Question

Does the $1,500 tax credit double for married people filing a joint tax return?

Answer

No, the $1,500 tax credit does not double for married people filing jointly... unless both you and your spouse owned and lived apart in separate main homes.

However, married people filing separately can both claim the $1,500 tax credit, as long as you are both claiming separate expenses. For example, you could spend $5,000 on windows and get the $1,500 tax credit (30% of $5,000 = $1,500), and your spouse could spend $5,000 on a new HVAC system and get $1,500 back for that.

If you have $10,000 of tax credit eligible expenses (so, you could get a total of $3,000 in tax credits, as opposed to just $1,500), then you may want to run the numbers to see if filing separately this year will be more beneficial than filing jointly. Generally, filing jointly is financially better for married people.