The wood stove tax credit What ended and what you can still claim

Status as of October 21, 2026: ended for stoves placed in service after December 31, 2025. Still claimable on a 2025 return for a qualifying stove installed in 2025. We're not tax advisers; confirm your situation with the IRS or a professional.

What People Are Asking

“So it looks like the 30% tax credit is not extended to 2026……Has anyone heard anything different?” (r/PelletStoveTalk, March 2026). Another owner “purposely bought and had it installed before the end of 2025 to get the tax credit,” then found the accountant needed a QMID that neither the dealer nor the maker could produce (US Tax Credit). Those two threads cover most of what people need to know.

What Changed

The Inflation Reduction Act rebuilt Section 25C, the Energy Efficient Home Improvement Credit, for 2023 onward. Biomass stoves and boilers were part of it. Then Public Law 119-21, signed July 4, 2025 and commonly called the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, ended the credit early: the IRS says it is not allowed for property placed in service after December 31, 2025 (IRS FAQ).

The Rules for a 2025 Stove

If your stove was placed in service in 2025, these are the terms (IRS, ENERGY STAR):

• Amount: 30% of the cost, including installation labor, up to $2,000 a year for heat pumps, heat pump water heaters and biomass stoves and boilers combined.
• Efficiency: a thermal efficiency rating of at least 75%, measured by the higher heating value of the fuel (HHV). That’s the basis the EPA database uses; see HHV vs LHV.
• Fuel: biomass, which includes wood and wood pellets.
• Home: in the United States and used as a residence by you. ENERGY STAR says biomass stoves can qualify in a second home. Landlords can’t claim it for a rental they don’t live in.
• New equipment only, and the credit is nonrefundable: it can reduce your tax to zero but not below.
• QMID: for 2025, no credit is allowed unless the item was made by a qualified manufacturer and you report its Qualified Manufacturer Identification Number on your return.
• Form: Form 5695, Part II, for the tax year the stove was installed.

Did Your Stove Meet 75% HHV?

Check the EPA listing, not the brochure. A 2023 thread on r/woodstoving put it well: “The EPA database will often show a lower efficiency (HHV) rating than the manufacturer, where the manufacture will claim its eligible for the tax credit but it’s not according to the EPA database” (Discrepancy between EPA and Manufacturer HHV Efficiency?).

In the current EPA export, 151 of 265 room heaters list 75% HHV or better: 71 wood stoves and 80 pellet stoves. Filter the EPA database table to “75% HHV or more” to see them. Among the stoves we cover:

Out-of-Date Badges

Tax credit messaging lingers on dealer and maker pages. HearthStone’s Green Mountain 60 page handles it correctly, linking to “25C Tax Credit information for products purchased and installed on or before 12/31/2025.” Older badges, certificates and dealer flyers may not carry that date. For a stove installed in 2026, no federal 25C credit applies whatever the badge says.

If You’re Buying in 2026

Buy on the stove’s merits. The efficiency that used to unlock the credit still pays you back in less wood or fewer pellets each season; the fuel calculator shows how much. For the stoves we’d shortlist now, see best wood stoves and best pellet stoves.