If you work in the IT or Engineering fields you are probably well aware of the expression RTFM – Read the Fine Manual (google it for the more vernacular translation).
I am coining a similar term: RTFP – Read the Fine Print. No vernacular needed.
Truth is, I got this expression from my wife – the next three paragraphs are a (meant-to-be) humorous explanation of how this occurred.
In the Jewish tradition, a marriage has a legal document called the Ketubah, which is the document given by the groom to the bride that lists his obligations. It is written in Aramaic, my understanding of which is a bit rusty.
The Ketubah often comes up in those memorable discussions a married couple have whereby my wife explains to me that I will end up doing something she wants because, you guessed it, I didn’t read the fine print.
As in ‘Why am I the one who always has to take out the garbage?’ “It’s in the Ketubah,” she tells me. Apparently I didn’t RTFP.
Back to our main topic.
In previous posts I had mentioned that Anne Arundel County offers a $2500 property tax credit for installing solar panels. My salesman did ask me if I am paying that much in property taxes (which I am – but here comes RTFP).
I received the following letter from the county:
In case you have not seen an AA County tax bill, it looks something like this:
The portion of the bill attributed to my county tax starts at $3859. This first gets reduced by my homestead credit by $1465, leaving $2394. (The homestead credit limits increases in property taxes for primary residents, to avoid forcing owners from having to sell due to higher taxes – very beneficial to retirees on a fixed income.)
As the letter states, the tax is only on the building, meaning it is not on the land. Our house holds just over 59% of the value of our property. So the math looks something like this:
Initial Property Tax: $3859
Subtract Homestead Credit $1465
$3859 – 1465 = $2394 — remaining property tax
Calculate Building to Total ratio: 243,600/412,800 = 0.59 rounded.
$2394 * 0.59 = $1412 — the value of our solar credit
As the letter states, this is a one-time credit – no carry over into next year. So that is it. Because of the fine print, our county property tax solar credit is $1412, instead of $2500.
In other words, the price we will end up paying after incentives will be about $1088 higher than the roughly $15,400 we projected, or closer to $16,500.
Note that we did not lose anything here – this was always how the tax credit was going to work. The only change is in my less-than-perfect break even calculations. That number is a best guess anyway, and will only be revealed as we take this journey. The information on how this tax credit works was probably available from the county. My calculations are only off because I did not RTFP.
Two updates regarding previous posts:
- The web site where you can track SREC values is here. The price has varied a bit in the last few months, rising as high as $67.50 for a couple of days, but settling in around $50 as I write this. It will be a few months before we receive our first check.
- The July bill came in. We almost broke even this month, consuming 11 KWh more than we produced. This was subtracted from our roughly 1/2 MWh surplus to date:
