At first glance, taxing apartments as non-commercial property may seem to be an unjustified loophole. But first glances can be deceiving, and the issue is more complicated than a recent Press-Citizen “Our View” suggested. A study of property taxes conducted by the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy last year shows that taxes on apartments in Iowa are the highest in the entire United States. Urban and rural apartment taxes are more than double the national average. Even if a building qualifies as a cooperative and receives the residential rollback, its property taxes still will be 20 percent above the national average.
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