Is the $2,000 heat pump tax credit still available in 2026?

No. The federal tax credit died on December 31, 2025, and it is worth understanding exactly what happened, because plenty of advertising has not caught up.

What expired. The 25C energy efficient home improvement credit let homeowners claim up to $2,000 back on a qualifying heat pump, plus smaller amounts for other efficiency upgrades. The 2025 federal tax law ended it for anything installed after December 31, 2025. There is no federal heat pump tax credit for a system installed in 2026. Not reduced, not income-limited. Gone.

Why you still see ads promising it. Some of it is stale marketing that nobody updated. Some of it is less innocent: a dangled credit makes a quote look thousands of dollars cheaper than it will actually be, and by the time you learn the credit is dead, the contract is signed. If a company promises you a federal heat pump credit for a 2026 install, that tells you something about how carefully they handle the truth. Ask them for the IRS form number and watch what happens.

What about California’s rebates. The state programs are real but mostly spoken for right now. HEEHRA, the income-qualified program that offered up to $8,000 toward a heat pump, has been fully reserved statewide since February 24, 2026, with new applicants waitlisted. One trap worth knowing: a waitlisted project only qualifies if the heat pump is installed after the reservation is approved, so installing now and hoping for retroactive rebate money does not work. The utility coupon program many stores used, Golden State Rebates, ends July 31, 2026. Utility offers beyond that come and go, and we check them the day we quote.

What this means for your budget. Price the system honestly at its real cost, and treat any incentive that turns out to be live as a bonus rather than a plan. Our prices are published before we ever meet you, and when a program is genuinely open and you qualify, our office files the paperwork end to end. The full, current picture is on our rebates page, and you can verify program status yourself with the California Energy Commission.

If someone quoted you a price that leans on a credit that no longer exists, a second opinion costs nothing. We will show you the honest number for your house.