What is prevailing wage compliance for IRA tax credits?

Under the Inflation Reduction Act, clean energy projects must pay workers prevailing wages and meet apprenticeship requirements to qualify for enhanced tax credits. Non-compliance triggers fines of $5,000 or more per worker per violation, and puts the credit at risk. Vindexa monitors compliance continuously so anomalies are caught and remediated within the IRS cure window.

How is Vindexa different from a compliance consultant?

Consultants typically deliver findings weeks or months after the fact — often after cure windows have already closed. Vindexa monitors in real time, surfacing anomalies while there's still time to fix them. We augment what consulting teams do well with the speed and granularity that only continuous monitoring provides.

Who is Vindexa built for?

Vindexa is built for clean energy developers, EPCs, and their compliance and finance teams. Our primary users are the VP of Tax or CFO who signs the return and the Head of Compliance who manages day-to-day remediation. We also offer a managed service model for mid-market teams without dedicated compliance staff.

How long does it take to get started?

Most customers are live within 15–20 days. Results are typically visible within one to two payroll cycles.

You build the projects. We make the credits stick.

Continuous prevailing-wage and apprenticeship verification for IRA tax credits. Audit-ready, by default.

Request a demo How it works

Backed by AES + AI Fund

What Vindexa monitors

Davis−Bacon prevailing wage rates· Apprenticeship ratios, by craft· Apprenticeship hours, by craft· Fringe−benefit elections· Certified payroll WH−347· Multi−tier subcontractor data· Cure−event documentation· Back−pay calculations· IRA §45, §48, §45X, §45Y· Tax−equity diligence packages· Davis−Bacon prevailing wage rates· Apprenticeship ratios, by craft· Apprenticeship hours, by craft· Fringe−benefit elections· Certified payroll WH−347· Multi−tier subcontractor data· Cure−event documentation· Back−pay calculations· IRA §45, §48, §45X, §45Y· Tax−equity diligence packages·

01 The total cost of compliance

Half of what compliance costs you, you don’t see coming.

Roughly $1.34M moves through compliance on a single utility−scale project. You only see about half of it coming.

In your budget today $660,000

Off the books today $678,500

In your budget today$660,000

Consultant & advisory retainers Big−Four and boutique fees for quarterly reviews and the year−end audit. $300KIn budget

Internal compliance team ~1.5 fully−loaded FTE spent chasing payroll and certifications. $220KIn budget

Markup built into EPC quotes The compliance−risk premium your EPC prices into the contract. $140KIn budget

Off the books today$678,500

Prevailing wage penalties $5,000 per underpaid worker, across every sub on the project. $322.5KAt risk

Apprenticeship shortfall penalties $50 per labor−hour missed, paid back to hold the tax multiplier. $163.5KAt risk

Tax−equity rate haircut 25–50 bps your partners price in when documentation looks uncertain. $147.5KAt risk

Outside counsel & late audit prep After−the−fact reconstruction when the cure window is closing. $45KAt risk

Vindexa → One layer runs through every segment. The same continuous workflow consolidates the spend you can see — and drives the half you can’t as close to zero as the evidence allows.

02 The Golden Record

One file.
Always current.
Ready when your tax
team needs it.

The Golden Record is what your VP of Tax actually signs. Cross-validated, audit-ready, and built continuously from the data on hand. Not assembled in a panic the night before a deadline.

Built from Every payroll, every project

Updated In real time

Defensible to IRS · DOL · Tax equity

Signed under Penalties of perjury

Compliance File · IRA §45

Solar Farm Alpha

IS-2026-042 · Clark Co. NV · Q4 2025 to Q1 2026

Prevailing wage Verified

Apprenticeship ratio 15.2% → 15%

Certified payrolls 52 / 52 weeks

Workers monitored 247

Cure events resolved 3

Credit eligibility 5× · FULL

Authorized signatory · VP, Tax · 02·28·2026

03 The problem

The report lands
after the cure window
closes.

