, and the use of that vehicle is described
in section 50(b)(3) or (4), you can claim the credit, but only if you
clearly disclose in writing to the purchaser the amount of the
tentative credit allowable for the vehicle (from line 11 of Form
8834).
For more information, see the following.
• Section 30.
• Notice 2009-58. You can find Notice 2009-58 on page 163 of
Internal Revenue Bulletin (IRB) 2009-30 at
www.irs.gov/pub/irs-irbs/irb09-30.pdf.
• Section 9 of Notice 2009-89. You can find Notice 2009-89 on
page 714 of IRB 2009-48 at
www.irs.gov/pub/irs-irbs/irb09-48.pdf.

Basis Reduction
Unless you elect not to claim the credit, you may have to reduce
the basis of each vehicle by the sum of the amounts entered on
lines 11 and 18 for that vehicle.

Recapture of Qualified Plug-in Electric Vehicle Credit
If the vehicle no longer qualifies for the credit, you may have to
recapture part or all of the credit. For details, see section
30(e)(5).

Qualified Plug-in Electric Vehicle Credit
Enter the vehicle's vehicle identification number (VIN) on line 2.
The VIN of a vehicle can be obtained from the registration, title,
proof of insurance, or actual vehicle. Generally, the VIN is 17
characters made up of numbers and letters.

Line 5

Enter the percentage of business/investment use.
Enter 100% if the vehicle is used solely for business purposes
or you are claiming the credit as the seller of the vehicle.
If the vehicle is used for both business purposes and personal
purposes, determine the percentage of business use by dividing
the number of miles the vehicle is driven during the year for
business purposes or for the production of income (not to
include any commuting mileage) by the total number of miles
the vehicle is driven for all purposes. Treat vehicles used by
your employees as being used 100% for business/investment
purposes if the value of personal use is included in the
employees’ gross income, or the employees reimburse you for
the personal use. If you report the amount of personal use of the
vehicle in your employees’ gross income and withhold the
appropriate taxes, enter “100%” for the percentage of business/
investment use.
If during the tax year you convert property used solely for
personal purposes to business/investment use (or vice versa),
figure the percentage of business/investment use only for the
number of months you use the property in your business or for
the production of income. Multiply that percentage by the
number of months you use the property in your business or for
the production of income and divide the result by 12. For
example, if you converted a vehicle to 50% business use for the
last 6 months of the year, you would enter 25% on line 5 (50%
multiplied by 6 divided by 12).
For more information, see Pub. 463, Travel, Entertainment,
Gift, and Car Expenses.

Line 7
Enter any section 179 expense deduction you claimed for the
vehicle from Part I of Form 4562, Depreciation and Amortization.

Line 13
Enter total qualified plug-in electric vehicle credits from:
• Schedule K-1 (Form 1065), box 15 (code P)
• Schedule K-1 (Form 1120S), box 13 (code P)

Line 21
Enter the total, if any, credits from Form 1040, lines 47 through
50 (or Form 1040NR, lines 45 through 47); Form 5695, line 11;
and Schedule R, line 22.

Line 23
If you cannot use part of the personal portion of the credit
because of the tax liability limit, the unused credit is lost. The
unused personal portion of the credit cannot be carried back or
forward to other tax years.

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Form 8834 (2011)

Part II
Qualified Electric Vehicle Credit
Line 24

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Enter the qualified electric vehicle passive activity credits
allowed for your current tax year from Form 8582-CR, Passive
Activity Credit Limitations (for individuals, estates, and trusts), or
Form 8810, Corporate Passive Activity Loss and Credit
Limitations (for corporations). See the instructions for the
applicable form for more information.

Line 26b

Enter the total, if any, credits from Form 1040, lines 48 through
52 (or Form 1040NR, lines 46 through 49); Form 8396, line 9;
Form 8859, line 3; line 23 of this form; Form 8910, line 22; Form
8936, line 15; and Schedule R, line 22.

Line 28

Although you may not owe alternative minimum tax (AMT), you
generally must still figure your tentative minimum tax (TMT) to
figure your credit. For a small corporation exempt from the AMT
under section 55(e), enter -0-. Otherwise, complete and attach the
applicable AMT form or schedule and enter the TMT on line 28.

Line 29

Paperwork Reduction Act Notice. We ask for the information
on this form to carry out the Internal Revenue laws of the United
States. You are required to give us the information. We need it
to ensure that you are complying with these laws and to allow
us to figure and collect the right amount of tax.

If you cannot use part of the credit because of the tax liability
limit, the unused credit is lost. The unused or excess credit
cannot be carried back or forward to other tax years.

You are not required to provide the information requested on
a form that is subject to the Paperwork Reduction Act unless
the form displays a valid OMB control number. Books or
records relating to a form or its instructions must be retained as
long as their contents may become material in the
administration of any Internal Revenue law. Generally, tax
returns and return information are confidential, as required by
section 6103.
The time needed to complete and file this form will vary
depending on individual circumstances. The estimated burden
for individual taxpayers filing this form is approved under OMB
control number 1545-0074 and is included in the estimates
shown in the instructions for their individual income tax return.
The estimated burden for all other taxpayers who file this form is
shown below.
Recordkeeping

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. 15 hr., 4 min.

Learning about the law or the form .

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. 24 min.

Preparing and sending the form to the IRS .

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. 39 min.

If you have comments concerning the accuracy of these time
estimates or suggestions for making this form simpler, we would
be happy to hear from you. See the instructions for the tax
return with which this form is filed.