Form 8936

Department of the Treasury

Internal Revenue Service

Qualified Plug-in Electric Drive Motor Vehicle Credit OMB No. 1545-2137

Attachment

Sequence No. 125

© Attach to your tax return.

Part I

Part III

Name(s) shown on return Identifying number

Tentative Credit

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

Tentative credit (see instructions for amount to enter)

Multiply line 3 by line 4

Add columns (a) through (c) on line 5

Qualified plug-in electric drive motor vehicle credit from partnerships and S corporations 

Credit for Personal Use Part of Vehicle

2

3

5

2

3

5

(a) Vehicle 1 (b) Vehicle 2 (c) Vehicle 3

Cat. No. 37751E Form 8936 (2010)

6 6

For Paperwork Reduction Act Notice, see instructions.

1 Year, make, and model of vehicle 1

If you skipped Part II, enter the amount from line 3. If you

completed Part II, subtract line 5 from line 3

9

Business/investment use part of credit. Add lines 6 and 7. Partnerships and S corporations,

report this amount on Schedule K; all others, report this amount on Form 3800, line 1y

7

13

14 Personal use part of credit. Enter the smaller of line 10 or line 13 here and on Form 1040, line 53, 

or Form 1040NR, line 50. Check box c on that line and enter “8936” in the space next to that box.

If line 13 is smaller than line 10, see instructions

Subtract line 12 from line 11

12

13

14

7

Use a separate column for each vehicle. If you need more columns, use 

additional Forms 8936 and include the totals on lines 6 and 10.

/ / / / / /

4 Business/investment use percentage (see instructions) 4 % % %

Part II Credit for Business/Investment Use Part of Vehicle

8

8

11

10 Add columns (a) through (c) on line 9 10

12

9

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 Part II and go to Part III. All others, go to Part II.

Enter the amount from Form 1040, line 46, or Form 1040NR, line 44

Personal credits from Form 1040 or 1040NR (see instructions) 

11

2010

Note.

● Use this form to claim the credit for certain plug-in electric vehicles (other than two- or three-wheeled or low-speed

four-wheeled vehicles).

● Claim the credit for certain two- or three-wheeled or low-speed four-wheeled plug-in electric vehicles on Form 8834.

● Claim the credit for certain alternative motor vehicles or plug-in electric vehicle conversions on Form 8910.
Form 8936 (2010) Page 2

General Instructions

Purpose of Form

For tax years beginning after 2008, use Form 8936 to

figure your credit for qualified plug-in electric drive

motor vehicles you placed in service during your tax

year. The 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.

Qualified Plug-in Electric Drive Motor

Vehicle

Section references are to the Internal Revenue Code.

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 and the amount of the

credit for which it qualifies.

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 5 and 9 for that vehicle.

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.

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.

● 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 drive motor 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 3

of Form 8936).

Credit Phaseout

The credit is subject to a phaseout (reduction) once the

vehicle manufacturer (or, for a foreign manufacturer, its

U.S. distributor) sells 200,000 of these vehicles to a

retailer for use in the United States after 2009. The

phaseout begins in the second calendar quarter after

the quarter in which the 200,000th vehicle was sold.

Then the phaseout allows 50% of the full credit for 2

quarters, 25% of the full credit for 2 additional

quarters, and no credit thereafter.

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 line 1y of Form 3800.

● Has a gross vehicle weight of less than 14,000

pounds, and

● Is propelled to a significant extent by an electric

motor that draws electricity from a battery that has a

capacity of not less than 4 kilowatt hours and is

capable of being recharged from an external source of

electricity.

For vehicles acquired after 2009, this is a new vehicle

with at least four wheels that:

More information. For details, see the following.

Coordination With Other Credits

A vehicle that qualifies for the qualified plug-in electric

drive motor vehicle credit on this form cannot be used to

claim the alternative motor vehicle credit on Form 8910.

Also, the vehicle will not qualify for the qualified plug-in

electric motor vehicle credit on Form 8834.

● Section 30D.

● Notice 2009-89, 2009-48 I.R.B. 714, available at

http://www.irs.gov/irb/2009-48_IRB/ar09.html.

● Notice 2009-54, 2009-26 I.R.B. 1124, available at

http://www.irs.gov/irb/2009-26_IRB/ar07.html.

In addition to certification, the following requirements

must be met to qualify for the credit:

● You placed the vehicle in service during your tax

year;

● You are the owner of the vehicle. If the vehicle is

leased, only the lessor and not the lessee, is entitled to

the credit;

Recapture of 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 30D(f)(5).

For vehicles acquired (a vehicle is not “acquired” before

the date on which title to that vehicle passes under state

law) before 2010, this is a new vehicle with at least four

wheels that:

● Draws propulsion using a traction battery with at

least 4 kilowatts of capacity, and

● Uses an offboard source of energy to recharge the

battery.
Form 8936 (2010) Page 3

For more information, see Pub. 463, Travel,

Entertainment, Gift, and Car Expenses.

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 4 (50% multiplied by 6 divided by 12).

Enter 100% if the vehicle is used solely for business

purposes or you are claiming the credit as the seller of

the vehicle.

Enter the percentage of business/investment use.

Line 4

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 employee’s gross

income and withhold the appropriate taxes, enter

“100%” for the percentage of business/investment use.

Line 14

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.

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.

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.

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.

Recordkeeping 3 hr., 49 min.

Learning about the law

or the form 12 min.

Preparing, copying, assembling, 

and sending the form to the IRS 16 min.

Specific Instructions

Line 3

Enter the credit allowable for the year, make, and model

of vehicle you entered on line 1. You can generally rely

on the manufacturer’s (or domestic distributor’s)

certification of the credit allowable as explained above.

Tentative Credit

Tentative credit amounts acknowledged by the IRS are

available at

http://www.irs.gov/businesses/article/0,,id=214841,00.html. 

Or you can visit IRS.gov and search for “Plug-in Electric

Vehicle Credit (IRC 30 and 30D).”

Line 7

Enter total qualified plug-in electric drive motor vehicle

credits from:

● Schedule K-1 (Form 1065), box 15 (code P), and

● Schedule K-1 (Form 1120S), box 13 (code P).

Line 12

Enter the total, if any, credits from Form 1040, lines 47

through 50 (or Form 1040NR, lines 45 through 47);

Form 5695, line 11; Form 8834, line 22; Form 8910,

line 21; and Schedule R, line 22.