On this page we are describing the sales taxes in the State of Iowa, we aim to educate you on the differences that occur throughout the state so you get a better understanding of it in regards to whether you may have:

  • Have taken a Iowa job in the are
  • Applied for a Iowa school
  • Opened a Iowa bank account in the state of Iowa
  • People who may be unable to find their Social Security Card or have lost it.

What is the lowest and highest sales tax in Iowa?

In the map of Iowa is pictured below there are a total of 99 countries that are within the state. You can go directly to the page and see which area has the highest and lowest sales tax in your county of choice.

Adair Adams Allamakee Appanoose Audubon Benton BlackHawk Boone Bremer Buchanan BuenaVista Butler Calhoun Carroll Cass Cedar CerroGordo Cherokee Chickasaw Clarke Clay Clayton Clinton Crawford Dallas Davis Decatur Delaware DesMoines Dickinson Dubuque Emmet Fayette Floyd Franklin Fremont Greene Grundy Guthrie Hamilton Hancock Hardin Harrison Henry Howard Humboldt Ida Iowa Jackson Jasper Jefferson Johnson Jones Keokuk Kossuth Lee Linn Louisa Lucas Lyon Madison Mahaska Marion Marshall Mills Mitchell Monona Monroe Montgomery Muscatine O'Brien Osceola Page PaloAlto Plymouth Pocahontas Polk Pottawattamie Poweshiek Ringgold Sac Scott Shelby Sioux Story Tama Taylor Union Van Buren Wapello Warren Washington Wayne Webster Winnebago Winneshiek Woodbury Worth Wright
The state sales tax for businesses and so forth is a standard rate of 6% which allows the local government to be able to collect up to another 1% on top of this:

  • the average sales tax for the entirety of Iowa is 6.976%,
  • the highest is within the Adair, Adams, Boone, Cass, Dallas, Davis, Decatur, Floyd, Franklin etc. Counties that consists of Des Moines, Cedar Rapids, Davenport, Sioux City, Dubuque, Council Bluffs, Waterloo, West Des Moines, Marion, Cedar Falls, Muscatine and this equates to 7% sales tax,
  • the lowest sales tax is in the Johnson, Polk counties which includes cities like Iowa City, Coralville, North Liberty, Solon, Swisher, Oxford, Tiffin, Ankeny, Runnells, Granger, Berwick and the sales tax in these areas total to 6%

This is a brief overview, and we suggest that you go directly to the page if you wish to get a clearer image of the different ranges of sale tax in a particular county. Please note that the ones that have an asterisk means they are below the usual county level of sales tax.

How to calculate your own sales tax in the state of Iowa.

So, what does this mean for you, if you are looking into how much sales tax you are going to charged dependant on what sort of county you are residing or working out of. You can go ahead and use a sales tax calculator which will give you a section that is exampled below.

 

$
-or- Specify Sales Tax Rate
-or- Specify ZIP Code
%

 

You do need to know the purchase ZIP code and purchase amount in order to get an accurate figure. For an example we will use the amount of $500 and see what the ranges could be from the highest area to the lowest.

In Des Moines, IA with the highest sales tax of 7% would mean that your $500 purchase would incur a $35 sales tax, taking the total amount to $535.

Whereas in Solon, IA the sales tax is only 6% and a $500 purchase would equate to $30 tax, taking the total to $530.

The sales tax calculator makes it as easy as it can be to find out what sort of sales tax you will be charged by simply adding the amount and the ZIP code. Though there might be some purchases that are exempt from sales taxes or have some special leniency which do need to be taken into consideration.

