How to Fill Out and Submit the Iowa Declaration of Value Form

Iowa’s Declaration of Value form (Form 57-006) reports the sale price of real property so the county can collect the state’s real estate transfer tax before recording your deed. You file it with the county recorder in the county where the property sits, together with the deed and a Groundwater Hazard Statement. The form itself is short, but the recorder will reject your deed if it’s missing or filled out wrong.

When You Need the Form

Iowa Code Chapter 428A requires a Declaration of Value whenever a nonexempt deed, contract, or other instrument transferring real property is presented for recording.¹ Residential, commercial, and agricultural transfers all count. Warranty deeds, quitclaim deeds, and executory contracts for the sale of land all fall within scope.

A few exempt transactions still require the form. Exemptions numbered 1, 6, 14, 15, and 22 under Iowa Code 428A.2 are tax-exempt but still need a completed Declaration of Value. These cover executory contracts, certain government transfers, corporate mergers and reorganizations, family entity transfers, and related categories. For every other exemption (mortgages, wills, corrective deeds, spouse-to-spouse or parent-to-child gifts without payment, partition deeds, cemetery lots, and several others), no Declaration of Value is required at all.¹ If your transfer is one of those, the deed itself should state on its face that the transaction is exempt.

Where to Get the Form

The Iowa Department of Revenue publishes Form 57-006 as a downloadable PDF on its website at revenue.iowa.gov. You can also pick up a paper copy at any county recorder’s office. A companion instruction sheet, Form 57-011, walks through each line if you haven’t filed one before.

How to Fill Out Part I

The form has two parts. You complete Part I. Part II is reserved for the county assessor, so leave it blank. The blank area at the top of page one is the recorder’s space for the recording date and instrument number.

At least one buyer or one seller, or an authorized agent of either, must sign. Both parties don’t need to sign, though the buyer’s side often handles it since they’re typically the ones presenting the deed for recording.¹

Parties and Property

Enter the full legal names and current mailing addresses of every grantor (seller) and grantee (buyer). Copy the property’s legal description exactly as it appears on the deed: lot and block numbers for platted property, or the full metes-and-bounds or government survey description for unplatted land. A mismatch between the deed and the Declaration of Value is one of the fastest ways to get your filing kicked back.

The form also requires the Social Security Number of each individual party and the Federal Employer Identification Number of any business entity involved. Iowa administrative rules treat these identifiers as mandatory, and the recorder will refuse to record the deed without them.² If you can’t obtain the other party’s number despite a good-faith effort, attach a signed affidavit explaining why the number is missing, and the recorder will accept the form with the affidavit in place of the missing identifier. Your SSN is protected once filed: Iowa law requires the department to keep Social Security Numbers confidential and off-limits to public examination.¹

The Three Sale Price Lines

Three lines capture the financial details of the transaction.

Line 1 is the total amount paid: the entire purchase price, including the down payment and any loan balance. This is the full consideration, not just the cash that changed hands at closing.

Line 2 is the amount paid for personal property. If the sale included items that aren’t permanently attached to the real estate, such as washers, dryers, refrigerators, portable dishwashers, drapes, or (for commercial sales) inventory and equipment classified as personal property, enter their value here. The personal property figure should match what appears on the transfer document and any related tax filings.

Line 3 is the amount paid for real property only: Line 1 minus Line 2. This is the number the county uses to calculate your transfer tax.¹

Getting Line 2 right matters. The state presumes the stated sale price includes all personal property unless you break out the personal property value separately.¹ Forget to list the washer and dryer on Line 2, and you’ll pay transfer tax on their value too.

Calculating the Transfer Tax

Iowa’s real estate transfer tax rate is $0.80 for each $500 of real property value, or any fraction of $500, above the first $500. That works out to $1.60 per thousand dollars of value after the initial $500 exemption.¹

On a $250,000 sale, subtract the exempt first $500 to get $249,500. Divide by $500, which gives you 499 units. Multiply 499 by $0.80, and the transfer tax is $399.20. If the real property value doesn’t divide evenly, say $250,300, round up to the next $500 increment: 500 units, $400.00 owed.

