Iowa farmers are getting a two month extension to file their taxes as lawmakers work to extend state tax breaks to Iowa small business owners and farmers who purchased assets in 2015. Farmers were facing a deadline of March 1 to file and pay their 2015 Iowa individual income taxes.
Victoria Daniels, with the Iowa Department of Revenue, says the filing deadline has been pushed back to April 30. “One thing we’ve already received some questions about is the fact that April 30 in a Saturday. While the deadline is April 30, under law, we extend that so the payments and returns will actually need to be postmarked or received by May 2,” Daniels said.
Many legislators have called on the State of Iowa to align itself with federal tax adjustments made in December. “A lot of taxpayers have been waiting to see if the Iowa Legislature will conform or ‘couple’ with provisions that were passed by the federal government late in 2015,” Daniels said.
“Some of those provisions can have significant financial consequences for taxpayers and they want to know whether or not they’re going to get the same benefit for their Iowa taxes that they do for federal taxes.” If the State of Iowa fails to align with those federal tax adjustments, Iowa small business owners, farmers, teachers, and others will have to pay an estimated $95 million more when they file their state income taxes.
Governor Terry Branstad has said he would support a plan to extend those state tax breaks for one year. That prompted the action from the Department of Revenue to extend the filing deadline for farmers. “We believe this is the right thing to do and the governor asked us to extend this deadline,” Daniels said.
Iowa farmers who’ve already filed, but did not pay their state taxes, are also covered by the extension — meaning their payments are not due until May 2.