City Sales Tax Rate Zip-code Population
Des Moines 7.00% 50301, 50302, 50303, 50304, 50305, 50307, 50308, 50309, 50310, 50311, 50312, 50313, 50314, 50315, 50316, 50317, 50318, 50319, 50320, 50321, 50328, 50329, 50330, 50332, 50335, 50359, 50360, 50361, 50362, 50363, 50364, 50367, 50368, 50369, 50391, 50392, 50394, 50396, 50947, 50950, 50982, 50983 162204
Cedar Rapids 7.00% 52401, 52402, 52403, 52404, 52405, 52406, 52408, 52409, 52410, 52411, 52497, 52498, 52499 107874
Davenport 7.00% 52801, 52802, 52803, 52804, 52805, 52806, 52807, 52808, 52809 88179
Sioux City 7.00% 51101, 51102, 51103, 51104, 51105, 51106, 51108, 51109, 51111 66323
Dubuque 7.00% 52001, 52002, 52003, 52004 57189
Council Bluffs 7.00% 51501, 51503 55445
Waterloo 7.00% 50701, 50702, 50703, 50704 54772
Iowa City 6.00% 52240, 52242, 52243, 52244, 52245, 52246 51465

West Des Moines

7.00% 50265, 50266 47791

Ankeny

6.00% 50021, 50023 41582

Urbandale

7.00% 50322, 50323, 50398 38787

Ames

7.00% 50010, 50011, 50012, 50013, 50014 37715

Marion

7.00% 52302 31303

Bettendorf

7.00% 52722 30958

Cedar Falls

7.00% 50613, 50614 28522

Muscatine

7.00% 52761 25359

Marshalltown

7.00% 50158 24585

Mason City

7.00% 50401, 50402 24212

Burlington

7.00% 52601 23919

Ottumwa

7.00% 52501 23442

Clinton

7.00% 52732 21927

Fort Dodge

7.00% 50501 21855

Newton

7.00% 50208 16122

Indianola

7.00% 50125 15319

Johnston

7.00% 50131 14786

Coralville

6.00% 52241 14525

Altoona

7.00% 50009 13943

Boone

7.00% 50036 13690

Clive

7.00% 50325 13630

North Liberty

6.00% 52317 12151

Waukee

7.00% 50263 12093

Oskaloosa

7.00% 52577 11691

Pella

7.00% 50219 11011

Spencer

7.00% 51301 10717

Carroll

7.00% 51401 10479

Decorah

7.00% 52101 10409

Le Mars

7.00% 51031 10367

Storm Lake

7.00% 50588 10128

Keokuk

7.00% 52632 10097

Why do I need to collect sales tax in Iowa?

You will need to collect sales tax if you have any sort of nexus there, and what this means is that if you have assets that are physical or economic then you need to do this.

Physical meaning having a tangible activity or some sort of presence in any of the states of Iowa, economic nexus is simply passing the states’ economic threshold for total revenue, or the maximum number of transactions that can occur in the period of time within the state.

Two easy ways to see if you have either a physical or economic nexus in any of the counties is the following:
Physical:

  • Tangible personal property
  • Business assets or property
  • Own, renting properties
  • Made more than $500,000 in a service or content delivery in the state

Economic:

  • Made more than $100,000 in sales annually
  • More than 200 transactions in the last calendar year

How do I get a sales tax permit?

The main way to go about this is to register online at the Iowa Business Gateway. Follow the steps that are presented to you and ensure that you have the following to hand to use as information:

  • Business identification information
  • Business entity
  • Location/s that you will be conducting this from
  • Date you will start collecting Iowa sales tax from a business/property
  • NAICS Code (North American Industry Classification System.)

What is the best way to file sales taxes?

Before you think of doing anything else there are three things that we recommend that you do in order to make this process as easy and smooth as possible.

First of all, find out how much tax you owe (remember the sales tax calculator we mentioned before) so that you know how much you need to pay the state at the end. Second is get onto the Iowa Department Of Taxation ready to submit them, and third have the money ready so you can make the payment straight away.

There are two main options as well to filing and paying your Iowa sales tax, these are:

  • Filing online. This is where merchants are required to file all of their sales taxes through the department of taxation in the state of Iowa, you can also pay your taxes on this platform, so it is one to keep close to you for future reference.
  • Filing by mail. Simply fill out the form UST-1, but this is not the recommended way of filing your taxes due to the possibilities of them getting lost in the post and then it could mean that you are subject to late fees if they are not filed within the allotted time.

We hope this document was able to allow you to feel more confident when it comes to sales tax in the state of Iowa depending on where you operate out of.