Starting today, several Iowa cities and one entire county can now charge more in local option sales taxes, thanks to approval by voters last year. Renee Mulvey, spokeswoman for the Iowa Department of Revenue and Finance, says although the tax is called local, it affects everyone doing business.
Mulvey says: “It’s not just the businesses in the jurisdictions. It’s businesses statewide. It’s businesses nationwide that are collecting the local option tax that need to know that the local option tax is going into effect January one.”
She says communities use that new revenue for all sorts of projects: “We find that jurisdictions do everything from water and sewer improvements, road improvements, libraries, jails, any legal purpose.”
The new rates affect one city in each of the following counties: Appanoose, Cedar, Dallas and Warren as well as all the cities and rural areas in Wayne County.