David (that's me, Don) Butting Heads with Goliath (Lowe's)

[MountainDon]

New Mexico has a Solar Energy Gross Receipts Tax Deduction (sales tax exemption = no state or local tax on the purchase or service) for anything bought in the state that ends up in a solar PV system. Panels, charge controller, inverter, all that sort of thing that was purchased from any of the NM alternate energy vendors has been no problem. All those guys are aware of it and actively promote the tax deduction.

However, the folks at the local Lowe's have found themselves unable to comply with the provisions of the state law that is in effect; N.M. Stat. § 7-9-112 The manager said he wanted to but their system wouldn't let him. I suggested he better check on that in the morning because it was NM law. I suspected I might run into this wall, and I'm stubborn enough to follow through to wherever this may lead.

(Today I was after conduit for the 300 feet from panles to charge controller; it's clearly included in the applicable items as being an integral and necessary part of the solar energy system.)

Tonight I sent off an email letter to the guy in charge of the program, a Ryan Helton.

Tomorrow I'll be a $hit disturber and stop by the Homer Depot and present them with a Form RPD-41341 and see how they react. 

[NM_Shooter]

Tighten the screws!  I've had my own issues with Lowe's in the past.

[MountainDon]

I was curious, so had a look at a couple other states. AZ and WA also have an exemption on renewable energy product purchases. Check it out starting at http://www.dsireusa.org/   

[pagan]

So does Vermont.

[Sonoran]

I hate having to deal with big corporations. It seems like they have designed ways to give you the runaround so eventually you will get frustrated and give up.

Ex:  You go in and tell someone you have a problem.  They tell you to go talk to Mr. ?. He says he doesn't handle that kind of problem you need to talk to Mrs. ??. And so forth.

[MountainDon]

Well, the fire interrupted my plans, but this afternoon I did make a call at Homer Depot and presented them with the tax exemption form. No surprise, but the lady in customer service had never seen one; neither had any co-workers. The manager-on-duty was off duty at lunch. So I left the form with Janice, who was going to call home office. No word back yet.


On a related front, no word back from the email to the state office. Tomorrow I'll phone them.


Also tomorrow Ill call the man at Lowe's; we'll wee what they come up with.


I don't care which of the two sells me the conduit, etc. I want. They both have them in stock at the same prices, which is better than any alternate supplier. I'd prefer Lowe's as they are closest.  But then Homer depot has a rental department and I want to rent their trencher, the rental of which qualifies as tax exempt when used to make a trench for the solar power from PV module to cabin.

[MountainDon]

As of this morning, Lowe's is still trying to figure how to handle this.   

[MountainDon]

Grumble, grumble.....

I spoke with the guy who is in charge of the solar tax exemption department. Surprise, he answers his own phone. 

The NM legislature worded the exemption law in such a manner that the exemption is available to purchasers, but vendors can make the decision to honor ir or not.    So I'm going to price materials at a few smaller vendors to see if they can exempt the tax and if their end price would be less than the big boxes price with tax paid.

I'm also going to complain to my legislator regarding the non mandatory nature of the law they passed. Cretins!.

[MountainDon]

Update: Home Depot is at least trying hard and they've had the ball for a shorter period of time than Lowe's. The local customer service rep gave me a list of steps to follow. I've filled in some paperwork and faxed it off to their Atlanta office. If successful I'll elaborate.

[pagan]

Wow, they passed a law that allows venders the choice of honoring it or not.

[MountainDon]

Must be a landmark.   


I got an email back from my legislator who says he wants to look into that, to give it more teeth. We'll see next year if either of us remember.

[Bishopknight]

MountainDon,

I bought all my conduit from an electric supply company at a much cheaper price than Lowes. Especially the 4 ought tri-plex wire, incredibly cheaper, more than half the cost of lowes.

Anyways, I'm glad I read this email. I had forgotten to clip my receipts for the SEU wire and panel box for my solar system in the new house.

