Terms Used In Iowa Code > Chapter 437A - Taxes On Electricity and Natural Gas Providers

• Amendment: A proposal to alter the text of a pending bill or other measure by striking out some of it, by inserting new language, or both. Before an amendment becomes part of the measure, thelegislature must agree to it.
• Appeal: A request made after a trial, asking another court (usually the court of appeals) to decide whether the trial was conducted properly. To make such a request is "to appeal" or "to take an appeal." One who appeals is called the appellant.
• Assessed value: means the base year assessed value, as adjusted by section 437A. See Iowa Code 437A.3
• Assets: (1) The property comprising the estate of a deceased person, or (2) the property in a trust account.
• base year assessed value: means the average of the total of these values for each taxpayer for the assessment dates of January 1, 1993, through January 1, 1997, allocated among taxing districts in proportion to the allocation of the taxpayer's January 1, 1998, assessed value among taxing districts. See Iowa Code 437A.3
• Beneficiary: A person who is entitled to receive the benefits or proceeds of a will, trust, insurance policy, retirement plan, annuity, or other contract. ^{Source: OCC}
• Business: means any trade, occupation, activity, or enterprise engaged in for the purpose of selling or distributing tobacco products in this state. See Iowa Code 453A.42
• Capital lease: means a lease classified as a capital lease under generally accepted accounting principles. See Iowa Code 437A.3
• Centrally assessed property tax: means property tax imposed with respect to the value of property determined by the director pursuant to Iowa Code 437A.3
• clerk: means clerk of the court in which the action or proceeding is brought or is pending; and the words "clerk's office" mean the office of that clerk. See Iowa Code 4.1
• Cogeneration facility: means a facility with a capacity of two hundred megawatts or less that uses the same energy source for the sequential generation of electrical or mechanical power in combination with steam, heat, or other forms of useful energy and, except for ownership, meets the criteria to be a qualifying cogeneration facility as defined in the federal Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act of 1978, 16 U. See Iowa Code 437A.3
• Conduit bank: means a length of one or more underground conduits or ducts, whether or not enclosed in concrete, designed to contain underground cables, including a gallery or cable tunnel for power cables. See Iowa Code 437A.3
• Consumer: includes any master-metered facility even though the electricity or natural gas delivered to such facility may ultimately be used by another person. See Iowa Code 437A.3
• Contract: A legal written agreement that becomes binding when signed.
• Corporation: A legal entity owned by the holders of shares of stock that have been issued, and that can own, receive, and transfer property, and carry on business in its own name.
• Delivery: means the physical transfer of electricity or natural gas to a consumer. See Iowa Code 437A.3
• Director: means the director of revenue. See Iowa Code 437A.3
• Distribution electric cooperative: means an electric cooperative other than a generation and transmission electric cooperative or a municipal electric cooperative association. See Iowa Code 437A.3
• Electric company: includes a combination natural gas company and electric company. See Iowa Code 437A.3
• Electric competitive service area: means an electric service area assigned by the utilities board under chapter 476 as of January 1, 1999, including utility property and facilities described in section 476. See Iowa Code 437A.3
• Electric cooperative: means an electric utility provider formed or organized as an electric cooperative under the laws of this state or elsewhere. See Iowa Code 437A.3
• Electric power generating plant: means a nameplate rated electric power generating plant, which produces electric energy from other forms of energy, including all taxable land, buildings, and equipment used in the production of such electric energy. See Iowa Code 437A.3
• Evidence: Information presented in testimony or in documents that is used to persuade the fact finder (judge or jury) to decide the case for one side or the other.
• Fiscal year: The fiscal year is the accounting period for the government. For the federal government, this begins on October 1 and ends on September 30. The fiscal year is designated by the calendar year in which it ends; for example, fiscal year 2006 begins on October 1, 2005 and ends on September 30, 2006.
