IRS gives auto dealers more time to submit sales reports for tax credits

The Internal Revenue Service is extending the period for dealers and sellers of so-called "clean" vehicles such as electric cars to submit time-of-sale reports by a few days to qualify for tax credits.

Dealership reporting through the IRS Energy Credits Online portal opened just this week on Jan. 1, 2024, but with a tight deadline. To give auto dealers and the IRS more time to submit and intake seller reports into this new system, the IRS is temporarily extending the three-day time period to submit time-of-sale reports provided in Revenue Procedure 2023-38 through Jan. 16. That means dealers and sellers have until Jan. 19 to submit a time-of-sale report for vehicles sold Jan. 1 through Jan. 16. 

The IRS is still fine-tuning the new system to allow smooth intake of time-of-sale reports and said vehicle dealers and sellers should continue to submit the time-of-reports via the IRS ECO portal. The agency is encouraging sellers to use the time extension only if they can't successfully submit a time-of-sale report when the vehicle is for a customer who intends to claim the tax credit on their tax return.   

Michael Nagle/Bloomberg

The IRS said it's committed to resolving any issues facing manufacturers, dealers and sellers navigating the new ECO tool. The agency will also be providing "office hours" next week to help dealers and sellers deal with the time-of-sale reporting issues. Representatives from the IRS will be there to answer any questions. 

For more details on submitting time-of-sale reports, see Publication 5867-A Clean vehicle time of sale reporting user guide.