Layton Smith Sr. is an IRS Enrolled Agent and general partner at HofflerSmith Financial in Cherry Hill, New Jersey, with 27 years of tax practice. He has overseen thousands of solar and clean energy tax credits, rebates, and their implications for his clients.
It depends on your state, and Pennsylvania is one of the states where the honest answer is that it can. Most guides tell homeowners solar never raises property taxes. That is true in the roughly thirty states that wrote an exemption into law. Pennsylvania did not.
Solar reliably adds market value to a home. The question is whether your state shields that added value from assessment. Pennsylvania’s county assessment law, at 53 Pa.C.S. 8811, lists the improvements that are exempt and is silent on solar. With no statewide exemption to point to, the outcome falls to county practice, and county practice varies.
Three Regimes, and Which One You Are In Decides Everything
Every state falls into one of three buckets, and the bucket matters far more than anything about your panels.
Regime | What Happens When You Add Solar | Example |
|---|---|---|
Statutory exemption | The added value is excluded from assessment by law. Your assessment does not move because of the system. | New Jersey |
No exemption | Nothing in state law shields the added value. Whether it is picked up depends on how your county assesses. | Pennsylvania |
Partial or capped | An exemption exists but is limited by time, system size or system type. | Varies by state |
If you are reading a national guide that says solar never affects property taxes, it is describing the first bucket and quietly assuming you live there.
Why Pennsylvania Is Genuinely Unsettled
Pennsylvania assesses property at the county level. The state sets the framework in 53 Pa.C.S. 8811, which enumerates what is exempt from assessment, and solar is not among the enumerated items. That silence is the whole story: there is no statewide instruction either to exempt solar or to assess it.
In practice that means a rooftop system may never appear in your assessment, or it may be picked up at a reassessment or when a permit triggers a review. Both outcomes are legal. The variable is your county, not your equipment.
This is worth saying plainly because the reassurance is so common: nobody can promise a Pennsylvania homeowner that solar will not affect their assessment. Anyone who does is describing another state’s law.
What to Actually Do Before You Sign
This takes one phone call and it is free.
- Call your county assessment office and ask how they treat residential solar. They will tell you. This is a routine question and the answer is the one that governs you.
- Ask whether a building permit triggers a review. In some counties the permit is what puts the improvement in front of an assessor.
- Get the answer in writing if it matters to your decision. An installer’s assurance is not the county’s position and carries no weight at assessment.
- Put the number in context. Even where an assessment rises, the increase is on the added value, not on the system price, and it is set against decades of avoided electricity cost.
How Pennsylvania Compares With Its Neighbors
New Jersey took the opposite approach and exempts the added value outright, which is one of several reasons the two states produce different payback math on otherwise similar systems. If you are comparing across a state line, this is a real difference rather than a rounding error, and it is covered alongside the rest of the stack in our Pennsylvania solar incentives guide and our New Jersey solar incentives guide.
Solar and Property Taxes FAQs
Do solar panels increase property taxes?
It depends on your state. Most states exempt the added value from assessment by statute, so the assessment does not move. In states without an exemption, including Pennsylvania, there is no such protection and the outcome depends on local assessment practice.
Does Pennsylvania exempt solar from property tax?
No. Pennsylvania’s county assessment law at 53 Pa.C.S. 8811 lists exempt improvements and does not include solar, so there is no statewide exemption. Treatment falls to county practice.
How do I find out what my county will do?
Call your county assessment office and ask how they treat residential solar, and whether a building permit triggers a review. It is a routine question, the call is free, and their answer is the one that binds you.
Does solar add value to a home even if it is taxed?
Solar reliably adds market value. Where an assessment does rise, it rises on that added value rather than on what you paid for the system, and it sits against decades of avoided electricity cost.
Can an installer promise my taxes will not go up in Pennsylvania?
No, and treat it as a warning sign if one does. With no statewide exemption, no installer is in a position to guarantee how a county will assess. Only the county can tell you its practice.
References & Research Sources
- Pennsylvania Consolidated Statutes. 53 Pa.C.S. 8811, Consolidated County Assessment Law: subjects of local taxation and exclusions. The enumerated list of exempt improvements, which does not include solar energy systems. Accessed August 30, 2026.
- Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development. County assessment practice and reassessment procedure. Framework under which counties administer assessment. Accessed August 30, 2026.
- New Jersey Statutes. N.J.S.A. 54:4-3.113a, solar energy system property tax exemption. The contrasting statutory exemption referenced above. Accessed August 30, 2026.
