Des Moines, Iowa – October 17, 2019 –The Iowa Department of Revenue has finalized the 2020 interest rate, individual income tax brackets, and individual income tax standard deduction amounts for the 2020 tax year (applicable for taxes due in 2021).

Interest Rates:

Starting January 1, 2020, the interest rate for taxpayers with overdue payments will be:

7.0% annually
0.6% monthly
0.019126% daily

Iowa Code Section 421.7 specifies the procedures for calculating the Department’s annual and monthly interest rates. The annual rate is based on the average monthly prime rate during the preceding twelve month period, October through September. Iowa law requires that this average be rounded to the nearest whole percent and two percentage points to be added to it. The prime rate averaged 5.40 percent over the past twelve months. Rounded to the nearest whole percent, this average is 5.0 percent. Adding two percentage points results in the annual Department rate of 7.0 percent. The monthly rate is the annual rate divided by 12, rounded to the nearest one-tenth of a percentage point. The daily rate for 2020 is the annual rate divided by 366.

Individual Income Tax Standard Deductions

The tax year 2020 individual income tax standard deductions are:

$2,110 for single taxpayers
$2,110 for married taxpayers filing separately
$5,210 for married filing jointly
Individual Income Tax Brackets

Tax year 2020 income tax brackets are shown in the table below.

Indexation of the standard deductions is covered in Iowa Code sections 422.9 and 422.21. Iowa Code section 422.5 details indexation of Iowa income tax brackets. Iowa law provides for the indexation of individual income tax brackets and standard deduction amounts. These tax features are determined each year by applying inflation factors to, or “indexing,” the previous year’s amounts. Indexation is meant to protect taxpayers from paying higher income taxes solely as a result of inflation.

(Radio Iowa) — Three Iowa home health providers, including those in Logan and Red Oak, have agreed to a federal settlement involving Medicare claims. The judgment says three Iowa and two South Dakota companies submitted claims to Medicare for therapy services where the claims were false — or the medical conditions of the patients didn’t justify the need for skilled therapy services.

The judgment includes one-point-two million dollars against Sergeant Bluff Healthcare, 228-thousand dollars against Red Oak Healthcare, and 775-thousand dollars against Logan Healthcare. Federal officials say the companies were notified their claims for therapy services were inordinately high and the companies failed to take adequate steps to address their billing procedures. The five companies involved are all affiliates of Welcov Healthcare in Minnesota.

MANCHESTER, Iowa (AP) — A judge overseeing a trial to determine whether an eastern Iowa roadside zoo should be closed says she gagged on the ‘horrible stench” while touring the facility.
The Telegraph Herald reports that Judge Monica Wittig shared her reaction with those in attendance on Wednesday, the first day of the state trial in Manchester regarding Cricket Hollow Animal Park. Four plaintiffs have sued to have the animals removed and the zoo closed. It’s owned by Pam and Tom Sellner.

Wednesday’s proceedings included testimony by Tracey Kuehl, one of the four plaintiffs. Kuehl described the zoo stench during a 2012 visit and recalled seeing a lion repeatedly ramming itself into the side of the corncrib in which it was contained.

WAUKEE, Iowa (AP) — The Waukee school district has settled the last of three lawsuits filed by former employees who alleged they were retaliated against for exposing wrongdoing by the district’s former chief operating officer. The Waukee school board voted Wednesday to approve the $1 million settlement with Amy Patters. She said in her lawsuit filed in January last year that she was forced to resign after reporting her boss for mismanaging money and violating district policies.

She was administrative assistant for Eric Rose. A district investigation discovered that Rose had fabricated time cards, used school property for personal purposes and solicited money for his son’s hockey team from district vendors. Rose has pleaded guilty to misdemeanor charges stemming from the allegations.

In May last year the district paid a $175,000 settlement to former operations manager Nicholas Bavas. His lawsuit said he was forced to quit after reporting Rose’s conduct. In January 2018 the school board approved a nearly $1 million settlement with former Human Resources Director Terry Welker, who also reported Rose’s actions.

