SF 509 – Accessible fuel pump standards and tax credits
HF 616 – Property tax notices and assessment of multi-residential properties
COMMITTEE ACTION:
SF 509 requires the Iowa Department of Agriculture & Land Stewardship (IDALS) to make rules for retail motor fuel sites per the Americans with Disabilities Act. This includes required signage, a large call button near a fuel dispenser reachable from inside the driver’s vehicle with a closed hand and employee assistance without additional fee. Retail sites that have new construction must comply, and current sites that voluntarily retrofit can receive a $500 tax credit. [5/12: short form (Breitbach, Schultz “no”; Quirmbach excused)]
HF 616 makes changes related property tax assessments. Highlights include:
- Changes to the dates when a county assessor may begin an informal appeal process with a taxpayer on a new assessment of the taxpayer’s property.
- Allows for the assessor and the taxpayer to enter into a signed agreement to modify the property assessment following the informal review process.
- Requires the county assessor to mail notices to individual property owners in a class of property if the property assessments have been increased as the result of an equalization order by the state Department of Revenue (DOR). Currently, the assessor is only required to publish notice of a change in assessments due to an equalization order.
- Changes the filing deadline for the business property tax credit (BPTC) which was established in 2013. The current deadline is March 15 for property taxes due the fiscal year beginning the following July. The bill would change the filing deadline for the BPTC to June 30 the year prior to the fiscal year beginning July 1. An amendment in committee delayed the effective date of this change to be for property taxes due and payable for the fiscal year beginning July 1, 2017 so that the new deadline will be June 30, 2016. The current BPTC application deadline for taxes due and payable July 1, 2016, will be March 15, 2016.
- As amended in committee, provides for dual classification of multiuse properties with a multi-residential component. The new multi-residential classification of property was created as part of property tax reform in 2013. The DOR adopted administrative rules to guide counties on implementing this new class, as delineated in the legislation. DOR concluded that property primarily used for multi-residential purposes would be entirely assessed as multi-residential property. In the case of multiuse properties, this could lead to a situation where commercial property associated with a multiuse development would be taxed differently than a commercial property in a stand-alone development. To ensure that property in a multiuse development is taxed like similar property in a stand-alone development, the portion of the property that is used for human habitation will be assessed as multi-residential and the portion that is commercial will be assessed as such. [5/12: short form]