IRS · Official form

Form 4255, Certain Credit Recapture, Excessive Payments, and Penalties

Form 4255 figures the tax you owe back when investment credit property stops qualifying, plus amounts due for excessive payments, excessive credit transfers, and prevailing wage penalties. Fill in the official IRS PDF below and download it.

This is the genuine IRS PDF, unmodified. Source: IRS official page.

What is 4255?

Form 4255, Certain Credit Recapture, Excessive Payments, and Penalties, is the give-it-back form for investment credits. If you claimed a credit on property and then disposed of it, took it out of qualifying use, or reduced your ownership before the recapture period ended, this form calculates how much of the credit is added back to your tax.

Recent revisions broadened the form beyond classic investment credit recapture: it now also handles amounts due for excessive elective payments under section 6417, excessive credit transfers under section 6418, and certain prevailing wage and apprenticeship penalty amounts tied to clean energy credits.

Who files 4255?

  • Taxpayers who disposed of investment credit property before the end of its recapture period
  • Owners whose property ceased to qualify, such as energy property taken out of service early
  • Entities that received elective payments or transferred credits later determined to be excessive
  • Filers owing prevailing wage or apprenticeship penalty amounts on clean energy projects

How to fill out 4255

  1. Identify each property or credit involved, with the original credit year, the credit claimed, and the date it ceased to qualify or was disposed of.
  2. Work out the recapture percentage based on how many full years the property stayed in qualifying use.
  3. Complete the sections for excessive payments, excessive credit transfers, or wage and apprenticeship penalties if they apply to you.
  4. Total the increase in tax and carry it to your income tax return as the instructions direct.
  5. Download the completed PDF and attach it to your return, keeping your placed-in-service and disposition records.

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Frequently asked questions

When does investment credit recapture apply?

Generally when property on which you claimed the credit is disposed of or stops qualifying within five years of being placed in service. The percentage recaptured shrinks the longer the property stayed in use; the current instructions have the schedule.

Does selling my business trigger recapture?

It can. Disposing of the property, or a sufficient drop in your ownership interest in the entity holding it, can trigger recapture. Some transfers, such as certain changes in the form of doing business, do not; check the instructions.

What are excessive payments and transfers?

If a clean energy credit was paid to you directly or transferred to a buyer and the credit is later found to be smaller than claimed, the excess is owed back with a possible addition, and Form 4255 is where that amount is figured.