The seller is legally liable for the transfer tax under Iowa Code 428A.3. In practice, who writes the check is negotiable and often spelled out in the purchase agreement. If the contract is silent, the obligation falls on the grantor. When no money changes hands, a genuine gift for instance, no tax is owed.¹

Common Exemptions From the Tax

Iowa Code 428A.2 lists 22 categories of transfers that are exempt. The ones that come up most often in residential and family transactions:

Spouse or parent-child transfers without payment. Deeds between a husband and wife, or between a parent and child, where no actual consideration changes hands. Canceling a debt secured by the property doesn’t count as consideration, as long as the debt doesn’t exceed the property’s fair market value.³
Corrective deeds. A deed that confirms, corrects, modifies, or supplements a previously recorded deed, with no additional consideration.
Partition deeds. Dividing co-owned property among owners without payment. If one party receives a share worth more than their undivided interest, the excess value is taxable at the standard rate.³
Transfers between former spouses executed under a dissolution of marriage decree.
Government transfers, where a federal, state, or local government entity is the grantor, or where a government entity is the grantee and no consideration is paid.

Other exempt categories include mortgages and mortgage releases, wills, plats, leases, tax deeds, cemetery lots, and corporate mergers or reorganizations. Most exemptions (subsections 2 through 5, 7 through 13, and 16 through 21) do not require you to file a Declaration of Value at all. For the few that do (subsections 1, 6, 14, 15, and 22), complete Part I but enter the applicable exemption number instead of a tax payment.¹

If the reason for exemption isn’t stated on the face of the deed, complete Part I of the form regardless of which exemption applies. The safest practice is to print the exemption number and a brief description directly on the deed so there’s no ambiguity at the recorder’s counter.

The Groundwater Hazard Statement

Every Declaration of Value filed with the recorder must be accompanied by a Groundwater Hazard Statement, unless an exemption applies. This is a separate requirement under Iowa Code 558.69, and the recorder will refuse to record your deed without it.⁴

The statement discloses whether the property contains any of the following:

A known private burial site
Any known wells, and their status
A solid waste disposal site deemed potentially hazardous by the Iowa Department of Natural Resources
An underground storage tank
Known hazardous waste
A private sewage disposal system

If none of those conditions exist on the property, you can skip the separate Groundwater Hazard Statement form. Instead, include a statement on the first page of the deed certifying that no such conditions are present, as described in Iowa Code 558.69.⁴ Most title companies in Iowa include this language on the deed as standard practice.

Submitting the Form at the County Recorder

Bring three documents to the county recorder’s office in the county where the property sits: the deed or contract, the completed Declaration of Value, and the Groundwater Hazard Statement (or a deed with the substitute certification on page one). Present them together. The recorder won’t accept the deed alone.

You’ll pay two separate charges at the counter. The transfer tax, calculated from Line 3, must be paid before the deed enters the public record. On top of that, the recorder charges a recording fee set by Iowa Code 331.604: $5 per page of the deed, plus a $1 preservation fee and a $1 land records fee per transaction.⁵ A typical one-page deed runs $7 in recording fees; a two-page deed costs $12.

If the form is incomplete or inaccurate, the recorder is required by law to refuse the filing. Common rejection reasons include a missing SSN or FEIN without the required affidavit, a legal description that doesn’t match the deed, and an incorrect exemption code.

Federal Tax Treatment

You can’t deduct Iowa’s real estate transfer tax as a real estate tax on your federal income tax return. The IRS treats transfer taxes and stamp taxes separately from annual property taxes.⁶ If you’re the buyer, add the transfer tax you paid to your cost basis in the property; it’ll reduce your taxable gain when you eventually sell. If you’re the seller and you paid the tax, treat it as a selling expense that reduces your amount realized on the sale.

1
Iowa Legislature. Iowa Code 428A – Real Estate Transfer Tax
2
Cornell Law. Iowa Admin Code r 701-109.5 – Form Completion and Filing
3
Iowa Code. Iowa Code 428A.2 – Exceptions
4
Iowa Legislature. Iowa Code 558.69 – Groundwater Hazard Statement Requirements Liability
5
Iowa Legislature. Iowa Code 331.604 – Recording and Filing Fees
6
Internal Revenue Service. Publication 530, Tax Information for Homeowners