.bodytext {float: left; } .floatimg-left-hort { float:left; margin-top:10px; margin-right: 10px; width:300px; clear:left;} .floatimg-left-caption-hort { float:left; margin-bottom:10px; width:300px; margin-right:10px; clear:left;} .floatimg-left-vert { float:left; margin-top:10px; margin-right:15px; width:200px;} .floatimg-left-caption-vert { float:left; margin-right:10px; margin-bottom:10px; font-size: 10px; width:200px;} .floatimg-right-hort { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 300px;} .floatimg-right-caption-hort { float:left; margin-right:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 300px; font-size: 10px; } .floatimg-right-vert { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 200px;} .floatimg-right-caption-vert { float:left; margin-right:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 200px; font-size: 10px; } .floatimgright-sidebar { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 200px; border-top-style: double; border-top-color: black; border-bottom-style: double; border-bottom-color: black;} .floatimgright-sidebar p { line-height: 115%; text-indent: 10px; } .floatimgright-sidebar h4 { font-variant:small-caps; } .pullquote { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 150px; background: url(http://www.dmbusinessdaily.com/DAILY/editorial/extras/closequote.gif) no-repeat bottom right !important ; line-height: 150%; font-size: 125%; border-top: 1px solid; border-bottom: 1px solid;} .floatvidleft { float:left; margin-bottom:10px; width:325px; margin-right:10px; clear:left;} .floatvidright { float:right; margin-bottom:10px; width:325px; margin-right:10px; clear:left;} Think Iowa’s upcoming tax amnesty program applies only to scofflaws who haven’t paid their individual income taxes? Think again. State officials expect about 80 percent of the estimated $54 million to be collected through the program will be paid by businesses in Iowa and surrounding states.

In August, the Iowa Department of Revenue will mail about 40,000 notices, with about one-third going to businesses and the remainder to individuals identified as having unpaid taxes. The state’s offer to companies, most of which owe corporate or sales taxes, will be the same as to individuals: Pay what you owe us between Sept. 4 and Oct. 31, and we’ll cut your interest in half and forgive all the penalties.

The tax amnesty program, approved by the Legislature earlier this year, targets non-filers and those who owe additional taxes the department isn’t aware of as well as those already identified and assessed for unpaid taxes. It also puts the department into an unaccustomed marketing role, as it prepares to roll out a publicity campaign with the slogan “Pay the tax and relax.”

The program is neither assessing new taxes on businesses nor forgiving any taxes that are owed, said Mark Schuling, director of the Iowa Department of Revenue. “This is an opportunity (for non-filers) to get on the tax roll and pay interest on it, but less interest than they would have.”

State officials estimate that unpaid taxes total $250 million, a drop in the bucket compared with the $6 billion in net taxes that Iowa receives from taxpayers each year. The latter figure includes approximately $100 million received annually through its collections program, which uses a sophisticated electronic database to identify non-filers.

“Predicting the activity from those we have already assessed is a fairly straightforward process, because we have years and years of experience in collections,” said Stuart Vos, administrator of the department’s Revenue Operations Division. “Predicting those who have never filed, those businesses we don’t know about, some of which are out-of-state businesses that have a nexus to the state, is a little more difficult.”

During Iowa’s last amnesty program in 1986, more than three-quarters of the $35 million collected came from businesses, with delinquent corporate income tax and sales tax payments making up the bulk of the money coming in, Vos said. Data from more recent amnesty programs in other states also indicate that about 80 percent of the money comes from business-related taxes.

“We looked very closely at what Indiana did with its program, because they had some of the best results in regard to collections,” he said. “They found that a lot of the activity came from bordering states: companies that have a nexus to the state but haven’t been identified.” In Indiana’s case, 47 percent of the total revenue received during its amnesty program came from entities outside the state.

The bulk of the $710,000 in funding authorized in the amnesty legislation will be used to pay for a media campaign to place advertisements in national and regional business, agricultural and professional association magazines as well as on radio and television. Information and application forms are also available online at www.IowaTaxAmnesty.gov or by calling (877) 422-5829.

“If you’re going to take advantage of amnesty, now is the time to prepare,” Vos said. However, he added, “Don’t send your returns in until Sept. 4, because the legislation is very specific about the period during which amnesty applies. So, be ready when the time comes, and pay like everyone else and relax.”