• following: when used by way of reference to a chapter or other part of a statute mean the next preceding or next following chapter or other part. See Iowa Code 4.1
• Generation and transmission electric cooperative: means an electric cooperative which owns both transmission lines and property which is used to generate electricity. See Iowa Code 437A.3
• Incorporated city utility provider: means a corporation with assets worth one million dollars or more which has one or more platted villages located within the territorial limits of the tract of land which it owns, and which provides electricity to ten thousand or fewer customers. See Iowa Code 437A.3
• Lease: means a contract between a lessor and lessee pursuant to which the lessee obtains a present possessory interest in tangible property without obtaining legal title in such property. See Iowa Code 437A.3
• Lease: A contract transferring the use of property or occupancy of land, space, structures, or equipment in consideration of a payment (e.g., rent). ^{Source: OCC}
• Liabilities: The aggregate of all debts and other legal obligations of a particular person or legal entity.
• Lien: A claim against real or personal property in satisfaction of a debt.
• Local amount: means the first forty-four million four hundred forty-four thousand four hundred forty-five dollars of the acquisition cost of any major addition which is an electric power generating plant and the total acquisition cost of any other major addition. See Iowa Code 437A.3
• Local taxing authority: means a city, county, community college, school district, or other taxing authority located in this state and authorized to certify a levy on property located within such authority for the payment of bonds and interest or other obligations of such authority. See Iowa Code 437A.3
• Local taxing district: means a geographic area with a common consolidated property tax rate. See Iowa Code 437A.3
• Major addition: means either of the following:
   a. See Iowa Code 437A.3
• master-metered facility: means any multi-occupancy premises where units are separately rented or owned and where electricity or natural gas is used in centralized heating, cooling, water-heating, or ventilation systems, where individual metering is impractical, where the facility is designated for elderly or handicapped persons and utility costs constitute part of the operating cost and are not apportioned to individual units, or where submetering or resale of service was permitted prior to 1966. See Iowa Code 437A.3
• month: means a calendar month, and the word "year" and the abbreviation "A. See Iowa Code 4.1
• Municipal electric cooperative association: means an electric cooperative, the membership of which is composed entirely of municipal utilities. See Iowa Code 437A.3
• Municipal utility: means all or part of an electric light and power plant system or a natural gas system, either of which is owned by a city, including all land, easements, rights-of-way, fixtures, equipment, accessories, improvements, appurtenances, and other property necessary or useful for the operation of the municipal utility. See Iowa Code 437A.3
• Natural gas company: includes a combination natural gas company and electric company. See Iowa Code 437A.3
• Natural gas competitive service area: means any of the fifty-two natural gas competitive service areas described as follows:
   (1) Each of the following municipal natural gas competitive service areas:

   (a) Taylor county, except for those areas of Taylor county which are contained within another municipal natural gas competitive service area as described in this subsection. See Iowa Code 437A.3
• natural gas service: means such service provided by natural gas pipelines permitted pursuant to chapter 479. See Iowa Code 437A.3
• Net actual generation: means net electrical megawatt hours produced by a plant during the preceding calendar year. See Iowa Code 437A.3
• Net capacity factor: means net actual generation during the preceding calendar year divided by the product of nameplate capacity times the number of hours the plant was in the active state during the preceding calendar year. See Iowa Code 437A.3
• New cogeneration facility: means any of the following:
   (1) A cogeneration facility, regardless of capacity, which is first placed into service on or after January 1, 2009, that uses the same energy source for the sequential generation of electrical or mechanical power in combination with steam, heat, or other forms of useful energy and meets the criteria to be a qualifying cogeneration facility as defined in the federal Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act of 1978, 16 U. See Iowa Code 437A.3
• New electric power generating plant: means any of the following:
   (1) An electric power generating plant that is owned by or leased to an electric company, electric cooperative, municipal utility, or any other taxpayer, and that initially generates electricity subject to replacement generation tax under section 437A. See Iowa Code 437A.3
• Obligation: An order placed, contract awarded, service received, or similar transaction during a given period that will require payments during the same or a future period.
