The first month of the state’s tax amnesty period is complete and those who haven’t signed up still have until the end of this month to take advantage. Stuart Vos is the administrator of the Revenue Operations Division of the Iowa Department of Revenue. He says they collected 1.2 million dollars in September, and have already seen an increase in dollars this week — for a total of around two million dollars.
Vos believes they’ll take in some 54-million by the time the amnesty is over. Vos says the trend they’re seeing is similar to trends in other amnesty programs, and they expect the bulk of the money to come in during the last two weeks of October. The state last held a tax amnesty period in 1986.
Vos says the number of applications and the dollar amount collected this year are "very similar" to 1986 when they ended up collecting 36-million dollars. Vos says most of the money collected thus far was predictable.
Vos says so far they’ve had mostly individual taxpayers that the department had issued an assessment against. He says they sent these people 46,000 letters in late August and received 875 responses, collecting one-million dollars from them.
Vos says it likely takes businesses longer to get their information together to take advantage of the tax amnesty. He says you can still get in before the deadline and pay the taxes that’re due. Anyone who owes back tax and has had an assessment issued against them, or who has failed to file a return, can have the interest against them dismissed, and half the penalty. You can get a tax amnesty application at: www.IowaTaxAmnesty.gov , or by calling 1-877-4BAKTAX (1-877-422-5829).