Taxes in Dubuque
Dubuque's tax picture combines a genuinely below-median effective property tax rate with Iowa's real, statewide flat income tax structure.
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Learn moreA property tax rate below Iowa's statewide median
Dubuque's effective property tax rate ran approximately 1.33% per Ownwell -- genuinely below Iowa's statewide median (~1.54%) and below the rates cited for Des Moines (~1.87%), Iowa City (~1.88%), and Cedar Rapids (~1.71%) elsewhere in this project.
Iowa's real, current flat income tax
Iowa's flat individual income tax rate ran 3.8% for 2026, the final step of a multi-year phase-down from a top graduated rate as high as 8.53% in 2022.
Iowa's real statewide rollback mechanism
Iowa applies a genuinely complex statewide 'assessment limitation' or 'rollback' mechanism capping year-over-year taxable-value growth -- a specific property's taxable value can diverge from its market value as a result.
Key takeaways
- Dubuque's effective property tax rate (~1.33%) runs genuinely below Iowa's statewide median.
- Iowa's flat 3.8% income tax rate (2026) applies statewide.
- Iowa's rollback assessment-limitation mechanism adds real complexity beyond simple flat-rate math.
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