Tax Credit Advisory: From Eligibility to Revenue

Stage 1 — Eligibility and Pathway Optimisation

Every engagement starts with the map: which programmes the project can claim across federal tax credits, clean fuel standards and REC programmes; where the gaps are against each programme’s requirements; and what the stack is worth. We model credits and ITC value alongside project cash flows in support of bankability, and close the stage with a programme roadmap and monitoring plan — so the project enters each regime deliberately, in the right sequence, with its evidence trail designed in from the start.

Stage 2 — Registration and CI Management

Then the machinery: programme registration, the reporting and monitoring the regulations require, and verification audit management. Where a carbon intensity score is required — 45V and 45Z federally, the clean fuel standards, Canada’s Clean Hydrogen ITC — we manage the computation through to approval and set up MRV on our platform for ease of ongoing monitoring. Audits and regulator clarifications are managed through to resolution; content-ratio computations are versioned so a claim filed in 2026 can be replayed in 2032.

Stage 3 — Credit Monetisation

Finally, the cash: market intelligence across the clean fuel and tax credit markets to identify sale opportunities, buyer identification and contract management, and internal structuring of credits among group entities — the affiliate-sale and election work on which manufacturer and multi-entity claims turn. Issued credits and environmental attributes are marketed through Canopy, our procurement platform, which places them in front of corporate buyers running structured, integrity-screened processes.

Delivered Work

• Section 45Q — end-to-end federal advisory for a utility carbon capture and sequestration project: eligibility assessment, qualification documentation, and credit structuring between affiliated group companies.
• Section 45V — clean hydrogen advisory for a producer: eligibility, carbon intensity computation and documentation, and ongoing annual management.
• Clean fuel programmes — CI pathways, credit creation and reporting under Canada’s CFR and the BC LCFS, including the majority of ECCC-approved RNG pathways worked by our team since 2023.
• Cross-border — monetisation strategy for US producers entering Canadian programmes, and stacking design across tax credits, fuel programmes and RECs.

For the fuller regulatory picture behind this practice, start with the two overview articles in this series: the US federal credit map and Canada’s clean economy ITCs.

Stacking With Clean Fuel Programmes

The thread that runs through all three stages is stacking: almost every asset we work on earns in more than one regime at once. A capital credit on the build, a production credit on the output, fuel programme credits on the carbon intensity, RECs on the attributes — each with its own accounting, and strict rules about which combinations hold.

This is where a practice built in the clean fuel markets pays for itself. The carbon intensity file that sets a 45V or 45Z tier is the same file a CFR or LCFS verifier audits; the sequencing that keeps a Canadian ITC and a CFR pathway on one project compliant is the same discipline that keeps a 45Q election from stranding a 45Z claim. We design the stack once, evidence it once, and defend it everywhere it is claimed.