What Exterior Doors Qualify for the Tax Credit?

An exterior door qualifies for the federal energy efficient home improvement tax credit if it was ENERGY STAR certified for your climate zone, installed in an existing home you own and live in as your principal residence in the United States, and placed in service on or before December 31, 2025. The credit under Section 25C was terminated for property placed in service after that date, so doors installed in 2026 or later no longer qualify.¹

The ENERGY STAR Requirement

A qualifying door must be ENERGY STAR certified for your climate zone at the time it was installed.² Climate zone matters: a door rated for the Northern zone will not always meet the thresholds set for the Southern zone, and vice versa. ENERGY STAR divides the country into four zones for windows and doors (Northern, North-Central, South-Central, and Southern), and the certification on the label has to match where the home sits.

Two performance numbers do the actual work of qualification. U-factor measures how much heat passes through the whole door assembly, and a lower number is better. Solar Heat Gain Coefficient (SHGC) measures how much of the sun’s heat passes through any glass in the door, and lower is also better for credit purposes.

Thresholds by Glass Configuration

Under the ENERGY STAR Version 7 specification, the required numbers depend on how much glass the door has:³

Opaque doors with no glass: U-factor of 0.17 or lower. No SHGC rating is required.
Half-lite or less (half glass or less): U-factor of 0.23 or lower and SHGC of 0.23 or lower, in all climate zones.
More than half-lite (mostly glass): U-factor of 0.26 or lower. SHGC must be 0.40 or lower in the Northern and North-Central zones, or 0.23 or lower in the South-Central and Southern zones.

A door that misses either number for its configuration does not qualify, even if it carries general ENERGY STAR branding.

How to Verify a Specific Door

The NFRC label affixed to the door shows its U-factor, SHGC, and a Certified Product Directory (CPD) number. To confirm eligibility, find your climate zone using the ENERGY STAR online tool, locate the CPD number on the NFRC label, and search for it in the NFRC Certified Product Directory. A checkmark in the column for your climate zone confirms the door qualifies there.⁴

Which Homes the Door Has to Be Installed In

The door has to go into your principal residence, meaning the home where you live for most of the year, and the home must be an existing structure that you own and that sits in the United States.² New construction does not qualify. Second homes, vacation properties, and rental properties are all ineligible.

Condominiums do qualify. If your condo association paid for qualifying door replacements, you can claim your proportionate share of the expenditure. The association determines each owner’s share using any reasonable method and should keep records of how it calculated the allocation.⁵

“Placed in service” means the installation was complete and the door was ready for use within the tax year you’re claiming. A door paid for in December 2025 but not finished until January 2026 counts as a 2026 installation, and no credit is available.

What Part of the Cost Counts

Only the cost of the door itself counts toward the credit. Labor and installation costs for building envelope components like doors are excluded.² The receipt needs to separate the door price from installation charges. A lump-sum invoice with no breakdown puts the credit at risk.

The Deadline and What’s Still Claimable

Public Law 119-21, signed on July 4, 2025, added a termination provision to Section 25C. The credit does not apply to any property placed in service after December 31, 2025.¹ Before this change, the credit was scheduled to run through 2032.

A qualifying door installed in 2025 is claimed on your 2025 return. If you installed one in 2024 and didn’t claim it, you can file an amended return.

How Much a Qualifying Door Is Worth

The credit equals 30% of the door’s cost, with two caps: $250 per individual door and $500 total for all exterior doors in a single tax year.⁶ A $1,200 front door produces a $250 credit, because 30% would be $360 but the per-door cap applies. Three qualifying doors in the same year still max out at $500 combined.

The door caps also sit inside a broader $1,200 annual limit covering most Section 25C improvements, including insulation, windows, and skylights. Heat pumps and biomass stoves have their own separate $2,000 bucket and don’t eat into the door credit.

The credit is nonrefundable: it can reduce your tax to zero but won’t produce a refund beyond that, and any unused portion is lost. With the credit now terminated, there is no future year to carry anything into.⁷

Documentation and the Manufacturer ID Number

For doors placed in service in 2025, your tax return must include a qualified manufacturer identification number (QMID). This is a 4-character alphanumeric code the IRS assigns to the manufacturer, usually posted on the Manufacturer Certification Statement or the manufacturer’s website.⁸ Missing the QMID can delay or invalidate the claim.

Keep three things with your records in case the IRS questions the credit:

A purchase receipt or invoice that itemizes the door’s cost separately from installation labor and other materials.
A Manufacturer Certification Statement, a signed statement from the door manufacturer confirming that the specific model meets the ENERGY STAR requirements for the tax credit. Keep a copy; don’t file it with your return.⁹
The QMID, entered directly on Form 5695.

Hold onto all of these for at least three years from the date you file the return claiming the credit.¹⁰

Claiming the Credit on Form 5695

The credit is calculated on Form 5695, Residential Energy Credits, Part II. Enter the cost and QMID of your most expensive qualifying door on lines 19a and 19b. If you replaced more doors, the next two most expensive go on line 19d with their QMIDs. Any remaining doors are reported on line 19e, with a separate attached statement listing each door’s QMID and cost.⁸ After the per-door and aggregate caps are applied, the total on line 32 transfers to Schedule 3 (Form 1040), line 5b.¹¹ Use the version of Form 5695 that matches the tax year the door was placed in service.

1
Internal Revenue Service. FAQs for Modification of Sections 25C, 25D, and Others Under Public Law 119-21
2
Internal Revenue Service. Energy Efficient Home Improvement Credit
3
ENERGY STAR. Residential Windows, Doors, and Skylights Version 7 Final Specification
4
ENERGY STAR. Exterior Doors Tax Credit
5
Internal Revenue Service. Energy Efficient Home Improvement Credit – Qualifying Residence
6
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 25C – Energy Efficient Home Improvement Credit
7
Internal Revenue Service. Energy Efficient Home Improvement Credit – Timing of Credits
8
Internal Revenue Service. Instructions for Form 5695 (2025)
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ENERGY STAR. Tax Credit Definitions
10
Internal Revenue Service. How Long Should I Keep Records
11
Internal Revenue Service. Form 5695 – Residential Energy Credits