Roof tax credits in Arizona are the first thing homeowners ask about when a re-roof estimate lands, and in 2026 the honest answer is that 8 programs are worth knowing about, but only three of them put money back in your pocket. The two federal credits most people have heard about closed on January 1. What is left is a mix of one utility rebate, a state credit tied to solar equipment, two tax exemptions, and a record-keeping habit that pays off years later when you sell. If you are pricing a roof replacement in Arizona and budgeting around an expected credit, read the eligibility rules before you count on the money.
What's on This Page
What Changed on January 1, 2026
Two federal tax credits paid for residential energy improvements for most of the last decade. Both are now closed. The One Big Beautiful Bill Act, signed in July 2025, ended them for work completed after December 31, 2025. That is the single fact most roofing articles on this subject have not caught up to, and it changes the math on a 2026 re-roof.
The Two Federal Credits That Ended
The first is the Energy Efficient Home Improvement Credit, Section 25C of the Internal Revenue Code. The IRS states the credit is allowed for qualifying property placed in service on or after January 1, 2023, and before December 31, 2025. The second is the Residential Clean Energy Credit, Section 25D, which paid 30 percent of qualifying solar costs. The IRS instructions for Form 5695 are direct about it: you cannot claim residential clean energy credits for expenditures made after December 31, 2025.
The timing rule on 25D catches people. An expenditure is treated as made when the original installation is completed, not when you signed the contract or paid the deposit. A solar project contracted in November 2025 and finished in February 2026 gets nothing.
Why Your Roof Probably Never Qualified Anyway
Here is the part almost nobody says out loud. Even while 25C was running, roofing materials were not on the list. The IRS names the qualifying building envelope components as exterior doors, windows, skylights, insulation, and air sealing materials. Roofing is not among them. Metal roofs with pigmented coatings and asphalt roofs with cooling granules qualified under an older version of the rule that the Inflation Reduction Act removed in 2023.
Under 25D the exception was narrow and specific. The IRS position is that traditional roofing materials and structural components do not qualify because they primarily serve a roofing or structural function, but solar roofing tiles and solar shingles do qualify, because they generate electricity while also serving as the roof. A standard tile or shingle re-roof never qualified for either credit. If you were told otherwise, you were told wrong.
The 8 Roof Tax Credits and Rebates to Know
These are in the order homeowners usually ask about them, starting with the two federal credits that are gone and moving to the Arizona programs that are not. Three of the eight can still put money toward a roof in 2026. The rest are either closed, tied to solar equipment rather than the roof itself, or worth something later rather than now.
1. Federal Energy Efficient Home Improvement Credit (Section 25C)
What It Covered
Up to $1,200 a year against 30 percent of the cost of qualifying improvements: exterior doors, windows, skylights, insulation, and air sealing. Attic insulation added during a re-roof could count. The roof deck, the underlayment, and the roofing material could not.
Where It Stands in 2026
Closed. The IRS allows the credit only for qualifying property placed in service before December 31, 2025. There is no 2026 version and no replacement.
Who Should Still Care
Anyone who installed qualifying insulation or air sealing during 2025 and has not yet filed, or who filed without claiming it and can still amend. The work had to be finished in 2025, not merely paid for.
2. Federal Residential Clean Energy Credit (Section 25D)
What It Covered
30 percent of qualifying solar costs with no dollar cap. For roofing purposes, this covered solar roofing tiles and solar shingles, products that generate electricity while functioning as the roof surface. Conventional roofing underneath a rack-mounted solar array never qualified.
Where It Stands in 2026
Closed to expenditures made after December 31, 2025. Because the IRS treats an expenditure as made when installation is completed, the completion date is what matters, not the contract date.
Who Should Still Care
Homeowners whose solar roofing was fully installed in 2025. If the crew finished in 2025 and you have the documentation, the credit is claimable on that year's return.
3. SRP Cool Roof Rebate
What It Covers
This is the only Arizona program that pays for the roofing material itself. Salt River Project rebates 30 cents per square foot of installed cool roofing material, up to $600. A cool roof reflects sunlight instead of absorbing it, which matters on a Phoenix roof that runs past 150 degrees on the surface in July.
There are three gates, and the first one is the one that disqualifies most houses. The home must have a low-sloped roof of 2:12 pitch or shallower. That is flat and near-flat construction: foam, TPO, modified bitumen, and coated decks. A pitched tile or shingle roof, which is what most of the Phoenix metro housing stock has, does not qualify no matter how reflective the product is. We say this plainly because the roofing pages promoting this rebate tend to leave it out, and homeowners find out after the work is done.
The second gate is the product. It must be tested and labeled by the Cool Roof Rating Council and meet one of three thresholds: a three-year Solar Reflectance Index of 86 or higher, an initial solar reflectance of 0.83 or higher, or a three-year solar reflectance of 0.70 or higher. The third gate is a minimum seven-year product warranty.
Where It Stands in 2026
Open and paying. SRP requires the rebate to be submitted within six months of installation. The program runs on an annual cycle, so confirm the current program year's dates and terms before you commit to a product.
Who Should Still Care
Anyone in SRP territory with a flat or low-slope roof. If you are already considering cool roof coatings in Arizona or a foam roofing system, this rebate is real money against work you were going to do anyway. Check your utility bill first, because SRP and APS territories interleave across the Valley and the rebate follows the utility, not the city.
