Odle v. Iowa State Tax Commission, 48739

• Decision Date: 27 July 1955
• Docket Number: No. 48739,48739
• Parties: May ODLE and Harold W. Odle, Appellants, v. IOWA STATE TAX COMMISSION and Cerro Gordo County, Iowa, Appellees.
• Court: Iowa Supreme Court

Page 584

71 N.W.2d 584

246 Iowa 1241

May ODLE and Harold W. Odle, Appellants, v. IOWA STATE TAX COMMISSION and Cerro Gordo County, Iowa, Appellees.

No. 48739.

Supreme Court of Iowa.

July 27, 1955.

George S. Marty and Breese & Cornwell, Mason City, for appellants.

Dayton Countryman, Atty. Gen., Edward R. Hayes, Sp. Asst. Atty. Gen., and William Pappas, County Atty. of Cerro Gordo County, Mason City, for appellees.

OLIVER, Chief Justice.

The basic question here is whether a military service tax exemption allowed a claimant then residing and domiciled in Iowa, continues for subsequent years after the termination of such Iowa residence and domicile.

Appellant Mary Odle is and has been the owner of a lot in Mason City, Cerro Gordo County, Iowa. In 1946 her husband, appellant Harold W. Odle, made application for tax credit or exemption upon the lot, as an honorably discharged soldier of the war with Spain. The county board of supervisors allowed the claim and it was certified each year to Iowa State Tax Commission. Appellants had been and continued to be residents of and domiciled in Cerro Gordo County until 1951, since which time they have resided in the state of Florida. March 8, 1954, the allowance was certified to Iowa State Tax Commission, for the year 1953. March 9, 1954, the Commission set aside the allowance on the ground claimants were not then residents of and domiciled in Iowa. Claimants appealed to district court. Trial there resulted in the dismissal of their appeal. From that judgment they prosecute this appeal.

I. The case turns upon the construction of certain statutes. Readlyn Hospital v. Hoth, 223 Iowa 341, 344, 272 N.W. 90, 91, thus states a well settled rule of statutory construction in tax exemption cases:

'Statutes passed for the purpose of exempting property from taxation must be strictly construed, and, if there is any doubt upon the question, it must be resolved against the exemption and in favor of taxation. The exemption is not to be made by judicial construction, but any one claiming exemption from taxation under a statute must show clearly that the property is exempt within the terms of the Constitution and the statute.'

The doctrine was reaffirmed in Lamb v. Kroeger, 233 Iowa 730, 8 N.W.2d 405, a military service tax exemption case.

II. Section 427.3, Code of Iowa 1954, I.C.A., provides for the exemption from taxation of property not to exceed $1,800 in taxable value of any honorably discharged soldier of the war with Spain. Section 427.4 extends the exemption to property in the name of the veteran's wife, among others. Section 427.5 states:

'Any person named in section 427.3, provided he is a resident of and domiciled in the state of Iowa, shall receive a reduction equal to his exemption, to be made from any property owned by such person and designated by him by proceeding as hereafter provided. * * * Said person shall file with the county auditor his claim for exemption or reduction in taxes under oath, which claim shall set out the fact that he is a resident of and domiciled in the state of Iowa, * * *. No person may claim a reduction or exemption in more than one county of the state, * * *.'

Code section 426A.3, I.C.A., requires certification each year to the county treasurer of all claims for military service tax exemptions allowed by the board of supervisors. The county treasurer certifies them to the state tax commission. Section 426A.6 authorizes the state tax commission to set aside the allowance of any such claim for exemption within one year after it receives the certificate of such exemption by any county treasurer, should the commission determine, upon investigation, such allowance is not justifiable under the law and not substantiated by proper facts.

Section 427.6 states in part:

'Said claim for exemption, if filed on or before July 1 of any year and allowed by the board of supervisors, shall be effective to secure an exemption for the year in which such exemption is filed, and when a claim has once been made and allowed, it shall be effective thereafter during the period of ownership of the property designated or of the homestead, as the case may be, or until the death of all persons named in section 427.3...