Louisiana homeowners can now get a $10,000 tax credit if they install a fortified roof on their home. Lawmakers passed, and Gov. Jeff Landry signed Act 404, which created the individual income tax credit. The law went into effect earlier this month.
Capitol Access Reporter Brooke Thorington spoke with state Sen. Kirk Talbot (R-River Ridge) after his legislation was signed into law last week.
This report has been edited for length and clarity.
BROOKE: Tell me a little bit about your bill and what you're hoping it will do for the state.
KIRK: So, my bill offers a $10,000 tax credit if you put a fortified roof on your home and you qualify for that, and it works in conjunction with the fortified grant program, which is also for $10,000.
Usually, or every time we open up the grant process, it sells out within five minutes. And, you know, we've put about $20 million a year in that obviously if we had unlimited money we could fund it even more. So this is an opportunity if you have the money, do you wanna front the money and put the roof on yourself.
You can claim a $10,000 tax credit that you can roll over for three years. Now there's a $10 million cap on that, and that's something that hopefully will raise that cap even more next year. So it's not unlimited. So there is a chance that you might put that on and, and not get the credit.
But I can assure you the amount of money that you're going to save by putting that fortified roof on is worth it whether you get the grant or whether you get the tax credit.
We also increased the tax deduction–from $5,000 to $10,000–to put a fortified roof that does not have a cap. So at the very minimum, you'll get a tax deduction of $10,000.
BROOKE: So how does this tax credit work? Is it first come, first serve that you have to file your taxes ASAP to be able to get that tax credit?
KIRK: It will come first serve. The Department of Revenue we're working with to get all that taken care of but that's just the only fair way to do it, is to do it that way.
BROOKE: I know a lot of people have things come in late on their income taxes. Should they go ahead and file early and then possibly amend their state tax return?
KIRK: I would do that. You can always amend your tax return, but as long as you file it, you know, I would go ahead and file it as soon as possible. And look, even in myself with my business, a lot of times we file an extension. So, you know, sometimes that's unavoidable. But again, just putting that fortified roof on, you will get a discount from your insurance company, and various companies give various discounts. It all depends.
The key is what Commissioner Tim Temple always stresses is you've gotta shop around. You really should shop around every six months regardless. But you really need to shop around. You can go on his website, the department's website and it'll show you the list of the companies and what percentage discounts they give.
Sometimes those are in ranges, and that's all relative to your particular home. But it will give you an idea of what companies are offering, what discounts. So you do have to front the money yourself to be able to get this tax credit on the tax credit program. Yes, you'll have to front that money yourself.
BROOKE: And about the education of this. I know Gov. Jeff Landry talked about doing more education about fortified roofs. Are you going to be working with the Department of Revenue on educating tax auditors on how folks can file their taxes to make sure they get these credits and deductions?
KIRK: We are and a lot of legislators have town hall meetings across the state. A lot of them asked [Insurance Commissioner] Tim Temple to come and talk about the Fortified Roof program, which he's willing to do. And, he is all over the place. And he always talks about it. I talk about it whenever I can. It's on the Commissioner’s website.
I know he puts out bulletins. It's, you know, we, we really need to stress that as much as possible. And I think all the governmental entities involved are doing everything they can to pump that knowledge out as much as we can.
