Hiawatha Business Groundbreaking Ceremony

Business and Tax Incentives

Moving into Hiawatha

Businesses in or moving into Hiawatha, Iowa, can take advantage of tax breaks and benefits. Iowa’s corporate tax codes are lenient, and the City of Hiawatha offers a robust Tax Increment Financing (TIF) program to support businesses interested in moving here or expanding their Hiawatha-based businesses.

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No Sales Tax On:

Industrial machinery, equipment, or computers (also no use tax)

Purchases of electricity or natural gas used directly in the manufacturing process

Purchases of electricity used directly for qualifying data centers

Manufacturing machinery, equipment, or computers (also no use tax)

Gear
No Property Tax On:

Manufacturing machinery

Equipment

Computers

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No Tax Assessment On:

Personal property

Corporate inventories of saleable goods

Raw materials

Goods in proccess

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Iowa Businesses receive a 50 percent federal tax deduction if they are subject to paying Iowa’s corporate income tax. Iowa is one of only five states to offer federal deductibility.
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In Iowa, a single factor, non-unitary tax is based only on the percentage of your total sales income made within the state and not by sales made outside of Iowa.
Money
There is no Iowa corporate income tax on profits made out of state.

Hiawatha’s TIF Program

The City of Hiawatha Tax Increment Financing (TIF) program has a strong track record of collaborating and partnering with businesses that make significant investments in our local economy. The City of Hiawatha utilizes the following Economic Development policy to guide decisions that best support our local business community with fiscally responsible public assistance.

Businesses and projects seeking assistance from the City of Hiawatha should follow the application process outlined below. Any questions should be directed to City Manager, Dennis Marks. The City of Hiawatha facilitates the process for any Hiawatha companies pursuing incentive tools.

Economic Development forms, including TIF policies and applications, can be found here.

Meet all or some of the following

Achieve high-quality architectural and site design

Offer energy efficiency and sustainability features beyond what is required through adopted building codes

If a residential project, the contribution to an affordable housing fund or the provision of a certain percent of affordable housing units within the project that fill a need identified by the City

Creation and/or retention of high-quality jobs

Developer equity (not including debt) to be equal to or greater than the public financing requested

The redevelopment of underutilized and/or blighted properties

Projects achieving public purposes as detailed in the Comprehensive Plan, Adopted Sub-area plans, Urban Renewal Area planning documents, market sector studies, and/or the City Council adopted Strategic Plan (or other plans as applicable).

Application Process

Increased value of $500,000+ of retail, commercial & industrial projects—new or expanded

Franchise car dealership with a minimum, increased value of $3M+

Special circumstances: Any improvements request by the City may consider a 1-year grant for those under the $500,000 due to hardship

Infrastructure project/developments

Reflect on plan

Provides flexibility; evaluated on a case-by-case basis

HIAWATHA, IOWA
TIF Funding Facts
TIF business approvals track record
100%
tif projects vary in scope and scale
Tif terms traditionally 5 years
continual private and public partnerships
7-Year History of TIF Funding
$166M