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ITC Prevailing Wage & Apprenticeship Guide

Ask your AI assistant the prevailing wage and apprenticeship questions a solar, storage or microgrid job raises when it claims the increased (5x) credit, and get answers with the regulation paragraph behind every figure: IRC 45(b)(7)-(8), 48(a)(10)-(11), 48E(d)(3)-(4); Treasury Regulations 1.45-7, 1.45-8, 1.45-12.

MCP endpoint (Streamable HTTP, no authentication):
https://itc-pwa-guide.sitetime.workers.dev/mcp

Add it to your assistant

Claude (claude.ai, Claude Desktop, mobile, Cowork)

Add to Claude or: Customize → Connectors → Add custom connector → paste the endpoint → authentication: No sign-in. Team and Enterprise: an Owner adds it under Organization settings → Connectors → Add → Custom.

Claude Code

claude mcp add --transport http itc-pwa-guide https://itc-pwa-guide.sitetime.workers.dev/mcp

Or in the project's .mcp.json:

{ "mcpServers": { "itc-pwa-guide": { "type": "http", "url": "https://itc-pwa-guide.sitetime.workers.dev/mcp" } } }

ChatGPT

chatgpt.com/plugins → + → Add custom MCP server → Server URL https://itc-pwa-guide.sitetime.workers.dev/mcp → Authentication: No authentication → acknowledge the risk notice → Create as a plugin, then install it. The server also offers search and fetch for ChatGPT's research tools. (Workspace rules may limit who can add servers.)

Cursor

Add to Cursor or put this in ~/.cursor/mcp.json (or the project's .cursor/mcp.json):

{ "mcpServers": { "itc-pwa-guide": { "url": "https://itc-pwa-guide.sitetime.workers.dev/mcp" } } }

VS Code (GitHub Copilot)

Add to VS Code or .vscode/mcp.json:

{ "servers": { "itc-pwa-guide": { "type": "http", "url": "https://itc-pwa-guide.sitetime.workers.dev/mcp" } } }

Any other MCP client: Streamable HTTP, https://itc-pwa-guide.sitetime.workers.dev/mcp, no headers. The endpoint speaks the 2026-07-28 protocol revision and the 2024-10-07 through 2025-11-25 revisions (initialize handshake) on the same URL.

What you can ask

"Does PWA apply to our 4.9 MW AC solar project under section 48E that began construction on 2025-06-01?"
"A sub used three electricians, a working foreman who is on the tools 30% of the week, and the owner (100%, manages). Does it need an apprentice?"
"17,000 labor hours, 2,000 counted apprentice hours, construction began in 2025: where do we stand and what would the cure cost?"
"On Tuesday one journeyworker worked 10 hours and five apprentices 50 hours on a 1:1 program. Which hours count?"
"The Heavy determination for Van Buren County, Tennessee: what is the electrician rate, and is $18 cash with no fringe compliant for 100 hours?"
"We emailed the program on 2026-10-01 asking for apprentices from 2026-11-20 and heard nothing. Are we covered by the good-faith exception?"
"Read 26 CFR 1.45-8(d)." / "What records do we need to keep as a subcontractor?"

