Is There a Rebate or Tax Credit for a New Roof on Long Island in 2026?

Short answer: no. As of October 2026 there is no federal, New York State, PSEG Long Island or NYSERDA rebate or tax credit for a standard roof replacement on a Long Island home. The federal energy credit that once covered some "cool" metal and asphalt roofs dropped roofs after 2022 and ended entirely for anything installed after December 31, 2025.

What does exist are programs that sit next to a roofing job: PSEG Long Island rebates for attic insulation and air sealing, income-based NYSERDA help, the NY solar credit if you are adding panels, a 20% state credit for registered historic homes in qualifying census tracts, and a property tax exemption that a few towns offer for improvements (but not, in Nassau's case, for replacement shingles). Every amount below was checked against the official source on October 10, 2026.

This is general information, not tax advice. Confirm your situation with a tax professional before you count on any credit.

Every Program at a Glance

Federal Tax Credits: Over for 2026, and Roofs Were Already Out

The IRS page for the Energy Efficient Home Improvement Credit (25C) now says the credit applies only to qualifying property placed in service from January 1, 2023 through December 31, 2025. The cutoff came from Public Law 119-21, signed July 4, 2025 and commonly called the One, Big, Beautiful Bill. The IRS confirms it in Fact Sheet 2025-05: "The credit will not be allowed for any property placed in service after December 31, 2025."

Roofs had dropped out of the credit three years earlier:

• Through 2022: the old version of 25C (then the "nonbusiness energy property credit") covered a metal roof with appropriate pigmented coatings, or an asphalt roof with cooling granules, designed to reduce heat gain. The credit was 10% of the material cost, with installation excluded and a $500 lifetime cap, according to ENERGY STAR's 2022 tax credit page and the 2021 text of 26 U.S.C. §25C.
• 2023 to 2025: the Inflation Reduction Act rewrote 25C and, in the words of an IRS Nationwide Tax Forum presentation, "eliminates the treatment of roofs as 'building envelope components.'" Insulation, air sealing, windows, doors and heat pumps stayed in. Roofing did not.
• 2026: nothing qualifies, roof or otherwise.

The solar credit (25D) ended the same way: no credit for expenditures made after December 31, 2025, and the IRS counts an expenditure as made when installation is complete, not when you pay. Even when it was available, the IRS 25D page said traditional components that mainly serve a roofing or structural function generally didn't qualify. Solar shingles and solar tiles did; the regular shingles under a panel array didn't.

PSEG Long Island: Rebates for the Attic, Not the Roof

Long Island's utility-funded efficiency rebates run through PSEG Long Island's Home Performance with ENERGY STAR program. Roofing isn't on the list. Insulation and air sealing are, and they're often worth looking at during a re-roof, because poor attic insulation and air leaks are what drive ice dams and overheated attics. Our roof ventilation guide explains how the attic and the roof work together.

PSEG Long Island's 2026 Eligible Measures sheet (version 2026 v1.0, effective January 1, 2026) and its program page list these amounts:

The conditions that matter:

• Participating contractor only. The work has to be done by one of PSEG Long Island's participating Home Performance contractors (there's a contractor finder). Most roofers are not on that list, so the attic work is usually a separate contract.
• Insulation has to come with air sealing. Insulation must be installed with blower-door-assisted air sealing done to Building Performance Institute (BPI) standards.
• Windows are restricted. The window rebate applies only when a whole-house cold-climate air-source heat pump is installed along with, at a minimum, insulation and air sealing.
• Single-family homes in PSEG Long Island territory heated by oil, natural gas, propane or electricity are eligible.
• Income tiers. For 2026, PSEG Long Island sets low income at 60% of area median income ($98,925 a year for a household of four) and moderate income at 80% ($131,900 for four). Low-income rebates require income verification.
• Start with the free assessment. PSEG Long Island offers a free Whole House Energy Assessment, which includes a blower door test and a thermal scan.

Watch the dates on what you read. The 2026 amounts are well above the figures in older PSEG Long Island guides, and many third-party "rebate finder" pages still show the old numbers. Rely on the PDF with the 2026 version number.

Timing tip: if both jobs are planned, it usually makes sense to have the energy assessment before the roof goes on. Then the attic contractor and the roofer can agree on ventilation, baffles and any air sealing at the top plates, instead of one undoing the other's work.

