Impact Window Tax Breaks in Florida: The $500 Refund and What Replaced the Federal Credit

There is no federal tax credit for impact windows installed in 2026. The Section 25C credit expired on December 31, 2025, and Florida's replacement works differently than the headlines suggest: it is a one-time sales-tax refund of up to $500 per homesteaded home for impact-resistant windows, doors, and garage doors purchased between July 1, 2026 and June 30, 2029. You pay full sales tax at purchase, then claim the refund from the Florida Department of Revenue after installation. Nothing is tax-free at the register.

That last point surprises people, because the state's own announcements called this a "sales tax exemption." This guide pins every claim to the enacted law and the Department of Revenue's published guidance: who qualifies, what the $500 covers, the receipt rule almost nobody explains, and the savings that are much bigger than the tax break.

The Federal Window Tax Credit Is Gone

For years, the federal Section 25C Energy Efficient Home Improvement Credit paid 30% of qualifying window cost, capped at $600 per year, for products meeting ENERGY STAR Most Efficient standards. Many impact windows with the right Low-E glass qualified.

That ended on December 31, 2025. The One Big Beautiful Bill Act, signed in July 2025, moved the credit's sunset up from 2032 to the end of 2025. Windows placed in service on or before that date can still be claimed on a 2025 return; windows installed in 2026 or later get nothing from the federal side. The IRS credit page confirms the current status.

If a quote or an ad in 2026 leans on a federal tax credit for new windows, it is out of date. Florida's refund is the live program now, and it comes with more fine print.

Are Impact Windows Tax-Free in Florida Now?

No. Here is where the confusion comes from, and what the law actually says.

When the Legislature passed the 2026 tax package (House Bill 7031E, now Chapter 2026-239, Laws of Florida, signed June 29, 2026), the Senate's announcement described "a three-year sales tax exemption on impact-resistant windows and doors," and the sponsor said the products would be "tax-free for the next three years."

The statute is narrower than the press release. The new section 212.08(21), Florida Statutes, is titled "Home Hardening Products; Sales Tax Refund," and its operative sentence reads: "This exemption inures to the owner through a refund of previously paid taxes." The Department of Revenue's Tax Information Publication #26A01-09 (July 16, 2026) removes any doubt: the benefit comes "[s]olely through a refund of previously paid Florida sales tax, including discretionary sales surtax," and "The exemption cannot be claimed at the point of sale."

In plain English: your contract or receipt includes sales tax as normal, and if your home qualifies, you claim up to $500 of that tax back afterward. One refund, per home, for the whole three-year program. If a sales pitch tells you impact windows are tax-free at purchase in 2026, that is not what the law says.

Do You Qualify for the $500 Refund?

The 2026 program is much narrower than the 2022 tax holiday it echoes. All of the following must be true:

• The property has a homestead exemption, granted under section 196.031, Florida Statutes. Rentals, second homes, and commercial buildings fail this test.
• The just value is $700,000 or less. Look up your property on your county property appraiser's website; the figure appears on your record as "just value" or market value.
• The home is site-built. Mobile homes, manufactured homes, and any home or trailer titled or registered under chapter 319 or 320 are excluded, even with a homestead exemption.
• You hold legal title. The refund goes to the owner, not a tenant and not a contractor.

One more limit: each owner may file one application, for one property, total. If you own two qualifying homes, pick one. If you plan several purchases on the same home during the window, save every receipt and claim them together.

Condo units sit in a gray area. The statute requires a "site-built dwelling" with a homestead exemption, and individual condo owners can hold homestead, but no Department of Revenue guidance says yes or no for condos yet. Ask DOR before you count on the refund for a condo unit.

What Counts and What Does Not

The law defines "home hardening products" as three things:

• Impact-resistant windows, laminated or treated with a polycarbonate glazing system
• Impact-resistant exterior doors
• Impact-resistant garage doors

Each must be rated for impact resistance and wind pressure under ASTM E1886 and E1996, AAMA 506, or Miami-Dade TAS 201, 202, and 203; garage doors may also qualify under ANSI/DASMA 115. Those are the same ratings that appear on the product-approval paperwork for any legitimate impact product sold in South Florida, so if your product carries an FL number or a Miami-Dade NOA, the rating is already documented. Our guide to HVHZ approvals and impact ratings explains how to read that paperwork.

Three boundaries matter:

• Frames and attachment hardware count only when purchased as part of the same sale as the window or door itself.
• Installation labor is never refundable. Only Florida sales tax paid on the products comes back.
• Skylights are not named in the law. No DOR document addresses them, so do not assume an impact skylight qualifies.

How Much You Actually Get Back

You pay the same sales tax as everyone else at purchase: 6% state tax plus your county's surtax. In 2026 that means 7% combined in Miami-Dade and Broward, and 6.5% in Palm Beach County, where the surtax dropped from 1% to 0.5% on January 1, 2026, per DOR's 2026 surtax table. County surtax also stops at the first $5,000 of any single item, so the effective rate on a big-ticket order runs a touch under the headline number.

The refund then returns that tax, surtax included, up to the $500 cap. Here is what the math looks like on the taxed product portion of a project:

Roughly $7,200 to $8,300 of taxed product cost hits the cap, depending on your county rate. A whole-home impact project in South Florida usually clears that bar with the first few openings, so most qualifying homeowners should plan on the full $500—and not a dollar more. Run your own numbers with our impact windows cost calculator.

