Businesses in or moving into Hiawatha, Iowa, can take advantage of tax breaks and benefits. Iowa’s corporate tax codes are lenient, and the City of Hiawatha offers a robust Tax Increment Financing (TIF) program to support businesses interested in moving here or expanding their Hiawatha-based businesses.
No Sales Tax On:
Industrial machinery, equipment, or computers (also no use tax)
Purchases of electricity or natural gas used directly in the manufacturing process
Purchases of electricity used directly for qualifying data centers
Manufacturing machinery, equipment, or computers (also no use tax)
No Property Tax On:
Manufacturing machinery
Equipment
Computers
No Tax Assessment On:
Personal property
Corporate inventories of saleable goods
Raw materials
Goods in proccess
Iowa Businesses receive a 50 percent federal tax deduction if they are subject to paying Iowa’s corporate income tax. Iowa is one of only five states to offer federal deductibility.
In Iowa, a single factor, non-unitary tax is based only on the percentage of your total sales income made within the state and not by sales made outside of Iowa.
There is no Iowa corporate income tax on profits made out of state.
Hiawatha’s TIF Program
The City of Hiawatha Tax Increment Financing (TIF) program has a strong track record of collaborating and partnering with businesses that make significant investments in our local economy. The City of Hiawatha utilizes the following Economic Development policy to guide decisions that best support our local business community with fiscally responsible public assistance.
Businesses and projects seeking assistance from the City of Hiawatha should follow the application process outlined below. Any questions should be directed to City Manager, Dennis Marks. The City of Hiawatha facilitates the process for any Hiawatha companies pursuing incentive tools.
Economic Development forms, including TIF policies and applications, can be found here.
Meet all or some of the following
Achieve high-quality architectural and site design
Offer energy efficiency and sustainability features beyond what is required through adopted building codes
If a residential project, the contribution to an affordable housing fund or the provision of a certain percent of affordable housing units within the project that fill a need identified by the City
Creation and/or retention of high-quality jobs
Developer equity (not including debt) to be equal to or greater than the public financing requested
The redevelopment of underutilized and/or blighted properties
Projects achieving public purposes as detailed in the Comprehensive Plan, Adopted Sub-area plans, Urban Renewal Area planning documents, market sector studies, and/or the City Council adopted Strategic Plan (or other plans as applicable).
Application Process
Increased value of $500,000+ of retail, commercial & industrial projects—new or expanded
Franchise car dealership with a minimum, increased value of $3M+
Special circumstances: Any improvements request by the City may consider a 1-year grant for those under the $500,000 due to hardship
Infrastructure project/developments
Reflect on plan
Provides flexibility; evaluated on a case-by-case basis
