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Missouri’s solar property tax exemption: struck down, still in the statute
Missouri's solar property tax exemption has not been enforceable since August 9, 2022, and it is still printed in the Revised Statutes today. Section 137.100(10) exempts "solar energy systems not held for resale" from taxation; the Missouri Supreme Court held that subdivision unconstitutional in Johnson v. Springfield Solar 1, LLC, 648 S.W.3d 101, and the Revisor prints the holding in an annotation directly beneath the text that is still there. Mo. Rev. Stat. § 137.100 What a homeowner gets instead is an assessor's discretion: the State Tax Commission tells assessors that rooftop panels may be treated as a fixture of the home, contributory to the overall value of the property and not valued separately. Sales tax is a separate question with a separate answer, and the exemption there is written around purchases by a company rather than by a household. Statute and court sources checked July 29, 2026; nothing here changed on the September 13, 2026 re-read.
Does Missouri still have a solar property tax exemption?
No, and this is the single most-repeated wrong fact about Missouri solar. Section 137.100 of the Revised Statutes lists property exempt from taxation, and subdivision (10) reads, in its entirety, "Solar energy systems not held for resale." It is still printed there. But in Johnson v. Springfield Solar 1, LLC, decided August 9, 2022, the Missouri Supreme Court held that subdivision unconstitutional under article X, section 6 of the Missouri Constitution, which limits tax exemptions to specifically enumerated property. The Revisor prints that holding as an annotation beneath the section, so the operative text and the reason it does not work sit on the same page, and anything that reads only the first part gets it confidently wrong. What replaces it is not another exemption but an assessor's discretion: the State Tax Commission's own assessor manual says rooftop panels "could be considered to be a fixture of the home if attached to the home," whose value "would be contributory to the overall value of the residential property and not valued separately."
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What an assessor is told to do instead
There is no replacement exemption, so the question moves from "is it exempt" to "how is it valued", and that is answered by guidance rather than by statute. The State Tax Commission of Missouri publishes chapter 7.11 of its assessor manual, "Assessment of Solar Property", revised March 8, 2023 after the decision. Its first question is the residential rooftop case, and its answer is that panels attached to the home could be considered a fixture of the home, whose value would be contributory to the overall value of the residential property and not valued separately, in the assessor's discretion based on the facts known to the assessor. State Tax Commission ch. 7.11
Read that carefully, because it is doing two different things at once. It points assessors away from putting a separate line item on a rooftop array, which is the outcome a homeowner wants. And it is discretionary by design, which means it is guidance to a county officer rather than a rule a taxpayer can enforce. Missouri has 114 counties plus the City of St. Louis, each with its own assessor. We did not survey them, and we are not going to tell you what yours does.
The legislature has not fixed it
Two attempts are worth knowing about, because both are quoted as though they restored something.
The first was a task force. Section 393.1072 created a body to propose a uniform method of assessing solar energy property, and it expired at the end of 2022 having produced no enacted legislation. Mo. Rev. Stat. § 393.1072
The second is the one that gets misread. Senate Bill 4, effective August 28, 2025, created a new subclass of tangible personal property for solar panels, racking, inverters and related equipment, assessed at five percent of true value. It sounds like relief, and for utility-scale property that was already running it is. But it is gated to systems constructed and producing solar energy before August 9, 2022, the date of the Springfield Solar decision. It grandfathers what existed. It offers nothing at all to anyone installing today. Mo. Rev. Stat. § 137.115, as amended by S.B. 4 (2025)
A separate 2025 bill that would have capped solar property tax liability at $500 per megawatt and set a new assessor valuation rule from January 1, 2026 did not pass.
Missouri sales tax on solar: the exemption is written for a company
This is the second half of the tax question and it has a different shape. Missouri does exempt solar photovoltaic systems from sales tax, but read who the exemption is written for. Section 144.030.2(46) covers "all purchases by a company of solar photovoltaic energy systems, components used to construct a solar photovoltaic energy system, and all purchases of materials and supplies used directly to construct or make improvements to such systems," provided the systems are sold or leased to an end user, or used to produce, collect and transmit electricity for resale or retail. Mo. Rev. Stat. § 144.030.2(46)
The Department of Revenue has applied that provision in a published letter ruling, and the facts there were a utility-scale solar farm. It held the panels, racking, combiner boxes, inverters, transformers, tracking and SCADA systems exempt, and site fencing and access roads not exempt. Missouri DOR Letter Ruling 8258 It says nothing at all about a homeowner.
So the honest position is that the exemption is written around a company's purchases, and how Missouri sales tax finally falls on a residential rooftop job, on the installer's purchases, on the homeowner's contract, or on neither, is something we have not established from a primary source and are not going to guess at. If it matters to your numbers, the Department issues binding letter rulings on request, and that is the route to a real answer rather than an inferred one.