NYSERDA: EmPower+ and Comfort Home

EmPower+ (income-eligible)

EmPower+ is for owners and renters of one- to four-family homes with household income below 80% of the area or state median, whichever is higher. NYSERDA lists Nassau and Suffolk as downstate counties, which carry the higher caps:

• Low income: no-cost energy efficiency improvements, capped at $14,000 per project downstate.
• Moderate income: 50% of the cost, capped at $7,000 per project downstate.
• On top of those caps: Sustainable Futures Program funding for heat pumps, panel upgrades and wiring, plus federal HEAR rebates of up to $1,600 for air sealing, insulation and ventilation.

On roofs, NYSERDA's EmPower+ FAQ is explicit. Among the services EmPower+ does not provide, it lists "generally significant roof repairs or replacements." The FAQ also says EmPower+ can't fund work that has already been completed, so apply before any work starts.

Comfort Home

Comfort Home is open and pays $2,500 for a "Good" package (seal and insulate the attic and rim joist), $3,000 for "Better" (adds walls and floors) and $2,000 for a window add-on. There's no roofing in it. NYSERDA's fact sheet limits it to homeowners "who pay into the System Benefits Charge (SBC) on their electric bill." Long Island electric customers are served by PSEG Long Island, which runs the rebates above, so check NYSERDA's MyEnergy portal before you assume Comfort Home applies to your address. For help finding your way through the programs, both NYSERDA and PSEG Long Island point homeowners to NYSERDA's Regional Clean Energy Hubs.

About That "$4,000 NYSERDA Roofing Rebate"

A widely indexed home-improvement marketing page claimed that New York offers up to $4,000 in NYSERDA rebates for ENERGY STAR certified roofing. When we checked on October 10, 2026, that page returned "not found," and the claim doesn't hold up:

• No current NYSERDA program page lists roofing as an eligible measure. EmPower+ excludes significant roof repairs and replacements in writing, and Comfort Home covers sealing, insulation and windows only.
• There is no such thing as ENERGY STAR certified roofing anymore. EPA sunset the ENERGY STAR roof products specification, and all certifications expired on June 1, 2022.

If a salesperson quotes a roofing rebate, ask for the program name and a link on nyserda.ny.gov or psegliny.com. A real program will have one.

Adding Solar? The NY Credit Still Exists

New York's Solar Energy System Equipment Credit is still 25% of qualified solar equipment expenditures, capped at $5,000, for a system at your principal residence. You claim it on Form IT-255, and unused credit carries forward for up to five years. The current IT-255 instructions still show the $5,000 cap. The credit is for solar energy system equipment and the labor to install it. Ordinary roofing isn't listed, so don't assume your shingles are covered. If panels are coming off or going on, read our guide to replacing a roof with solar panels on Long Island before you schedule either job.

Registered Historic Home? The 20% State Credit Covers Roofs

This is the one program on the list that actually pays toward a new roof. The New York State Historic Homeownership Rehabilitation Tax Credit, run by the State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO), is a state income tax credit of 20% of qualified rehabilitation expenses. SHPO's program info sheet lists "roofs, including roof coverings, rafters, fascia, soffits, gutters and downspouts" among the eligible expenses. Its application instructions even use a worn asphalt roof replaced with architectural shingles as the sample entry.

Eligibility is narrow:

1. Owner-occupied: you must own the home and live in it.
2. Listed: the house must be on the State and National Registers of Historic Places, either individually or as a contributing building in a listed historic district. Being old isn't enough.
3. Qualifying census tract: under the 2025 Form IT-237 instructions, the home must be a federal "targeted area residence," or sit in a census tract at or below 100% of the state median family income, or be in a city under 1 million people with a poverty rate above 15%. Many Long Island tracts don't meet the income test. SHPO's CRIS database shows both listing status and tract eligibility.
4. Size of the project: qualified costs of at least $5,000, with at least 5% spent on exterior work. A roof easily covers both.
5. Approval first: SHPO must approve the work (Parts 1 and 2) before it starts. You file Part 3 with photos and final costs afterward and receive a Certificate of Completion, which goes with Form IT-237.

