The Bipartisan Budget Act of 2018 extended and enhanced a tax credit that incentivized carbon dioxide capture, storage, and utilization.
The enhanced credit, known as the “45Q tax credit,” offers a tax credit of up to $50 per ton for carbon oxide (not just dioxide) that is sequestered and up to $35 per ton for carbon oxide that is reutilized. The credit amounts began at $22.66 per ton of sequestered carbon oxide and $12.83 per ton of reutilized carbon oxide in 2017, and are set to increase linearly until hitting $50 and $35 per ton of sequestered and reutilized carbon oxide, respectively, in 2026. Businesses have six years to begin qualifying projects and have twelve years from the time they begin operations to take advantage of the credits. For sequestered carbon oxide to qualify for the credit, it must be:
- captured from an industrial source,
- amounts that would otherwise be released into the atmosphere as an industrial emission,