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NuWatt designs, installs, and manages solar, battery, heat pump, and EV charger systems across 9 states. One company, one warranty, one point of contact.
Get a Free QuoteSection 30C gives commercial EV chargers up to 30% of cost (with prevailing wage) — but only inside IRS-designated low-income or non-urban census tracts. Paste your 11-digit GEOID below and we will walk you through the verification path.
Section 30C is a census-tract-gated credit. If your installation address is not in a low-income community or non-urban tract, the federal credit is off the table. This tool points you to the authoritative Census GEOID lookup, then walks you through cross-checking it against the IRS Notice 2024-20 eligible-tract list.
Look up your property's 11-digit census tract GEOID at the Census Bureau Geocoder (geocoding.geo.census.gov), then verify that GEOID appears on the IRS Notice 2024-20 eligible-tract list. Eligible tracts are either low-income communities under Section 45D(e) or non-urban tracts (Census Bureau urban-area population under 50,000). If your GEOID is not on the IRS list, you cannot claim the 30C charger credit at that address, though state and utility incentives still apply.
Two steps. No backend IRS database query — this guides you to the official sources.
The Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 rewrote Section 30C and added a geographic gate that did not exist in prior versions of the credit. Starting January 1, 2023, the 30C alternative fuel vehicle refueling property credit is only available when the property is placed in service inside an eligible census tract. There are two ways a tract qualifies. First, a tract is eligible if it is a low-income community as defined in Section 45D(e) — the New Markets Tax Credit definition, which generally means a poverty rate of at least 20 percent or median family income at or below 80 percent of the applicable area median. Second, a tract is eligible if it is not located in an urban area as classified by the Census Bureau — in other words, a tract whose urban-area population falls below 50,000. Roughly two-thirds of U.S. tracts qualify under one or both rules, but the exclusions are heavily concentrated in wealthier suburbs of major metros.
GEOID is the Census Bureau's 11-digit unique identifier for a census tract. It is built from three parts concatenated together: a 2-digit state FIPS code, a 3-digit county FIPS code, and a 6-digit tract code. Example: GEOID 25025030300 decomposes as state 25 (Massachusetts), county 025 (Suffolk), tract 030300 — a tract in downtown Boston. Here is the fast path:
Low-income tracts under Section 45D(e) must meet one of several income or poverty tests. The common cases: poverty rate of at least 20 percent; or tract median family income at or below 80 percent of statewide MFI (or metropolitan area MFI for tracts in a metro). There are also targeted populations tests (high-migration rural counties, tracts with high unemployment, certain tribal areas). Non-urban tracts are the other door into eligibility — these are tracts not contained in a Census-Bureau-designated urban area of 50,000+ population. After the 2020 redesign of urban-area classification (which shrank the definition of "urban"), many formerly urban tracts reclassified as non-urban and qualified for 30C. Your GEOID can qualify under either test — you only need one. The IRS list in Notice 2024-20 flags which appendix (A or B) a tract appears in, but from a taxpayer's standpoint, "on the list" is what matters.
You lose the federal 30C credit — a 6 or 30 percent line item — but every other funding source remains. State and utility make-ready programs are not tract-gated. In Massachusetts you still get the Eversource and National Grid EV make-ready program (100 percent of make-ready plus $3,900 per L2 port or $80,000 per DCFC port) plus MassEVIP. In New Jersey the PSE&G EV Program ($11,100 utility-side make-ready plus $6,700 per customer-side port up to 10 ports) closes mid-2026 regardless of tract status. Connecticut EnergizeCT covers 50 percent of EVSE plus 100 percent of make-ready. Texas TCEQ All-Electric funding pays per-vehicle when you pair chargers with fleet replacement. If you are bundling a solar canopy with the charger installation, the Section 48E investment credit applies to the solar portion of the project and is not tract-gated — so even an ineligible tract can still stack a solar 48E credit on top of utility make-ready. The honest conversation: the 30C credit is the cherry on top, not the cake. Losing it trims 6-15 percent off a typical project, not half. Ask your vendor to price both scenarios.
Section 30C(c)(3) limits the alternative fuel vehicle refueling property credit to property placed in service inside an "eligible census tract." An eligible tract is either (a) a low-income community under Section 45D(e) — the same definition used for New Markets Tax Credits — or (b) any tract that is not an "urban area" as classified by the Census Bureau (populations of 50,000 or more). Urban, higher-income suburban tracts are excluded. The IRS publishes the authoritative list in Notice 2024-20 and its updates; your 11-digit census tract GEOID is the key you look up.
Lock in PWA compliance, build toward a Jun 30, 2026 placed-in-service date, and stack state + utility dollars on top of 30C.
Apply to 30C-eligible pathYou lose the 30C credit — but state + utility programs are not tract-gated. A typical project still nets 40-70% reduction.
Use state + utility programsBoundary tract, parcel spanning two tracts, territory question — the NuWatt incentive team runs a formal written verification.
Contact our incentive teamOur incentive team returns verified tract status + a full incentive stack in one business day.
Last verified by NuWatt's Incentive PM on 2026-04-14. Section 30C rules change — re-check the IRS eligible tract list within 90 days of your placed-in-service date.