Tools

pwa_overview — PWA overview: the rules in one place
Start here.
check_applicability — Do PWA requirements apply to this project?
Says whether a project must meet the prevailing wage and apprenticeship requirements to claim the increased (5x) credit, and which ones: the credit involved, when construction began (before January 29, 2023 is exempt for 30C, 45, 45Q, 45V, 45Y, 48, 48E and 179D; 45L, 45U, 45Z and 48C have no such exception), the one-megawatt exception for 45, 45Y, 48 and 48E (maximum net output under 1 MW AC by nameplate, aggregated across the energy project or across facilities with integrated operations; for DC generation the lesser of the DC nameplate sum or the first inverter), construction versus alteration or repair after placed in service (apprenticeship applies to construction only; prevailing wages continue 5 years for the ITC, 10 for the PTC), the applicable apprentice percentage (10 / 12.5 / 15%), whether the project is under section 48 or 48E, and for solar and wind the 2025 law’s termination dates (construction after July 4, 2026 must be placed in service by December 31, 2027)..
count_participation — Count the four: does this employer need an apprentice?
The participation requirement (26 CFR 1.45-8(d)): a taxpayer, contractor or subcontractor that employs four or more individuals to perform construction, alteration or repair work on the facility, counted over the whole construction (not at one time), must employ at least one qualified apprentice there.
check_apprentice_hours — Labor-hours test and the apprenticeship cure
The apprenticeship labor-hours requirement for one facility (26 CFR 1.45-8(b)): qualified apprentices must perform the applicable percentage (10% if construction began before 2023, 12.5% in 2023, 15% from 2024) of total labor hours, counting every contractor and subcontractor, after excluding hours of foremen, superintendents, owners and executive/administrative/professional staff, and counting apprentice hours only within the daily ratio.
check_daily_ratio — Daily apprentice-to-journeyworker ratio
The ratio requirement (26 CFR 1.45-8(c)): on each day, for one employer and one occupation on the job site, the number of apprentices may not exceed what the registered program’s apprentice-to-journeyworker ratio allows for the journeyworkers present (or the ratio for the facility’s area).
check_prevailing_wage — Is this pay compliant, and what does a shortfall cost?
Compares pay for one classification with the Davis-Bacon prevailing rate (basic hourly rate + fringe from the wage determination; look it up with lookup_wage_determination) and, if short, computes the IRS cure: the shortfall (x3 for intentional disregard), interest at the Federal short-term rate + 6 points, and the $5,000 per-worker penalty ($10,000 for intentional disregard), with the penalty waivers (corrected by the quarter deadline and either no more than 10% of pay periods short or no more than 5% short; or work under a qualifying project labor agreement).
check_good_faith_request — Good Faith Effort Exception: does a request qualify?
Judges a request for apprentices under the Good Faith Effort Exception (26 CFR 1.45-8(f)(1)): a written request (electronic or registered mail) to a registered apprenticeship program covering the facility’s area and occupation, sent at least 45 days before the apprentices are needed (14 days for a later request to the same program), with the dates, occupation, location, number, expected hours, contact and a statement of intent to employ.
lookup_wage_determination — Look up a Davis-Bacon wage determination (live, SAM.gov)
Fetches a Davis-Bacon general wage determination live from SAM.gov: by number (e.g.
find_apprenticeship_programs — Find registered apprenticeship programs to request apprentices from
Registered apprenticeship programs a contractor can send a good-faith request to (26 CFR 1.45-8(f)(1)): a program whose area covers the facility and that trains the occupation.
read_regulation — Read the regulation text (live, eCFR)
Returns the current text of a paragraph of the governing regulations straight from the eCFR, with its citation and URL: 26 CFR 1.45-6, 1.45-7, 1.45-8, 1.45-12, 1.48-13, 1.48E-3 and the Labor rules they rest on (29 CFR 541.101 owner exemption, 5.5 apprentices on Davis-Bacon work, 5.31 fringe, 29.5 program standards).
records_checklist — Records to keep (and who keeps them)
The records the regulations expect for the prevailing wage and apprenticeship requirements (26 CFR 1.45-12), as a checklist for a taxpayer, a prime contractor or a subcontractor, with how they may be kept (each company keeps its own unredacted records, or hands PII-redacted copies to the taxpayer or a vendor; unredacted records go to the IRS on request) and how they feed Form 7220..
official_sources — Official sources and where to find things
The primary sources behind every answer here (IRS pages and FAQs, Form 7220, the Code, the regulations on eCFR, the Treasury decision with its preamble, DOL’s IRA page, SAM.gov wage determinations, apprenticeship.gov and the Tennessee apprenticeship agency), with one line on what each is for..
search — Search this guide (for research assistants)
Full-text search over this guide’s documents: the PWA overview sections, the records checklists, Form 7220, the 2025 law changes, the Tennessee agency, and the governing regulation sections (26 CFR 1.45-6, 1.45-7, 1.45-8, 1.45-12, 1.48-13, 1.48E-3; 29 CFR 541.101, 5.5, 5.31, 29.5).
fetch — Fetch a document from this guide (for research assistants)
Returns the full text of a document found with search: overview:<topic>, records:<requirement>, form7220, law2025, tennessee, or reg:<section>[(paragraph)] such as reg:1.45-8(d), which is read live from the eCFR..

Every tool is read-only. Figures carry their citation (for example "26 CFR 1.45-8(d)"); where the regulation is silent and the server applies a reading, the answer says interpretation. Live data: Davis-Bacon wage determinations from SAM.gov, regulation text from the eCFR, Tennessee registered programs from Apprenticeship TN; everything else is the regulations as of the dates cited.

What it is not

General information about federal rules, not tax or legal advice. The taxpayer claiming the credit is responsible for compliance; its tax adviser decides. The server does not file anything, keeps no records of yours, and knows nothing about your project beyond what you type into a question.

Sources

IRS: Prevailing wage and apprenticeship requirements · FAQs · Form 7220. eCFR: 1.45-7 · 1.45-8 · 1.45-12 · 1.48-13 · 1.48E-3. DOL: prevailing wage and the IRA · SAM.gov wage determinations · apprenticeship.gov partner finder.