422.21  Form and time of return.
  1.  Returns shall be in the form the director prescribes, and shall be filed with the department on or before the last day of the fourth month after the expiration of the tax year. However, cooperative associations as defined in section 6072(d) of the Internal Revenue Code shall file their returns on or before the fifteenth day of the ninth month following the close of the taxable year and nonprofit corporations subject to the unrelated business income tax imposed by section 422.33, subsection 1A, shall file their returns on or before the fifteenth day of the fifth month following the close of the taxable year. If, under the Internal Revenue Code, a corporation is required to file a return covering a tax period of less than twelve months, the state return shall be for the same period and is due forty-five days after the due date of the federal tax return, excluding any extension of time to file. In case of sickness, absence, or other disability, or if good cause exists, the director may allow further time for filing returns. The director shall cause to be prepared blank forms for the returns and shall cause them to be distributed throughout the state and to be furnished upon application, but failure to receive or secure the form does not relieve the taxpayer from the obligation of making a return that is required. The department may as far as consistent with the Code draft income tax forms to conform to the income tax forms of the internal revenue department of the United States government. Each return by a taxpayer upon whom a tax is imposed by section 422.5 shall show the county of the residence of the taxpayer.
  2.  An individual in the armed forces of the United States serving in an area designated by the president of the United States or the United States Congress as a combat zone or as a qualified hazardous duty area, or deployed outside the United States away from the individual’s permanent duty station while participating in an operation designated by the United States secretary of defense as a contingency operation as defined in 10 U.S.C. §  101(a)(13), or which became such a contingency operation by the operation of law, or an individual serving in support of those forces, is allowed the same additional time period after leaving the combat zone or the qualified hazardous duty area, or ceasing to participate in such contingency operation, or after a period of continuous hospitalization, to file a state income tax return or perform other acts related to the department, as would constitute timely filing of the return or timely performance of other acts described in section 7508(a) of the Internal Revenue Code. An individual on active duty federal military service in the armed forces, armed forces military reserve, or national guard who is deployed outside the United States in other than a combat zone, qualified hazardous duty area, or contingency operation is allowed the same additional period of time described in section 7508(a) of the Internal Revenue Code to file a state income tax return or perform other acts related to the department. For the purposes of this subsection, “other acts related to the department” includes filing claims for refund for any tax administered by the department, making tax payments other than withholding payments, filing appeals on the tax matters, filing other tax returns, and performing other acts described in the department’s rules. The additional time period allowed applies to the spouse of the individual described in this subsection to the extent the spouse files jointly or separately on the combined return form with the individual or when the spouse is a party with the individual to any matter for which the additional time period is allowed.
  3.  The department shall make available to persons required to make personal income tax returns under the provisions of this chapter, and when such income is derived mainly from salaries and wages or from the operation of a business or profession, a form which shall take into consideration the normal deductions and credits allowable to any such taxpayer, and which will permit the computation of the tax payable without requiring the listing of specific deductions and credits. In arriving at schedules for payment of taxation under such forms the department shall as nearly as possible base such schedules upon a total of deductions and credits which will result in substantially the same payment as would have been made by such taxpayer were the taxpayer to specifically list the taxpayer’s allowable deductions and credits. In lieu of such return any taxpayer may elect to list permissible deductions and credits as provided by law. It is the intent and purpose of this provision to simplify the procedure of collection of personal income tax, and the director shall have the power in any case when deemed necessary or advisable to require any taxpayer, who has made a return in accordance with the schedule herein provided for, to make an additional return in which all deductions and credits are specifically listed. The department may revise the schedules adopted in connection with such simplified form whenever such revision is necessitated by changes in federal income tax laws, or to maintain the collection of substantially the same amounts from taxpayers as would be received were the specific listing of deductions and credits required.
  4.  The department shall provide space on the prescribed income tax form, wherein the taxpayer shall enter the name of the school district of the taxpayer’s residence. Such place shall be indicated by prominent type. A nonresident taxpayer shall so indicate. If such information is not supplied on the tax return it shall be deemed an incompleted return.
  5.  The director shall determine for the 1989 and each subsequent calendar year the annual and cumulative inflation factors for each calendar year to be applied to tax years beginning on or after January 1 of that calendar year. The director shall compute the new dollar amounts as specified to be adjusted in section 422.5 by the latest cumulative inflation factor and round off the result to the nearest one dollar. The annual and cumulative inflation factors determined by the director are not rules as defined in section 17A.2, subsection 11. The director shall determine for the 1990 calendar year and each subsequent calendar year the annual and cumulative standard deduction factors to be applied to tax years beginning on or after January 1 of that calendar year. The director shall compute the new dollar amounts of the standard deductions specified in section 422.9, subsection 1, by the latest cumulative standard deduction factor and round off the result to the nearest ten dollars. The annual and cumulative standard deduction factors determined by the director are not rules as defined in section 17A.2, subsection 11.
  6.  The department shall provide on income tax forms or in the instruction booklets in a manner that will be noticeable to the taxpayers a statement that, even though the taxpayer may not have any federal or state income tax liability, the taxpayer may be eligible for the federal earned income tax credit or state child and dependent care credit. The statement shall also contain notice of where the taxpayer may check on the taxpayer’s eligibility for these credits.
  7.  If married taxpayers file a joint return or file separately on a combined return in accordance with rules prescribed by the director, both spouses are jointly and severally liable for the total tax due on the return, except when one spouse is considered to be an innocent spouse under criteria established pursuant to section 6015 of the Internal Revenue Code.
[C35, §6943-f17; C39, §6943.053; C46, 50, 54, 58, 62, 66, 71, 73, 75, 77, 79, 81, §422.21]
85 Acts, ch 230, §6; 87 Acts, ch 115, §56; 87 Acts, 2nd Ex, ch 1, §11; 88 Acts, ch 1028, §28; 89 Acts, ch 268, §7, 8; 90 Acts, ch 1248, §13; 91 Acts, ch 159, §17; 91 Acts, ch 196, §3; 94 Acts, ch 1165, §16, 48; 2000 Acts, ch 1146, §9, 11; 2002 Acts, ch 1069, §8, 11, 14; 2003 Acts, ch 142, §8, 11; 2009 Acts, ch 47, §1, 2

2009 amendment to subsection 2 applies retroactively to January 1, 2008, for tax years beginning on or after that date; 2009 Acts, ch 47, §2