The credit is capped at $25,000 per taxpayer per year (each eligible spouse can claim up to $25,000). It isn't refundable, but unused credit carries forward indefinitely. If you move out within two years of final certification, you may have to pay back some or all of it. Applicants with New York adjusted gross income of $60,000 or less don't pay SHPO's processing fees. Expect SHPO to review the material choice: work that significantly changes the house's historic appearance isn't eligible.

Property Taxes: Will a New Roof Raise Your Assessment?

Usually not, if it's a like-for-like replacement. New York's Office of Real Property Tax Services has long taken the position that assessments assume normal maintenance and that "repairs are not considered as increasing the value of the property while improvements normally do" (Opinion of Counsel SBEA No. 28). The exception is a house whose earlier assessment reflected very poor condition; then a general overhaul, including a new roof, can raise the value. Nassau County's Department of Assessment says the same thing more plainly: the 2014 edition of its home improvement brochure listed "new roof shingles as replacement" under non-taxable improvements.

Things change when the roof work adds space or structure. Dormers, a finished attic, an addition or a new porch roof are all listed by Nassau as assessable improvements.

The 421-f home improvement exemption

Real Property Tax Law §421-f lets a county, city, town or village (and, by resolution, a school district) phase in the added assessment from an improvement to a one- or two-family home. The exemption is 100% of the increase in year one, then drops 12.5 percentage points a year over eight years. It applies only where the municipality has opted in, and only if:

• the work is worth more than $3,000;
• the greater part of the house is at least five years old;
• no more than $80,000 of added market value is involved (towns may set a lower cap); and
• the work isn't "ordinary maintenance or repairs."

That last condition is why it rarely helps with a roof. Nassau County's current brochure (revised March 2026) lists "New Roof Shingles as Replacement" under non-qualifying improvements. A dormer or second-story addition built during the same project could qualify.

Long Island entries on the state's 421-f opt-in list (updated September 16, 2026):

If your town or village isn't listed, ask your assessor before assuming you're excluded. Deadlines are tied to the taxable status date. In Nassau, applications for the 2027-28 tax year must be received by January 4, 2027, according to the county's brochure, and you apply to the county for county, town and school taxes even if you live in a village. Towns on the standard state schedule use March 1, per the state's RP-421-f instructions. Confirm the date with your town assessor.

Two Tax Rules That Do Apply to Every Re-Roof

Neither of these is a credit, but both are worth knowing:

• No sales tax on a full replacement. The NYS Tax Department's Publication 862 classifies complete replacement of a roof (or a complete side of a peaked roof, wing or dormer) as a capital improvement. Repairs and spot replacement are taxable repair services. The Department's contractor bulletin says capital improvement work "is not taxable." The contractor pays sales tax on the materials it buys, and the customer usually signs Form ST-124, the Certificate of Capital Improvement. If a full re-roof quote adds sales tax on top, ask why.
• It adds to your cost basis. A roof on your own home isn't deductible, but IRS Publication 523 lists "new roof" as an improvement that increases your home's basis. That can reduce taxable gain when you sell. Keep the contract and proof of payment.

If Income Is the Barrier

Rebates aside, there is limited repair help for some households. New York's RESTORE program funds emergency repairs for homeowners 60 or older with household income at or below 100% of area median income, up to $20,000 per project. Homeowners can't apply to the state directly; you go through a local program administrator, and that administrator decides whether a specific roof problem qualifies as an emergency repair.

Bottom Line for Planning a Roof Budget

Plan to pay for the roof itself in full. Our Long Island roof replacement cost guide has planning ranges and explains how to read an estimate. Then look for savings around the roof:

1. Book PSEG Long Island's free energy assessment and price insulation and air sealing against the 2026 rebates.
2. If your household income may qualify, apply to EmPower+ before any work starts.
3. If the house is on the State or National Register, check tract eligibility in CRIS and get SHPO approval before signing a roofing contract.
4. If the project adds a dormer or living space, ask your assessor about 421-f.
5. Make sure a full replacement quote doesn't include sales tax, and keep the paperwork for your basis.

When you're ready to compare bids for the roof replacement itself:

Want quotes from local roofers? Request free quotes; we'll connect you with independent contractors. (Long Island Roofing Pros is a free referral service and does not perform roofing work.)