• on-site facility: means an electric power generating plant that is wholly owned by or leased in its entirety to a person and used to generate electricity solely for consumption by such person on the same parcel of land on which such plant is located or on a contiguous parcel of land. See Iowa Code 437A.3
• Operating property: means all property owned by or leased to an electric company, electric cooperative, municipal utility, or natural gas company, not otherwise taxed separately, which is necessary to and without which the company could not perform the activities of an electric company, electric cooperative, municipal utility, or natural gas company. See Iowa Code 437A.3
• Owner: means any of the following:
   a. See Iowa Code 425A.2
• parcel of land: includes each separate parcel of land shown on the tax list. See Iowa Code 437A.3
• Partner: means a person that holds an interest, directly or indirectly, in a partnership or pass-through entity. See Iowa Code 422.25A
• Person: means any individual, firm, association, partnership, joint stock company, joint adventure, corporation, trustee, agency, or receiver, or any legal representative of any of the foregoing. See Iowa Code 453A.42
• personal property: include money, goods, chattels, evidences of debt, and things in action. See Iowa Code 4.1
• Personal property: All property that is not real property.
• Pole miles: means miles measured along the line of poles, structures, or towers carrying electric conductors regardless of the number of conductors or circuits carried, and miles of conduit bank, regardless of number of conduits or ducts, of all sizes and types, including manholes and handholes. See Iowa Code 437A.3
• property: includes personal and real property. See Iowa Code 4.1
• Purchasing member: means a municipal utility which purchases electricity from a municipal electric cooperative association of which it is a member. See Iowa Code 437A.3
• real property: include lands, tenements, hereditaments, and all rights thereto and interests therein, equitable as well as legal. See Iowa Code 4.1
• Real property: Land, and all immovable fixtures erected on, growing on, or affixed to the land.
• Replacement tax: means the excise tax imposed on the generation, transmission, delivery, consumption, or use of electricity or natural gas under section 437A. See Iowa Code 437A.3
• road: include public bridges, and may be held equivalent to the words "county way" "county road" "common road" and "state road". See Iowa Code 4.1
• Self-generator: means a person, other than an electric company, natural gas company, electric cooperative, or municipal utility, who generates, by means of an on-site facility wholly owned by or leased in its entirety to such person, electricity solely for its own consumption, except for inadvertent unscheduled deliveries to the electric utility furnishing electric service to that self-generator. See Iowa Code 437A.3
• Solar energy conversion facility: means the same as defined in section 476C. See Iowa Code 437A.3
• state: when applied to the different parts of the United States, includes the District of Columbia and the territories, and the words "United States" may include the said district and territories. See Iowa Code 4.1
• Statewide amount: means the acquisition cost of any major addition which is not a local amount. See Iowa Code 437A.3
• Subpoena: A command to a witness to appear and give testimony.
• Tax year: means a calendar year beginning January 1 and ending December 31. See Iowa Code 437A.3
• Taxable value: means as defined in section 437A. See Iowa Code 437A.3
• Taxpayer: means an electric company, natural gas company, electric cooperative, municipal utility, or other person subject to the replacement tax imposed under section 437A. See Iowa Code 437A.3
• Township: includes any city or part of a city located within the exterior boundaries of that township. See Iowa Code 437A.3
• Transfer replacement tax: means the excise tax imposed in a competitive service area of a municipal utility which replaces transfers made by the municipal utility in accordance with section 384. See Iowa Code 437A.3
• Transmission line: means a line, wire, or cable which is capable of operating at an electric voltage of at least thirty-four and one-half kilovolts. See Iowa Code 437A.3
• Trial: A hearing that takes place when the defendant pleads "not guilty" and witnesses are required to come to court to give evidence.
• United States: includes all the states. See Iowa Code 4.1
• Use: means the exercise of any right or power incidental to the ownership of tobacco products. See Iowa Code 453A.42
• Utilities board: means the utilities board created in section 474. See Iowa Code 437A.3
• Writ of certiorari: An order issued by the Supreme Court directing the lower court to transmit records for a case for which it will hear on appeal.
• year: means twelve consecutive months. See Iowa Code 4.1