Worth saying plainly while we are on taxes: Missouri has no state income tax credit for solar either. The Department of Revenue's 2025 MO-1040 instruction booklet runs to fifty-three pages and contains the Form MO-TC credit table, which enumerates every credit an individual may claim. Across the whole booklet the word "solar" appears zero times. Missouri DOR, 2025 MO-1040 instructions
What this means if you are holding a quote
A Missouri proposal whose payback math includes a property tax exemption is describing a state that stopped existing in August 2022. That is not a small adjustment to the numbers, because the exemption is usually presented as a permanent annual saving over twenty-five years.
What is genuinely true is narrower and worth asking your assessor about directly: Missouri has no enforceable exemption, and the State Tax Commission tells assessors that a rooftop array attached to the home may be treated as a fixture whose value is contributory to the home rather than valued separately. Those are different claims, and only the first one is a rule.
The rest of the Missouri picture is on the hub: which utility still pays a rebate, what net metering is worth, and what expired when.
Common questions
Does Missouri have a solar property tax exemption in 2026?
No. Section 137.100(10) of the Revised Statutes of Missouri exempts "solar energy systems not held for resale" from property taxation and is still printed, but the Missouri Supreme Court held that subdivision unconstitutional on August 9, 2022 in Johnson v. Springfield Solar 1, LLC, 648 S.W.3d 101, under article X, section 6 of the Missouri Constitution, which limits tax exemptions to specifically enumerated property. The Revisor prints the holding as an annotation directly beneath the still-present text, which is why the exemption continues to be listed as available almost everywhere. Nothing enacted since has restored it.
Will solar panels raise my property taxes in Missouri?
That is the assessor's call, and Missouri's guidance points away from a separate charge without forbidding one. The State Tax Commission's assessor manual, chapter 7.11, says rooftop panels "could be considered to be a fixture of the home if attached to the home," whose value "would be contributory to the overall value of the residential property and not valued separately," and it frames that as being in the assessor's discretion based upon the facts known to the assessor. So the usual outcome described by the state's own guidance is that the array is not assessed as a separate item. It is guidance to a county officer rather than a rule you can enforce, Missouri has 114 counties plus the City of St. Louis, and we have not surveyed them. Ask your county assessor before you sign anything whose payback depends on the answer.
What was Johnson v. Springfield Solar 1, LLC?
It is the 2022 Missouri Supreme Court decision that ended the state's solar property tax exemption. Decided August 9, 2022 and reported at 648 S.W.3d 101, it held section 137.100(10) unconstitutional under article X, section 6 of the Missouri Constitution, which limits property tax exemptions to specifically enumerated categories of property. The practical effect is unusual: because a court struck the subdivision down rather than the legislature repealing it, the words of the statute never changed. Anyone who looks up section 137.100 today still reads an exemption for "solar energy systems not held for resale" and has to notice the annotation underneath to learn that it does not work.
Did Senate Bill 4 in 2025 bring the Missouri solar property tax exemption back?
No. S.B. 4, effective August 28, 2025, created a new subclass of tangible personal property for solar panels, racking, inverters and related equipment, assessed at five percent of true value. It is not an exemption, and it is gated: it reaches only systems constructed and producing solar energy before August 9, 2022, which is the date of the Springfield Solar decision. That makes it a grandfather clause for property that was already running, and it does nothing for a system installed today. A separate 2025 bill that would have capped solar property tax liability at $500 per megawatt and set a new assessor valuation rule from January 1, 2026 did not pass. We have also not established whether the new subclass could reach a residential rooftop system at all, and we say so rather than assuming either way.
Is there a sales tax exemption for solar in Missouri?
There is an exemption, but read who it is written for. Section 144.030.2(46) exempts "all purchases by a company of solar photovoltaic energy systems, components used to construct a solar photovoltaic energy system, and all purchases of materials and supplies used directly to construct or make improvements to such systems," provided the systems are sold or leased to an end user or are used to produce, collect and transmit electricity for resale or retail. The Department of Revenue has applied it in a published letter ruling whose facts were a utility-scale solar farm, holding panels, racking, inverters, transformers and tracking systems exempt and site fencing and access roads not exempt. That ruling says nothing about a homeowner. How Missouri sales tax finally falls on a residential rooftop job is something we have not established from a primary source, so we do not claim it in either direction. The Department issues binding letter rulings on request if it matters to your numbers.
Does Missouri have a state solar tax credit?
No. The Missouri Department of Revenue's 2025 MO-1040 Individual Income Tax Long Form instruction booklet runs to fifty-three pages and contains the Form MO-TC credit table, which enumerates every credit an individual may claim by alpha code and administering agency. Across the entire booklet the word "solar" appears zero times, and the only occurrence of "energy" is the Department of Natural Resources' Processed Wood Energy credit. With the federal section 25D credit also gone for expenditures made after December 31, 2025, a Missouri homeowner buying a system in 2026 receives no income tax credit from either government.