I feel like I have a basic understanding of tax credits, but nothing so far as would make the most sense in what I want to know: I'm looking into buying a new car, and it looks like I can get a 7500 tax credit for the car I'm interested in buying. My understanding is that these credits are "non-refundable" meaning I don't actually get that money back, but how does it still work? I pay into the income tax (I know, I don't want to know the benefits of doing this vs not, it's just easier for me to pay more and get some back when the time comes), so I always get a refund. Would my refund be higher then because I get a credit on the taxes that I paid in? Or would it be the same and my tax liability would be reduced?

I need someone to explain this to me like I'm 5, please!

So, if I have stocks that were purchased during the class window of a class action lawsuit, is it okay for me to sell them?

It's not a large amount of money at stake here, but it'd also be nice to be able to recoup some of the losses I had due to the misleading information that caused me to buy the stock and ive filled out the forms but they didnt say anything about future actions just asked when i bought or sold any at the time of the suit. I am not sure if it's okay to sell them or if I should hold them.

Any one have recommendations? This is US stock exchange, and if I did sell they'd be at a loss and I have sold other stocks at profit so I would be looking at capturing the losses on my taxes.