u/Past-Ambition-9001

I'm looking for some guidance on whether this situation potentially warrants speaking with a Florida attorney and, if so, what type of attorney I should be looking for.

My husband and I had our 2024 federal tax return professionally prepared by a paid tax preparer in Florida.

We have solar panels on our home, but they are leased. We do not own the solar system.

Our preparer claimed a $24,486 Residential Clean Energy Credit on our 2024 federal return for the solar system.

We relied on him as the professional preparing our taxes and did not realize that we were not eligible to claim the credit on a leased system.

Our return was subsequently reviewed by the IRS. We eventually hired a different CPA, who determined that the solar credit should never have been claimed because we don't own the system. Our new CPA amended the 2024 return and removed the credit.

The IRS has now adjusted our account, and we have a balance of approximately $26,000 including interest as a result of the credit being removed.

To be clear, this isn't a situation where we knowingly claimed something questionable and got caught. We provided our information to a paid tax professional, relied on him to prepare the return correctly, and had no idea the credit wasn't allowed until this became an IRS issue.

We're now dealing with the IRS, paying a new CPA to correct the prior return, potentially entering into an IRS payment arrangement, and dealing with interest associated with the adjustment.

My questions are:

1. Could this potentially rise to the level of professional negligence/malpractice by the original tax preparer?
2. What damages could potentially be recoverable? Would it generally be limited to interest, penalties and professional fees incurred fixing the return, or could there be circumstances where the underlying financial loss associated with the improperly claimed credit is considered?
3. Does it matter whether the preparer was a CPA, EA, or simply a paid tax preparer?
4. Would filing an IRS return-preparer complaint be appropriate in addition to pursuing a civil claim?
5. What type of Florida attorney should I be searching for — tax controversy, accounting malpractice/professional negligence, or something else?
6. Is there anything I should make sure I preserve now (emails, engagement agreements, solar documents, original return, amended return, IRS notices, etc.) before contacting an attorney?

I'm not looking to avoid paying taxes that we're legally responsible for. I'm trying to understand whether we have any recourse against the professional whose preparation of the return put us in this position in the first place.

EDIT/CLARIFICATION: I realize I explained the ~$26k balance poorly.

Before the solar credit, we were legitimately due approximately an $8,000 refund based on our withholding/payments. The preparer claimed an additional $24,486 Residential Clean Energy Credit, which increased our refund to approximately $32,000, and we received that money.

I understand that repaying the ~$24k principal essentially puts us back in the position we would have been in had the return been prepared correctly. I'm not asking whether we can make the preparer reimburse us for money we received from the IRS and weren't entitled to keep.

What I'm trying to determine is whether we may have recourse for the additional financial damages caused by the preparation error — approximately $2k+ in IRS interest, any penalties, the cost of hiring a new CPA to investigate and amend the returns, and potentially other directly related costs.

I also want to clarify something important about our communication with the original preparer.

We provided him with the solar documentation. I specifically questioned whether we were actually entitled to the solar credit given that the system was leased.

His response to me was: “It looks like you can't claim the credit unless you own the system. The company receives the credit and then passes on the savings to you.”

So this wasn't something we discovered years later without ever questioning him about eligibility. I specifically raised the issue with him after providing the documents, and he confirmed that we couldn't claim the credit unless we owned the system.

I also later specifically asked him: “Since this was a lease, should we be preparing to amend the return if needed? Also, do you recommend we wait for IRS to respond first or take action proactively?” His reply, "I'm not telling you NOT to amend the return."

There were also earlier conversations about the unusually large refund where he attributed it primarily to the solar credit and indicated that some of the solar credit would still be available the following year.

We ultimately hired a different CPA, who determined that the $24,486 credit was not allowable because the system was leased and amended the return to remove it.

I completely understand that we signed the return and are responsible to the IRS for its accuracy and for repaying the erroneous refund. I'm not disputing that.

My question is about the preparer's separate professional responsibility. Given that we provided the solar documents, questioned our eligibility, and were actually told by the preparer that leased solar did not qualify, does that change the analysis regarding negligence and responsibility for the interest, penalties, corrective CPA fees, etc. that resulted from the improperly prepared return?

EDIT/CLARIFICATION: I realize I explained the ~$26k balance poorly.

Before the solar credit, we were legitimately due approximately an $8,000 refund based on our withholding/payments. The preparer claimed an additional ~$24,000 solar credit, which increased our refund to approximately $32,000, and we received that money.

I understand that repaying the ~$24k principal essentially puts us back in the position we would have been in had the return been prepared correctly. I'm not asking whether we can make the preparer pay back money that we received from the IRS and weren't entitled to keep.

