2023 Iowa Code › Title X - FINANCIAL RESOURCES › Chapter 428A - REAL ESTATE TRANSFER TAX › Section 428A.2 - Exceptions.

428A.2 Exceptions.
The tax imposed by this chapter shall not apply to:
1. Any executory contract for the sale of land under which the vendee is entitled to or does take possession thereof, or any assignment or cancellation thereof.
2. Any instrument of mortgage, assignment, extension, partial release, or satisfaction thereof.
3. Any will.
4. Any plat.
5. Any lease.
6. Any deed, instrument, or writing in which the United States or any agency or instrumentality thereof or the state of Iowa or any agency, instrumentality, or governmental or political subdivision thereof is the grantor, assignor, transferor, or conveyor; and any deed, instrument or writing in which any of such unit of government is the grantee or assignee where there is no consideration.
7. Deeds for cemetery lots.
8. Deeds which secure a debt or other obligation, except those included in the sale of real property.
9. Deeds for the release of a security interest in property excepting those pertaining to the sale of real estate.
10. Deeds which, without additional consideration, confirm, correct, modify, or supplement a deed previously recorded.
11. Deeds between husband and wife, or parent and child, without actual consideration. A cancellation of indebtedness alone which is secured by the property being transferred and which is not greater than the fair market value of the property being transferred is not actual consideration within the meaning of this subsection.
12. Tax deeds.
13. Deeds of partition where the interest conveyed is without consideration. However, if any of the parties take shares greater in value than their undivided interest a tax is due on the greater values, computed at the rate set out in section 428A.1.
14. The making or delivering of instruments of transfer resulting from a corporate merger, consolidation, or reorganization or a merger, consolidation, or reorganization of a limited liability company under the laws of the United States or any state thereof, where such instrument states such fact on the face thereof.
15. Deeds between a family corporation, partnership, limited partnership, limited liability partnership, or limited liability company and its stockholders, partners, or members for the purpose of transferring real property in an incorporation or corporate dissolution or the organization or dissolution of a partnership, limited partnership, limited liability partnership, or limited liability company under the laws of this state, where the deeds are given for no actual consideration other than for shares or for debt securities of the corporation, partnership, limited partnership, limited liability partnership, or limited liability company. For purposes of this subsection, a family corporation, partnership, limited partnership, limited liability partnership, or limited liability company is a corporation, partnership, limited partnership, limited liability partnership, or limited liability company where the majority of the voting stock of the corporation, or of the ownership shares of the partnership, limited partnership, limited liability partnership, or limited liability company is held by and the majority of the stockholders, partners, or members are persons related to each other as spouse, parent, grandparent, lineal ascendants of grandparents or their spouses and other lineal descendants of the grandparents or their spouses, or persons acting in a fiduciary capacity for persons so related and where all of its stockholders, partners, or members are natural persons or persons acting in a fiduciary capacity for the benefit of natural persons.
16. Deeds for the transfer of property or the transfer of an interest in property when the deed is executed between former spouses pursuant to a decree of dissolution of marriage.
17. Deeds transferring easements.
18. Deeds giving back real property to lienholders in lieu of forfeitures or foreclosures.
19. Deeds executed by public officials in the performance of their official duties.
20. Deeds transferring distributions of assets to heirs at law or devisees under a will.
21. Deeds in which the consideration is five hundred dollars or less.
[C66, 71, 73, 75, 77, 79, 81, §428A.2; 82 Acts, ch 1027, §2 – 4]
87 Acts, ch 198, §5; 89 Acts, ch 271, §2; 91 Acts, ch 191, §25; 95 Acts, ch 175, §1; 96 Acts, ch 1170, §1
Referred to in §428A.1, 428A.4, 455B.172