We built Rebate Scout because we kept hearing the same thing from friends and family: "I had no idea I could claim that."
Here's the problem: the money homeowners are missing isn't in one place. Federal credits are on IRS.gov. State HOMES and HEAR rebates are on your state energy office portal. Homestead exemptions are on your county assessor's site. Utility rebates are on your electric company's website. These agencies don't share data, don't share deadlines, and don't know about each other's programs.
Tax software handles the IRS part. But most of the money — the state rebates, the county exemptions, the utility programs — doesn't go on a tax return at all. Your accountant doesn't know about it because it's not their job. Nobody connects the dots for you.
That's what Rebate Scout does. We cross-reference every layer — federal, state, county, city, utility, and regional — and show you the combined total personalized to your ZIP code. Think of us as TurboTax for the money that isn't on your tax return.
Every link in our reports points to an official .gov domain or state authority. We verify each URL regularly and replace any that break.
State HOMES and HEAR programs open, close, and change waitlist status constantly. We audit program data weekly and update statuses as they change.
Every credit in your report shows a data-freshness label — Verified (matched the official portal in the last 48 hours), Based on prior cycle (historic pattern — verify with the provider), or Pending re-verification (manual check required). These are indicators of when we last checked the source, not a determination of your legal eligibility. We always show conservative estimates and err on the underpromise side. See our glossary for the full definitions.
Every day, an automated audit checks all of our source URLs against official .gov endpoints and flags anomalies for manual review. If a state portal moves or a program page disappears, we know about it the next morning.
When legislation terminates a credit (like the OBBB Act terminating §25C and §25D after 2025), our system automatically hides the credit from new reports while preserving it as a reference for prior-year filers. Termination dates are first-class fields, not footnotes.
We don't sell leads to contractors, installers, or any other third party.
We don't share user data with utilities, state agencies, or advertising networks.
We don't store quiz answers on our servers.
We don't earn affiliate fees on rebate applications.
We're not paid by any state energy office or utility.
The quiz, estimates, state guides, and alerts are all free. We charge $12 for personalized action-plan reports. That $12 pays for our infrastructure, our daily data verification cron, and the ongoing work of keeping state program data accurate. It's how we stay independent — no ads, no leads, no data monetization.
All credit and rebate information is sourced from official government agencies and verified utility programs:
Rebate Scout is an informational tool. We are not tax advisors, CPAs, or financial planners. Our estimates are based on publicly available program details and the information you provide. We always recommend consulting a qualified tax professional for decisions about your specific situation.
Questions, feedback, or broken link reports: hello@mail.rebatescout.co