What I'm trying to determine is whether we may have recourse for the additional financial damages caused by the preparation error — approximately $2k+ in IRS interest, any penalties, the cost of hiring a new CPA to investigate and amend the returns, and potentially other directly related costs.

I'm also trying to determine whether the fact that this was a professionally prepared return changes anything regarding the preparer's responsibility, despite our responsibility to the IRS as the taxpayers who signed the return.

Looking for some outside opinions because I think I’m officially too emotionally involved in this house to look at it objectively anymore. 😂

We have a 3 bed/2 bath, roughly 1,565 sq ft home in Seminole/Pinellas County with a pool. We bought in 2024 and have done quite a bit to it, including new kitchen, bathroom, windows, roof, landscaping/turf, paint, etc.

We moved to the Orlando area for work earlier this year, so the house is vacant and we've been trying to sell it.

We originally listed around $520k and, after several price reductions, we're now at $465k.

Here's what's confusing me: we've had plenty of showings, but no offers. If nobody were looking at it, I'd obviously assume we were just wildly overpriced. But people ARE coming through it. We just can't seem to get anyone to pull the trigger.

There is one major complication: the house has leased solar. The payment is around $250/month and there are a lot of years remaining on the agreement. The system can be transferred to a qualified buyer, but I'm wondering how much this is hurting us. Prepaying it isn't really an option because the quote we received was over $100k.

At this point we're trying to decide what the market is telling us.

Do we:

• Drop the price again?
• Hold at $465k for a while?
• Offer a buyer concession instead of another price reduction?
• Take it off the market and rent it?
• Potentially explore a lease-option/rent-to-own situation?
• Do something differently to address the solar objection?

For the Florida agents/buyers/sellers here: when a house is consistently getting showings but not getting offers, what does that usually tell you?

I'm also curious how much of a deterrent you're seeing leased solar being in Florida right now. Would it personally stop you from buying an otherwise good house?

I'm not trying to advertise the property here, so I'm intentionally leaving out the address/listing. I'm genuinely looking for feedback because we've reached the point where continuing to randomly cut the price without understanding why buyers aren't converting doesn't feel like much of a strategy.

I feel like we’ve gotten ourselves into the perfect storm financially and I’m curious what other people would do in our situation.

We bought our house in Florida in early 2024. It’s a 3/2 with a pool, and we put quite a bit of money into improvements. We moved for work earlier this year and decided to sell rather than keep carrying the house.

The problem is the solar.

We signed a solar lease shortly after buying the house. In hindsight, this was obviously a terrible decision. The payment is around $250–$275/month and there are roughly 23 YEARS remaining on the lease. The company owns the panels, so we can't just pay off a normal solar loan at closing. A buyer can assume the lease if they qualify, but understandably buyers see a 20+ year solar obligation and aren't exactly excited about it.

The house has now had a lot of showings but no acceptable offers, and we've continued dropping the price. We originally listed much higher and are now down to $465,000 because at this point we really just want it sold.

Our current mortgage payoff is about $398,000, so there isn't a huge amount of room left once realtor commissions and closing costs come out. We also received a solar prepayment quote of roughly $110,000, which obviously makes absolutely no financial sense with the equity we have.

And then there's the IRS situation.

When we had the solar installed, our previous tax preparer claimed a $24,486 Residential Clean Energy Credit on our 2024 taxes. We later learned that because the system is LEASED, we were never eligible for that credit, and that the solar company owns the system and gets the federal tax benefits.

We hired a new CPA and amended the 2024 return to remove the credit. The IRS has now adjusted the account and we're looking at roughly $26,000 owed, including interest. We're trying to figure out a payment plan and whether any of the penalties/interest can be abated since we relied on a tax professional when the original return was prepared.

We've even started looking into renting the house instead of selling it, but I really don't love the idea of becoming a landlord from several hours away, and my preference is still to sell and be DONE with it.

At this point I'm trying to separate emotion from the math.

What would you do? Keep dropping the price and accept that we're probably walking away with little or nothing? Rent it for a few years and hope the market/equity improves? Is there another angle with the solar lease that I'm overlooking?

And if anyone has dealt with an IRS situation where a paid tax preparer incorrectly claimed a credit you weren't eligible for, I'd especially love to hear how that played out.

I know we ultimately signed the solar contract and are responsible for it. I'm not looking for a way to magically make the consequences disappear, I'm genuinely trying to figure out the smartest path forward from where we are now.

Me- my house. "American Dream" my ass. More like the American Horror Story. It's been a massive money pit.. I think I missed out when the housing market was at it's prime for homeownership to be the cheat code to life..