Court Rejects Perks Tied to Solar-Power Tax Shelter Scheme

摘要

A married couple can't get tax benefits connected to a solar-power tax shelter scheme because the activity underlying their claims was primarily aimed at the benefits rather than making a profit, the U.S. Tax Court ruled. The Tuesday decision could affect more than 200 other cases involving other scheme investors that have been held pending the outcome in Preston Olsen and Elizabeth Olsen's two Tax Court cases. The court denied the Olsens' claims for both depreciation deductions and energy tax credits. The depreciation deductions weren't allowable because Preston Olsen bought light-concentrating lenses out of tax rather than profit motives, the court said. And without such allowable deductions, the lenses didn't count as "energy property" upon which the Olsens could claim energy tax credits, it added. "Mr. Olsen had no expertise in solar energy or equipment leasing, and his only 'advisors' were promoters of the tax shelter," wrote Judge Albert G. Lauber. The scheme involved promoters who sold light-concentrating lenses to the Olsens that supposedly would be used to generate electricity, the court said. However, the solar power project didn't get past the research and development stage, it found.