The Pottawattamie County Sheriff’s Office reports 51-year old Jack Alan Tacner, of Missouri Valley, was arrested at around 11:35-p.m. Wednesday, following a traffic stop on I-29 at mile marker 55. Tacner was taken into custody for Driving While Barred/Habitual Offender. His bond was set at $2,000. And, an inmate at the Pott. County Jail was served with a warrant, Wednesday, for Violation of Probation. 25-year old Cody James Taylor, of Council Bluffs, was presented with the warrant and then returned to the custody of Corrections Staff.

More State and area news from KJAN News Director Ric Hanson.

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Police in Creston, Wednesday, arrested a woman on a Theft charge. 33-year old Christina Marie Savage-Doolittle, of Creston, was arrested at around 12:45-p.m. at the Union County Law Enforcement Center, for Theft in the 4th Degree. She was later released on a $1,000 bond. And, at around 9:40-a.m., Wednesday, 27-year old Brandon James Case, of Afton, was arrested in Creston for Driving While Suspended. He was later released on a $300 bond.

The area’s latest and/or top news stories at 7:06-a.m. From KJAN News Director Ric Hanson.

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DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — A 64-year-old man has been convicted of shooting to death a Des Moines resident in 2015. Polk County District Court records say Alf Clark Sr. was found guilty Wednesday of first-degree murder. Prosecutors say he killed 36-year-old Tacono Conner at a Des Moines apartment complex on Dec. 27, 2015. A woman at the apartment also was shot.

The Des Moines Register reports that Clark lived in the apartment where the shooting took place. He was on supervised release then after serving prison time on a federal drug charge but disappeared shortly after the slaying. He was found in Tucson, Arizona, on June 8 last year. Clark is scheduled to be sentenced Nov. 12 to life in prison without possibility of parole.

(Radio Iowa) — About 900 people crowded into a building on the Iowa State campus in Ames last (Wednesday) night to see Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg.  “Politics isn’t about the big show that’s going on in Washington. It’s not about who had the best debate zingers, although I’d like to think my debate performance was pretty good,” Buttigieg said, to cheers.

Buttigieg and 11 other candidates participated in a three-hour-long televised debate Tuesday evening. Margaret Liston of Ogden watched. “I feel that Pete really understands what the country is wanting for change,” Liston said. Liston was in the front row in Ames last night, alongside Tammy Wirtz of Ogden. Wirtz says Buttigieg has proved he would hold his own in a debate against Trump.  “When he talked about being a soldier, I think that’s huge,” Wirtz says. “…He has knowledge that Trump does not have for what he’s got us into now.”

During Tuesday’s debate, Buttigieg sharply criticized President Trump’s decision to abandon Kurdish allies in the region — and he discussed that moment during an interview with Radio Iowa last (Wednesday) night.
“It’s probably a good thing that people know I can and do get fired up about things and not to mistake kindness for weakness,” Buttigieg told Radio Iowa. “The idea of respect is extremely important to me. It’s also important to be firm and clear about what we stand for.”

Buttigieg told Radio Iowa the American operation in Syria that’s been dismantled was working. “A very small number of special operators were keeping the peace,” he told Radio Iowa. “It was actually a good example of that doctrine of the lightest possible footprint to have the biggest possible impact because literally a few dozen U.S. military members stood between us and ISIS and the beginning of a possible genocide. You take that out and it’s like taking control rods out of a nuclear reactor.”

Two other presidential candidates campaigned in eastern Iowa on Wednesday. Former Vice President Joe Biden told a crowd of about 150 in Davenport the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Syria has wide-ranging repercussions. “It’s more insidious than the betrayal of brave Kurdish partners. It’s more dangerous than taking our boot off the neck of ISIS,” Biden said. “Trump is demolishing the moral authority of the United States of America.”

California Senator Kamala Harris visited a cancer center in Dubuque to highlight breast cancer awareness month and she held a town hall meeting in Dubuque last (Wednesday) night. Harris will campaign in Tipton and Davenport today (Thursday).