4. TEP Residential Insulation Rebate
What It Covers
Tucson Electric Power offers residential customers up to $800 for attic or roof insulation installed by a licensed insulation contractor. This is roof-adjacent rather than roofing, but the natural time to add attic insulation is while the roof is open and the deck is accessible.
Where It Stands in 2026
Open. The rebate applies to insulation installed between January 1 and December 31, 2026.
Who Should Still Care
Homeowners in Tucson Electric Power territory only. This does not apply in the Phoenix metro. If you are scheduling roofing service in Tucson, raise insulation during the estimate rather than after the tear-off, because the sequencing decides whether it is a cheap add-on or a second job.
5. Arizona Solar Energy Credit
What It Covers
Arizona Revised Statutes 43-1083 gives a state income tax credit of 25 percent of the cost of a solar energy device, capped at $1,000 in the aggregate for the same residence. Unused credit carries forward up to five consecutive taxable years. You claim it on Arizona Form 310 with your state return.
One correction worth making, because it is the most common error in articles on this topic. This credit attaches to the solar equipment, not to the roof underneath it. It is also a separate thing from the old 30 percent federal solar credit, which several roofing pages still conflate with it. Replacing your roof does not trigger this credit. Adding solar does.
Where It Stands in 2026
Open. This is a state credit and it was not touched by the federal changes.
Who Should Still Care
Anyone adding solar. If your roof is near the end of its life and solar is on the table, the sequencing matters more than the credit does, because pulling and resetting an array to re-roof underneath it is expensive. We cover that tradeoff in our guide to replacing a roof before solar panels go on.
6. Arizona Solar Property Tax Exemption
What It Covers
Under A.R.S. 42-11054, the value a solar energy device adds to your home is excluded from the property's assessed valuation. You add equipment that raises the home's market value and your property tax assessment does not follow it up.
Where It Stands in 2026
Open and automatic. There is no application and no form.
Who Should Still Care
Every Arizona homeowner with solar. The one thing worth doing is notifying your county assessor when the system goes in, so the equipment gets coded correctly on the parcel record rather than being caught up in a later valuation.
7. Arizona Solar Equipment Sales Tax Exemption
What It Covers
A.R.S. 42-5061 exempts solar energy devices from the state's 5.6 percent transaction privilege tax. On a typical residential system that is a meaningful number, and you never see a form for it.
Where It Stands in 2026
Open. The installer applies it at the point of purchase.
Who Should Still Care
Anyone buying solar equipment. Because the contractor handles it, the only homeowner action is to read the invoice and confirm the exemption was actually applied. It is easier to catch on the estimate than after the check clears.
8. Adding the Roof to Your Home's Cost Basis
What It Covers
This is not a credit and not a deduction, and it is the only item on this list that applies to every homeowner reading it. IRS Publication 523 lists a new roof under Exterior in its chart of improvements that increase basis. Your cost basis is what you have invested in the home. A higher basis means a smaller taxable gain when you sell.
The gain exclusion on a primary residence is $250,000 for single filers and $500,000 for married couples filing jointly. Plenty of Arizona homeowners who bought a decade ago are now close enough to those numbers that basis matters. A roof replacement is one of the larger single improvements most people ever make, and it costs nothing but a saved invoice to count it.
One rule to know: you cannot include the cost of improvements that are no longer part of the home. Replace this roof in twenty years and the roof you are buying now comes back out of the calculation. The current one counts while it is on the house.
Where It Stands in 2026
Unchanged. Basis rules were not affected by the federal credit expirations.
Who Should Still Care
Everyone, especially anyone who might sell within the next several years. Keep the final invoice and the permit record with your closing documents. If you are still working out the number, our breakdown of what a roof replacement costs in Phoenix covers the ranges by material and roof size.
Which Ones Apply to Your Roof?
What to Do Next
The programs that are still open all reward the same thing: doing the paperwork before the work, not after. Every one of them has a window, a document requirement, or a product condition that is easy to satisfy in advance and impossible to fix retroactively. This is general information rather than tax advice, so confirm your own eligibility with a tax professional and with the program administrator before you count on a number.
Confirm the Product Before the Crew Starts
The Cool Roof Rating Council directory is the list SRP checks against. Look up the specific product, not the product line, and confirm it carries the CRRC label and clears one of the three reflectance thresholds. This has to happen at material selection. Once the material is on the roof, the eligibility question is already answered. As an Arizona Roofing Contractors Association member, we spec against that directory as part of the estimate on any low-slope job where the rebate is in play.
Keep the Paperwork the Programs Ask For
Hold the itemized invoice, the product labeling or spec sheet, and the permit record together in one place. The invoice supports both the utility rebate and your cost basis. The permit record matters for resale disclosure, and our guide to roof permit requirements in Arizona covers when one is required. SRP wants the rebate submitted within six months of installation, which sounds generous until the paperwork goes in a drawer. Keeping documentation straight is a large part of why we hold an A+ rating with the Better Business Bureau, and it is the same discipline that carries an insurance claim.
If cost rather than paperwork is the real obstacle, the rebates on this page are not going to close the gap on their own. Our rundown of roof financing options in Arizona is a more useful place to start.