Income Tax

House File 352 created a voluntary election for a partnership or S corporation to be subject to Iowa tax at the entity level. The legislation applies retroactively to tax years beginning on or after January 1, 2022. This guidance describes the new elective Pass-Through Entity Tax and certain filing procedures being developed to implement the tax.

This tax guidance describes what retirement income is eligible for the exclusion, who is eligible for the exclusion, and the withholding requirements for Iowa purposes on retirement income. Additionally, on February 20, 2023, Governor Kim Reynolds signed Senate File 181. The guidance was updated to address withholding requirements for distributions of retirement income for tax years beginning on or after January 1, 2023.

House File 2317, signed into law by Governor Kim Reynolds on March 1, 2022, creates or modifies the following individual income tax provisions. It provides one irrevocable election to exclude from state income tax the net  capital gain from the sale of stock. Excludes certain farm lease payments, certain capital gains of retired farmers, and retirement income for individuals 55 years of  age or older or disabled.The rate reduces over a three-year period then converts to a flat tax rate.

Order 2022-02 grants an extension to certain pass-through entities with a short tax year to file their 2022 Iowa Composite Return under Iowa Code section 422.16B. Pass-through entities with a short tax year beginning and ending in calendar year 2022 will have until May 1, 2023, to file their Iowa Composite Return under Iowa Code section 422.16B without incurring a late filing penalty.

This requires any net operating loss incurred by an individual engaged in a small business or farming business in Iowa after January 20, 2020 to be carried back 3 years, unless an election was made to waive the carryback period or to use the 5-year carryback period for farmers.

On June 29, 2020 Governor Reynolds signed into law House File 2641. Division V of that bill modified the procedures and requirements for reporting federal income tax changes made after July 1, 2020, to the Iowa Department of Revenue. This guidance is intended to provide a general overview of these procedures and requirements.

The Department has issued new guidance related to Iowa’s conformity with certain tax provisions of the federal Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021. This guidance focuses primarily on Iowa’s nonconformity with this federal law for tax years beginning prior to January 1, 2020. Iowa generally conforms with the federal tax changes to the extent they affect Iowa income taxes for tax years beginning on or after January 1, 2020.

The Department of Revenue has received several questions regarding the applicability of the federal S corporation built-in gains tax for Iowa tax purposes. This guidance is not a detailed analysis of the calculation of this federal tax, but is instead intended to generally describe Iowa’s conformity with the federal built-in gains tax on S corporations, with a particular focus on Iowa’s conformity since the change to the recognition period enacted in federal Public Law 114-113, Division Q, section 127, Commonly referred to as the Protecting Americans from Tax Hikes Act.

Iowa’s conformity with the federal limitations on business interest expense deductions imposed by Internal Revenue Code (IRC) section 163(j) varies depending on the year. For tax years beginning on or after Jan 1, 2019, and before January 1, 2020, Iowa conformed with the federal limitation. At this time Iowa does not conform to the federal limitation for tax years beginning on or after January 1, 2020.

Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds signed Senate File 2417, an extensive state tax reform bill to improve the tax structure in Iowa. The 2018 Iowa Tax Reform Bill includes an updated federal conformity provision beginning with tax year 2018, which allows the same deductions for certain withdrawals from a College Savings Iowa and IAdvisor 529 Plan Accounts (529 Plans) and certain rollovers at the state level that are allowed at the federal level. 529 Plans, administered by the Iowa Treasurer of State, help Iowans save money to pay for certain educational expenses for a specific beneficiary.