Is $500 real money? Yes, and it is worth twenty minutes of paperwork. It is also the smallest number on this page. The insurance and grant savings covered below run into the thousands, and they should carry the decision.

The Receipt Problem Nobody Explains

Here is the question every other write-up skips: most impact windows are not bought at a store. They arrive through a furnish-and-install contract, where the installer quotes one lump-sum price and your paperwork shows no sales tax line at all. So what receipt do you attach to a refund claim?

The Department of Revenue answered it in TIP #26A01-09, Scenario 3. Under Florida law, a lump-sum furnish-and-install contract is a real property improvement, not a retail sale to you. The contractor does not charge you sales tax on the contract price. Instead, the contractor pays sales tax when buying the windows from the manufacturer or distributor, and that is the refundable tax. To claim it, DOR requires "a copy of the receipt issued by the window manufacturer to the contractor showing payment of Florida sales tax."

The TIP's question-and-answer section confirms the point directly: you can still claim the refund when your contractor made the purchase, but only with a copy of the contractor's supplier receipt attached to your application.

That makes one question worth asking any installer before you sign: "Will you provide a copy of the supplier receipt showing the Florida sales tax paid on my products, so I can file my refund claim?" An installer who knows this law will have a ready answer. And if you buy the products yourself at retail and arrange installation separately, your own receipt showing the tax works directly.

How to Claim the Refund Step by Step

The claim runs through two Department of Revenue forms, filed once.

1. Confirm eligibility. Homestead exemption granted, just value at or under $700,000, site-built home, your name on the title.
2. Gather receipts showing Florida sales tax paid on the products: your retail receipt, or the supplier receipt from your contractor on an installed job.
3. Complete Form DR-26HH, Home Hardening Products Sales Tax Refund. It asks for the property address, parcel number, and county, the refund amount (it cannot exceed $500), and a sworn owner affidavit. Your Social Security number is required.
4. File Form DR-26S online at the DOR refund portal and upload the completed DR-26HH with your receipts.
5. Wait for the decision. DOR has 30 business days to rule on the application, then 30 more business days to issue payment after approval. The refund status line is (850) 617-8585.
6. File once, before September 30, 2029. You get one application for the whole program, so batch every qualifying receipt into it.

Both forms are here for a closer look before you start; the Department's site linked above remains the official source.

Two honesty notes about the affidavit. It is signed under penalty of perjury, and the form spells out the exposure for a false claim: a mandatory penalty of 200% of the evaded tax plus third-degree felony liability. None of that should worry a homeowner with real receipts. Claim exactly the tax your receipts show, keep copies of everything, and the process is routine.

The Savings That Beat the $500

The refund should not drive your decision, because three other programs are worth far more.

Wind-mitigation insurance credits. Florida law requires insurers to discount premiums for documented opening protection. Full impact protection commonly earns $300 to $1,350 per year in South Florida, recurring for as long as you own the home. The credit is generally all-or-nothing: every opening needs rated protection, so plan phased projects with that finish line in mind. The mechanics are in our guide to how impact windows lower insurance premiums.

The My Safe Florida Home grant. The state's My Safe Florida Home program offers matching grants of up to $10,000 for qualifying hurricane upgrades, including impact windows and doors, at $2 of state money for every $1 you spend. The free wind-mitigation inspection that starts the process is worth getting either way, because it documents features that can lower your premium now.

Energy and resale gains. Impact windows with quality Low-E glass cut Florida cooling bills, often by a few hundred dollars a year, and buyers pay for built-in hurricane protection. The numbers are in how impact windows pay you back.

The order follows from the table: buy impact windows for the protection and the recurring savings, then collect the refund as a bonus. Every program here pays out after the project is bought and installed, so the up-front cost has to come from somewhere first.

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How 2026 Compares With the 2022 Tax Holiday

Florida ran a true tax holiday on impact products from July 2022 through June 2024, let it lapse, and brought back a narrower version in 2026. The differences explain most of the bad information still circulating:

The 2022 version was a point-of-sale exemption for any purchaser, with no dollar cap and a loose "labeled as impact-resistant" test, documented in DOR's 2022 guidance, TIP #22A01-07. Some pages online still describe those rules as if they were current. They are not. Every 2026 claim runs through the refund process above.

The Dates That Matter

• Purchases: July 1, 2026 through June 30, 2029. Products bought before July 1, 2026 do not qualify, per DOR's published question-and-answer guidance.
• Application: file between July 1, 2026 and September 30, 2029.
• Sunset: the statute repeals itself on June 30, 2030.

As of August 2026, no pending legislation changes any of these dates. Florida let the 2022 version lapse on schedule, so treat June 30, 2029 as a real deadline rather than a soft one.

Next Steps

1. Check your eligibility on your county property appraiser's website: homestead exemption on file and just value at or under $700,000.
2. Get a free estimate so the refund math sits on a real project number.
3. Price your project with our impact windows cost calculator.
4. Ask any installer about the supplier receipt before you sign a lump-sum contract; without it, there is no refund claim.
5. Start the bigger savings with a wind-mitigation inspection through My Safe Florida Home, and review financing options if up-front cost is the obstacle.

This article explains the law as written and is not tax advice; eligibility is determined by the Department of Revenue. Facts verified against Chapter 2026-239, Laws of Florida, and DOR TIP #26A01-09 as of August 3, 2026.