$5,000 Per worker. Per violation. Stacks across a multi-tier subcontractor stack.

Two outcomes, one anomaly

Status quo

Found in Q2.
Cure window: closed.

Quarterly consultant report finds a wage shortfall. The sub has demobilized. The cure deadline passed 60 days ago. The fine is owed. And the workers are hard to even locate.

With Vindexa

Found in minutes.
Cured in days.

Anomaly surfaces with the payroll. Affected workers identified. Back-pay processed inside the cure window. No penalty owed.

04 What Vindexa does

Real-time.
Every worker.
Every cure window.

Vindexa pulls payroll data wherever it lives, validates it against PWA requirements continuously. Not quarterly. Not at audit time. The result is the Golden Record. Three pillars. One file.

P·01

Compliance
confidence.

Automated data capture across the full subcontractor stack. Anomalies surfaced within cure windows. Remediation tracked to closure.

Detection →

P·02

Financial
precision.

Corrections tracked to the penny. Tax forms auto-populated. Compliance that earns its keep before the audit ever arrives.

Remediation →

P·03

Defensible
by design.

The Golden Record holds every project’s verified data. The File stays current with it. Ready the moment it matters.

Signature →

05 Built for the people who sign

Two people feel this every day.

The signature

The VP of Tax

The person signing the return doesn’t sit in the data. They sign under penalties of perjury, trusting the team below them. They need a defensible record they can point to, not a consultant report that arrived after the deadline.

Vindexa delivers

+A live File, always current with the data on hand.
+Cross-validated documentation across every project.
+The evidence behind the signature.

The remediation

The Head of Compliance

The person running remediation lives in the EPC back-and-forth. Chasing certified payrolls. Tracking corrections to the penny. They need speed, granularity, and a system that absorbs friction instead of generating more of it.

Vindexa delivers

+Real-time anomaly detection inside the cure window.
+Automated data collection and gap identification.
+Remediation workflows that close the loop.

06 · How it works

Live compliance
in weeks.

Four steps, one continuous loop. We meet your data where it is. The File builds as the work happens.

Step 01 · Ingest

Pull data wherever it lives.

Payroll providers, LCPtracker, subcontractor uploads, the spreadsheets and PDFs that show up over email.

Step 02 · Monitor

Continuous verification.

Prevailing wage and apprenticeship checks across every worker on every project. No spot-checking. No exceptions.

Step 03 · Remediate

Surface while fixable.

Anomalies surface while there’s still time. Vindexa flags the issue, tracks the correction to closure, and follows up with the right people until it’s resolved.

Step 04 · Sign

Open The File.

Your VP of Tax signs with certainty. Cross-validated. Defensible. Penalties of perjury stop being a leap of faith.

07 Designed inside the portfolio

Built inside one of the most complex clean-energy portfolios in the country.

The hardest part of PWA isn’t catching the violation. It’s getting clean data in the first place. Vindexa was designed inside that environment.

AES One of the largest clean-energy operators in the U.S.

Backed by

AI Fund Andrew Ng’s venture studio for applied AI

Backed by

08 Two ways to work with us

Whether you have a compliance team or not, it’s handled.

Tier 01 · Software

Software only.

Full visibility, full control. Your team runs it, powered by Vindexa.

Real-time monitoring across every project
Automated data ingestion & gap detection
Remediation workflows + audit-ready File

Best for teams with dedicated compliance staff who want direct oversight.

Tier 02 · Software + Service

Software & managed service.

Expert operators run the platform on your behalf. Institutional-grade compliance without building an internal team.

Everything in Software, plus
Dedicated compliance operator on your account
EPC and subcontractor chase, end-to-end
Quarterly audit-prep with your tax counsel

Best for developers without dedicated PWA compliance headcount.

By the time you need The File,
it should already exist.

Request a demo → Talk to our team

Typical onboarding: 15–20 days from connection to live compliance. Results visible inside one to two payroll cycles.