

One of my side projects this past summer was to start working on a reference guide for Iowa tax returns. In looking through other published materials, I see California and New York have guidebooks. In my opinion Iowa taxes are just as convoluted as those states, but there’s no Iowa guidebook.
Consider:
- All of the oddities of the “married filing separately” filing status in Iowa — it’s totally different from the federal concept of MFS
- The dozens upon dozens of inane tax credits Iowa offers
- The taxation of federal tax refunds
- The capital gains exclusion
I’ve got an outline written and am hoping you can help me: what are your biggest questions or concerns about Iowa taxes?
This guidebook would be targeted toward tax pros, but I’m hoping to offer a smaller version for taxpayers too. So the question is open to both tax pros and individual taxpayers: what sorts of things drive you crazy about preparing an Iowa tax return? What don’t you understand? What do you want or need more info on?
Send your questions or suggestions for topics to: jason@dinesentax.com. (NOTE: make sure to spell my last name correctly — it’s “sen” not “son”)