County AssessorOffice News - Agricultural Assessments
Friday, July 30, 2010
 
 
 

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Agricultural Assessments

 
The assessed value of agriculturally assessed property will be going up for the 2009 assessment.  Click here to see the press release. In each odd numbered year, the Iowa Department of Revenue (IDR) gathers extensive amounts of income and expense information from a 5 year period. Production years that are used in the current calculations are crop years 2003 through 2007. Click here to see the summary page for those calculations.
 
The 2009 assessment also brings a new calculation, known as the Agricultural Building Factor, into agricultural valuations. The IDR is requiring the implementation of this factor which will reduce farm outbuilding assessments by 8%. This 8% reduction in outbuilding assessments, coupled with a required 34% overall increase, will mean that agricultural land assessments will be increased by 47%.
 
Although this is a large increase, it is the 5th lowest in the state. Some counties will have overall increases in excess of 70%. Click here to see a state map with the required changes. These large increases will be offset by a large jump in the agricultural rollback. The rollback is scheduled to limit these large assessed value increases to 4% growth in taxable value. It is estimated that the rollback will drop from its current 94% to 66%. Our 47% increase on land and 8% reduction on outbuilding combined with the roll back will have the end result of a 3% increase in taxable value for land and a 35% reduction in outbuilding taxable value. .
 
            Our overall increase of 34% is one of the lowest in the state and because the rollback is set to limit the average county (+48%) to 4% growth, these large assessed value increases will have a minimal impact on taxable valuations. In fact, we predict that farms with large amounts of outbuildings will see an overall drop in taxable valuation due to the rollback. Click here to see a sample calculation of these assessed value and rollback changes. It should be noted that an exact rollback for the state will not be available until after all values have been finalized in late 2009, but the estimate above should be very close. Click here to read an explanation about the rollback.
 
 
 
  

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