Jeff Robinson
The income tax returns Iowans are filing provide some insight into the health of Iowa’s economy.
“So far this tax return season individual income tax returns for tax year 2015 are showing good wage growth,” says Legislative Services Agency analyst Jeff Robinson, “but growth in unearned income such as interest, dividends and capital gains is negative, while reported farm income is down significantly.”
Robinson has reviewed overall tax payments to the state over the past nine months.
“Year to date revenue growth is 2.3 percent through March and that is in line with current budget expectations for the year,” Robinson says.
Eighty-eight percent of that growth is in income tax payments to the state. Sales tax payments to the state are up, but not quite as much as experts had predicted.