Analysis by the Legislative Reference Bureau
This bill makes changes to the laws administered and enforced by the
Department of Revenue.
shared revenue
Reimbursement amounts
Under current law, the state reduces the shared revenue payments to counties
and municipalities for various purposes, including for the collection of penalties and
the reimbursement for other amounts. However, current law is not consistent with
regard to which components of shared revenue are reduced for these purposes. This
bill provides that all such reductions are from the payment of all shared revenue
components that the counties and municipalities receive on the fourth Monday in
July and the third Monday in November.

Expenditure restraint payments
Under current law, counties and municipalities receive 15 percent of their
shared revenue payments on the fourth Monday in July and the remainder on the
third Monday in November, except that municipalities receive the entire amount of
their payment under the expenditure restraint program on the fourth Monday in
July. The bill allows municipalities to receive their entire expenditure restraint
before the fourth Monday in July, upon certification by DOR.
Under current law, the inflation factor used to compute a municipality's
expenditure restraint payment is a percentage equal to the average annual
percentage change in the U.S. consumer price index for all urban consumers, U.S.
city average, as determined by the U.S. Department of Labor, for the 12 months
ending on September 30. The bill modifies the consumer price index provision so that
it is for the 12 months ending on August 31.
property
Omitted property
Current law requires a taxation district clerk to annually submit to DOR a
listing of the taxes on property omitted from assessment in any of the previous two
years that are to be included in the next assessment. However, the clerk reports the
omitted taxes only if those taxes exceed $5,000. The bill modifies that $5,000
threshold so that the clerk reports the omitted taxes that are $250 or more for any
single description of property. The bill also provides that the clerk may not list an
omitted tax that was levied on property within a tax incremental district unless the
current value of the district is lower than the tax incremental base.
Objections
Current law requires a person who files an objection to the assessment of the
person's manufacturing property to pay a $45 fee. The bill increases the filing fee to
$200.
License fees
Current law imposes license fees instead of property taxes on certain public
utilities. The fees are based, generally, on the value of a utility's property. Utilities
that are subject to the fees include light, heat, and power companies, pipeline
companies, and railroad companies. Each such company, other than a railroad
company, must file a report with DOR on or before May 1 of each year. DOR
determines the value of the company's property on or before September 15. A
railroad company must file its report on or before April 15 and its value is determined
on or before August 1. The bill changes the filing and determination dates for a
railroad company so that those dates are the same as those for other public utilities.
The bill also decreases the interest rate paid on refunds of license fees paid by
public utilities from 9 percent to 3 percent.
Board of review
Current law requires that at least one member of the board of review attend
DOR training within the two-year period beginning on the date of the board's first
meeting. The bill requires all members of the board of review to complete the

training each year, except that only one member needs to attend training in-person
each year.
Assessor certification
Current law requires a person applying for an assessor certification
examination to submit a $20 fee with the application. A person applying for a
renewal of an assessor certification pays a $20 recertification fee with the
application. The bill allows DOR to determine the amount of the fee for an assessor
certification examination on the basis of DOR's estimate of the actual cost to
administer and grade the examination, but the fee may not exceed $75. The bill also
allows DOR to determine the recertification fee.
Levy limit; joint fire departments
The property tax levy limit under current law does not apply to the amount that
a city, village, or town levies to pay for charges assessed by a joint fire department
if the current year increase in such charges is equal to or less than the percentage
change in the U.S. consumer price index for all urban consumers, U.S. city average,
as determined by the U.S. Department of Labor, for the 12 months ending on
September 30 of the year of the levy, plus 2 percent. The bill modifies the consumer
price index provision so that it is for the 12 months ending on August 31 of the year
of the levy.
INCOME tax
Disability income subtraction
Current law allows an individual with less than $20,200 of federal adjusted
gross income to claim a disability income subtraction on the individual's state tax
return, if the individual is under 65 years of age and retired on disability, and, when
the individual retired, was permanently and totally disabled. For a married couple
filing a joint return, each spouse may claim the credit if they meet the criteria and
their combined income is less than $25,400. The bill replaces an obsolete reference
to the federal Internal Revenue Code with the language used to determine the
claimant's eligibility that existed under the obsolete reference.
Homestead credit
Under current law, an individual who is under the age of 62 and who does not
have a disability must have earned income in order to claim the homestead credit.
However, current law does not define earned income for purposes of claiming the
credit. The bill defines “earned income” for purposes of claiming the homestead
credit as wages, salaries, tips, and other employee compensation that may be
included in federal adjusted gross income for the taxable year, plus the amount of net
earnings from self-employment.
Current law also requires individuals who wish to claim the homestead credit
to add certain disqualified losses to homestead income in order to determine
eligibility to claim the credit. However, the requirement does not apply to an
individual whose primary income is from farming and whose farming operation
generates less than $250,000 in the year to which the claim relates. The bill clarifies
that an individual's primary income is from farming if the individual's gross income

from farming for the year in which the claim relates is greater than 50 percent of the
individual's total gross income from all sources for that year.
Final audit determinations