Iowa Tax Residency (183-day rule)

Key parameters
Threshold	183 days
Period / Window	Tax year (1 Jan – 31 Dec)
Counting	Any part of a day
Alternative	Domicile
Additional requirements	Presumes the abode is permanent

This applies to anyone with a dwelling available to them in Iowa, whichever state they treat as their own. You are an Iowa resident if either of these applies:

• Domicile — Iowa is your permanent home, the place you intend to return to whenever you are away.
• A permanent place of abode in Iowa — you maintain one in the state, whatever your domicile.

Iowa's structure differs from the states that pair an abode with a day count as two separate conditions. Here the abode is the test on its own, and the days are evidence about it. Maintaining a place of abode in Iowa and spending more than 183 days of the tax year in the state raises a rebuttable presumption that the abode is permanent.

Place of abode is drawn broadly. It covers a house, apartment, condominium, mobile home or other dwelling place maintained or occupied by you, whether or not you own or rent it.

The presumption has a sensible limit. Presence that is not voluntary does not carry the same weight — confinement in a correctional facility or an extended hospital stay can mean 183 days in the state without a permanent place of abode arising from it.

• The abode is the test, not the days. Iowa can treat you as a resident on a permanent place of abode alone, so a count below 183 days is not the protection it is in neighboring states.
• A mobile home counts. The definition expressly reaches mobile homes and condominiums, not only conventional houses.
• Involuntary presence may not count. Time confined in a correctional facility or spent on an extended hospital stay can leave the presumption unsupported despite a high count.
• The presumption is rebuttable. More than 183 days with an abode presumes permanence rather than settling it.
• You need not own or rent it. A dwelling maintained or occupied by you satisfies the definition whatever the legal arrangement.

A resident is taxed on income from all sources while a nonresident pays only on Iowa-source income, so an error usually surfaces as out-of-state earnings never reported by someone watching the day count when the abode itself was the test. The Department charges interest from the original due date and adds penalties for filing late and for underpaying, rising where an understatement is treated as more than an honest mistake. Professional tax advice is strongly recommended in situations like this.

A house kept and a long stay

You are domiciled in Nebraska but keep a house in Des Moines and spend around 210 days in Iowa. The abode plus the count presumes a permanent place of abode, so you are treated as an Iowa resident.

A modest count with a settled home

You maintain the same Iowa house year-round but spend only 120 days there. The day presumption does not attach, yet the abode can still be permanent on its own facts, so a low count settles nothing.

A long stay that was not voluntary

You spend more than 183 days in Iowa across an extended hospital stay, with your home in another state throughout. Involuntary presence of that kind need not create a permanent place of abode.

• Iowa Administrative Code — Rule 701-300.17, resident determination
• Iowa Administrative Code — Rule 701-300.17 via Cornell LII