Thanks,
Sean

[MountainDon]

It pays to check around. When I checked wire Lowe's not only had a much better price than any of the electrical suppliers, or Home Depot, they had it in stock (#4 AWG copper). Only one of the electrical supply businesses had it in stock and their price was 15% higher than Lowe's even before I got the extra 10% discount (coupon) on the Lowe's purchase. Others were even higher. Go figure.


I haven't checked on the conduit, but will do.

[MountainDon]

I checked with one electrical supplier and their price on conduit was no bargain in what they consider as small volume, casual sales.


Alright; so far no words of encouragement from Lowe's regarding the NM Solar Tax Exemption.

However, Home Depot has a method that works to get this NM Solar Tax Exemption applied with minimal bother.  It does involve an online form, then sending a Fax, a slight wait. But it works. In total I spent less than 15 minutes of actual work time.

On homedepot.com enter "tax" in their search. That brings up their Tax Exemption Registration page. I opened that and applied for tax exempt status. The page is geared towards the common tax exempt for resale customer, but they've supplied a method that works. In the slot where the normal tax exempt user would insert their state issued tax ID number, they tell you to enter 987654321. You choose your own ID number that is used at the cashier when making a tax exempt purchase. I put my own name in where a business name would normally go, called myself a solar equipment installer, chose 'other organization" under the business type, supplied address and so on. Once completed I printed the form and faxed it to Home Depot's Atlanta office. It can also be snail mailed. Along with their paperwork I included a copy of the NM state form that authorizes purchases that will be included in a solar generation and storage system. I faxed the info last night and when I checked online just now my tax exempt status is now active.

The onus is on me to only purchase those things that truly do qualify. Any abuse could land one in trouble with the state. That should be no problem as when I had my playground manufacturing business I was never audited over the ten year span. So I'll be honest and keep documentation.

The solar exemption in NM also applies to tool and equipment rental. That will be used when I rent a trencher from Home Depot. Heck, every 6.875% adds up,     and it is state authorized.

[MountainDon]

Lowe's came through this morning. I had to sign a form of theirs, but I'm good to go on the solar tex exempt purchases with them too.


Next to tackle is gi-normous Sam's Club. I can get the batteries I want through them.

[Windpower]

What kind of batteries are you going to get from SAMs ?

[MountainDon]

the answer is over here...

http://countryplans.com/smf/index.php?topic=6059.msg91212#msg91212

[MountainDon]

The time arrived to pick up some new golf cart batteries. I printed out a set of the tax exemption papers and placed Sam's Club name on them with the local store address. Drove down. Talked to the guy in tires & batteries. He referred me to member services. Talked to a lady there. She got her supervisor. Okay, things were going pretty much as I figured they would even on the best of days.

I knew the supervisor, not that would make any difference. I explained the situation again. She said she'd talk to the warehouse manager and give me a call back. Fine. I left and hoped or a reply in a day or two or three...

About an hour later at home the manager rom the club called me at home. He told me to come on down and the batteries right then if I wanted, or at my convenience. Whoa!    Surprise!  I commented that I was surprised at the speed and told him the orange and blue box stores took up to a week. He said he called head office and spoke with someone in accounting who told him what to do. Just like that!

Their procedure is a little more cumbersome than HD, Lowe's and the locally owned hardware store ranchise, but it worked. I have to bring in a new form for their files for any tax exempt purchase. Then the cashier rung up the sale with the tax. Then while he loaded the batteries on a cart I sent over to member services where the manager had the tax refunded to my account.

So I got new tax free batteries to haul up this next weekend.      


BTW $67 plus a $9 core charge for the 4 I did not have cores to turn in. $76 is pretty good.

210 amp hour, 6 VDC, gol cart / industrial batteries.

[peternap]

Way to go Don!

BTW, I just bought 6 more of the Sams Club batteries for a 3rd small bank. They hold up really well.