Mission Statement 
To advocate for changes in Iowa law that will lead to business growth in Iowa. ABI favors continued efforts to reduce the overall tax burden in Iowa. There is a need for consistency and stability in government taxation. Iowa must live within its means to deliver better quality service for less cost, be accountable, and continue to operate under a full accrual accounting basis. As guideposts for any tax system, ABI supports equity, simplicity, predictability and government accountability.

Streamlining Government
Iowa taxpayers shoulder the expensive burden to support too many government entities, creating excessive bureaucracy and inefficiency. As Iowa has only 1% of the nation’s population and 6% of the country’s government entities, ABI supports enabling legislation that encourages and allows the elimination, sharing of services, and/or merger of government subdivisions and programs to create a more accountable and cost effective delivery of government services.

Accountable Government
Responsible fiscal policymakers in government employ the standards and criteria necessary to produce affordable, accountable, and sustainable budgets that Iowa taxpayers can rely on year after year. A sound budget development process does the following:

• Avoids the use of non-recurring funding sources for on-going expenses.
• Avoids implementing new unbudgeted programs in the middle of a fiscal year.
• Avoids multi-year accelerating commitments that create “built-in” budget increases.
• Avoids new automatic, or “standing,” appropriations that evade annual legislative review.
• Accurately determines revenues and expenses.
• Aligns expenses in the year they will actually be spent.
• Avoids shifting of program funding to property taxes or fees.
• Avoids diversion of funds statutorily authorized for a specific objective to other purposes.

Property Taxes
Iowa’s current property tax system allows for burden shifting to commercial and industrial property owners, which places Iowa at a significant competitive disadvantage.

ABI supports the development of a property tax system that is equitable to all classes of property. The system should not be complex and should be based on actual value and usage of the property. The system should provide adequate safeguards to prohibit spikes in rates and assessment, and should not rely on new taxes and fees.


Single-Factor Corporation Income Tax 
To be competitive, Iowa must keep its incentives for growth to attract new and to retain existing business and industry. One of our most important incentives is the single-factor formula for apportioning taxable income of corporations. This single-factor formula is an inducement for corporations to enlarge payrolls and property investment in Iowa and to expand their sales outside of Iowa. ABI is opposed to any erosion of the single-factor formula, and is opposed to the three-factor or two-factor formula, to the throwback and throw-out rules, to a franchise tax, and to the unitary taxation concept.

Income Tax Reduction
Iowa’s high income tax burden establishes an unfavorable economic and business climate when compared with surrounding states. ABI supports legislation that will reduce Iowa’s individual income tax burden and supports increasing the deductibility of federal corporate income taxes from 50% to 100%.

Tax Equity
ABI supports tax policies that treat similarly situated competitors the same. ABI supports tax equity in all competition between private sector and government owned service providers.

Federal Coupling 
ABI supports simplicity in the tax code and automatic coupling wherever practical to the federal tax code.


Local Option Taxes
ABI opposes allowing local option income and/or use taxes.

Research and Development Tax Credit
ABI supports legislation which will permanently permit an Iowa taxpayer to either continue calculating the research and development tax credit including refundability as is currently allowed or utilizing the most current alternative method that is available to the federal taxpayer.

Sales and Use Tax Expansion
ABI is opposed to any statutory or administrative interpretation resulting in an expansion of the sales and use tax base or rate, including any effort to increase sales and use taxes related to service transactions and tangible and intangible personal property.

Sales Taxes on Parts and Processes
ABI supports the complete elimination of sales and use taxes on repair/replacement parts and supports clarification that all sorbents used in the manufacturing process are exempted from sales tax.