Administrative Orders

The Department is charged by statute with many administrative duties, some of which it accomplishes by taking administrative actions or issuing administrative orders. Depending on what the statute requires, the administrative actions or orders can be either requested of or initiated by the Director. This page also includes judicial reviews of Director's Orders from the current year.

The following orders are from the past year. All orders from previous years can be found in the Iowa Tax Research Library

Administrative Orders

The Administrative Law Judge held that the Department did not err in including social security payments in calculating Taxpayer’s income for purposes of determining rent- reimbursement eligibility. Therefore, the ALJ affirmed the Department’s denial of Taxpayer’s claim for rent reimbursement. Neither party appeal the proposed decision of the ALJ; therefore, it became the Department’s final order under Iowa Administrative Code rule 701-7.19(8)(d).

Date: 2023-09-26

Taxpayers appealed the Administrative Law Judge's (ALJ) denial of their application for reinstatement after the Department denied their appeal as untimely. The ALJ upheld the Department's denial, applying the new rule that became effective after Taxpayers received their Notice of Assessment, but prior to submitting the appeal the Department dismissed as untimely. The Director overturned the ALJ's ruling, finding that the ALJ applied the wrong rule and should have analyzed Taxpayer's appeal under the good cause standard in the previous rule.

Date: 2023-06-23

Taxpayer disputed the Department’s calculation of the assessed amount for the retail sax tax owed by Taxpayer. The Administrative Law Judge upheld the Department’s assessment, stating that because Taxpayer did not provide sufficient records to determine the amount of sales tax due during the audit period, Taxpayer did not meet the burden of proving the assessment was erroneous. Neither party appealed the proposed decision; therefore it became the Department’s final order under Iowa Administrative Code rule 701-7.19.

Date: 2023-06-23

Petitioner, a healthcare information and record management company, sought a determination on the taxability of the records requests it fulfills for healthcare providers made by patients, their attorneys, or representatives pursuant to Iowa Code section 622.10. The Director determined and held that those record requests made pursuant to Iowa Code section 622.10 are exempt from sales tax under Iowa Code section 423.3(96) and 622.10(6). The taxability of other types of record requests or services the petitioner provides are not the subject of this declaratory order, nor was any determination about the applicability of other agency’s Administrative Code rules made. Further, any part of the determinations made in the 2003 Smart Document Solutions declaratory order that conflict with this order or the provisions in sections 423.3(96) and 622.10(6) are not controlling as the 2003 order was decided before those Iowa Code sections were enacted.

Date: 2023-06-23

An Administrative Law Judge affirmed the Department’s rejection of the Taxpayer’s contention that he was exempt from inheritance tax under Iowa Code section 450.9. Taxpayer claimed that the executor had told him he was exempt from inheritance tax as a direct descendant of the deceased; Taxpayer was, in fact, the brother of the deceased, and not a direct descendant. Siblings are not among the relations listed in Iowa Code section 450.9 as exempt from inheritance tax. The Administrative Law Judge also rejected the Taxpayer’s contentions that he was entitled to a reduction in the inheritance tax assessed due to charitable contributions allegedly made from the inherited funds. The Taxpayer did not appeal the decision, which became a final order pursuant to Iowa Administrative Code rule 701-7.19(8)(d).

Date: 2023-06-23

The Department appealed an ALJ Proposed Decision which affirmed the Department's assessment of tax and interest in relation to the failure to register multiple vehicles, but reversed the assessment of an evasion penalty pursuant to Iowa Code section 321.105A(7)(b) on the basis that the evasion penalty was a criminal one due to the word guilty which neither the ALJ nor the Director had jurisdiction to impose. Upon review, the Director concluded that Iowa Code sections 321.2(4) and 321.105A(4) provides the Director authority to administer and enforce the collection of the fee for new registration, including assessing any appropriate penalties. Further, the use of the word guilty in section 321.105A(7)(b) did not denote the penalty was a criminal matter as the word is not limited to criminal issues by definition. Additionally, by placing the penalty language within section 321.105A, a statute the Director has the duty to enforce, gives the Director the authority to make the necessary findings and impose the evasion penalty. Accordingly, since all the necessary findings were present in this case, the evasion penalty should be assessed.

Date: 2023-06-23

The Administrative Law Judge found that Taxpayer did not establish good cause for reinstatement of the appeal. Therefore, the ALJ affirmed the Department’s denial of the application for reinstatement. Neither party appeal the proposed decision of the ALJ; therefore, it became the Department’s final order under Iowa Administrative Code rule 701-7.19(8)(d).

Date: 2023-06-23