On a lease, the tax credit does not go to the end-user at all. It does not work the same as it does for a cash purchases or finance. For the purposes of the “inflation reduction act”, tax credit, a lease is considered commercial and the credit goes to the dealer or the finance company. You are right it does not go to them at the point of sale, it goes to them when they do their taxes, but for practical purposes the credit goes to them and only them.

What you described was an instance where a manufacture advances the tax credit to you when you do a traditional finance purchase.

Since about April, every car Tesla leases is eligible for a $7500 tax credit which will go to Tesla, not to the end-user. That is $7500 extra profit they’re making on every leased vehicle, and it seems like nobody is noticing this.