§ 423.15 — General sourcing rules

Iowa § 423.15

• Jurisdiction: Iowa
• Title X: FINANCIAL RESOURCES
• Ch. 423: STREAMLINED SALES AND USE TAX ACT

Text

All sales of tangible personal property, services, or specified digital products, except those
sales enumerated in section 423.16, shall be sourced according to this section by sellers

obligated to collect Iowa sales and use tax. The sourcing rules described in this section apply
to sales of tangible personal property, specified digital products, and all services other than
telecommunications services. This section only applies to determine a seller’s obligation to
pay or collect and remit Iowa sales or use tax with respect to the seller’s sale of a product.
This section does not affect the obligation of a purchaser or lessee to remit tax on the use of
the product to the taxing jurisdictions in which the use occurs. A seller’s obligation to collect
Iowa sales tax or Iowa use tax only occurs if the sale is sourced to this state. Iowa sales tax
applies to a sale sourced to Iowa made by a seller subject to section 423.1, subsection 48,
or section 423.14A.
1. Sales, excluding leases or rentals, of products shall be sourced as follows:
a. When the product is received by the purchaser at a business location of the seller, the
sale is sourced to that business location.
b. When the product is not received by the purchaser at a business location of the seller,
the sale is sourced to the location where receipt by the purchaser or the purchaser’s donee,
designated as such by the purchaser, occurs, including the location indicated by instructions
for delivery to the purchaser or donee, known to the seller.
c. When paragraphs “a” and “b” do not apply, the sale is sourced to the location indicated
by an address for the purchaser that is available from the business records of the seller that
are maintained in the ordinary course of the seller’s business when use of this address does
not constitute bad faith.
d. When paragraphs “a”, “b”, and “c” do not apply, the sale is sourced to the location
indicated by an address for the purchaser obtained during the consummation of the sale,
including the address of a purchaser’s payment instrument, if no other address is available,
when use of this address does not constitute bad faith.
e. When paragraphs “a”, “b”, “c”, and “d” do not apply, including the circumstance where
the seller is without sufficient information to apply the previous rules, then the location will
be determined by the address from which tangible personal property was shipped, from
which the specified digital product or the computer software delivered electronically was first
available for transmission by the seller, or from which the service was provided disregarding
for these purposes any location that merely provided the digital transfer of the product sold.
2. The lease or rental of tangible personal property, other than property identified in
subsection 3 or section 423.16, shall be sourced as follows:
a. For a lease or rental that requires recurring periodic payments, the first periodic
payment is sourced the same as a retail sale in accordance with the provisions of subsection
1. Periodic payments made subsequent to the first payment are sourced to the primary
property location for each period covered by the payment. The primary property location
shall be as indicated by an address for the property provided by the lessee that is available
to the lessor from its records maintained in the ordinary course of business, when use of
this address does not constitute bad faith. The property location shall not be altered by
intermittent use at different locations, such as use of business property that accompanies
employees on business trips and service calls.
b. For a lease or rental that does not require recurring periodic payments, the payment is
sourced the same as a retail sale in accordance with the provisions of subsection 1.
c. This subsection does not affect the imposition or computation of sales or use tax on
leases or rentals based on a lump sum or accelerated basis, or on the acquisition of property
for lease.
3. The retail sale, including lease or rental, of transportation equipment shall be sourced
the same as a retail sale in accordance with the provisions of subsection 1, notwithstanding
the exclusion of lease or rental in that subsection. “Transportation equipment” means any of
the following:
a. Locomotives or railcars that are utilized for the carriage of persons or property in
interstate commerce.
b. Trucks and truck-tractors with a gross vehicle weight rating of ten thousand one
pounds or greater, trailers, semitrailers, or passenger buses that meet both of the following
requirements:
(1) Are registered through the international registration plan.

(2) Are operated under authority of a carrier authorized and certificated by the United
States department of transportation or another federal authority to engage in the carriage of
persons or property in interstate commerce.
c. Aircraft that are operated by air carriers authorized and certificated by the United
States department of transportation or another federal or a foreign authority to engage in
the carriage of persons or property in interstate or foreign commerce.
d. Containers designed for use on and component parts attached or secured on the items
set forth in paragraphs “a” through “c”.