Iowa Military License Plates and Registration Fee Exemptions

Iowa has one of the longest military plate catalogues in the country and the fee arithmetic is the part people get wrong. Start with what "free" means here. The baseline for any special plate. Section 321.34, subsection 12, paragraph "a": the issuance fee for a special registration plate with a processed emblem is $25 per vehicle "which fee is in addition to the regular annual registration fee", and the county treasurer validates it each year "upon payment of five dollars in addition to the regular annual registration fee." What each military plate subsection then does. Every one of them says the first set is issued "at no charge", which waives the $25 issuance fee. None of them waives the $5 annual validation fee or the regular annual registration fee. The Iowa Department of Transportation states the veteran plate's fees exactly: "One set at no charge. Second or subsequent sets at $25. $5 annual renewal fee to the Veterans License Fee Fund. Annual registration renewal fee." A personalized military plate is $25 for the first set and $50 for later sets, plus the same $5 and the registration fee. So the honest summary is: a military plate saves you $25 once and costs you $5 a year forever, on top of normal registration. That is not a complaint about the plates, which is where the money goes: the $5 validation fees are transferred monthly from the statutory allocations fund to the veterans license fee fund created in section 35A.11, which the commission of veterans affairs spends on veteran projects. Buying the plate funds the grant programme. The plates. Section 321.34 authorises, among others: national guard (subsection 16), Pearl Harbor (17), purple heart (18), United States armed forces retired (19), silver star and bronze star (20), distinguished service cross, navy cross and air force cross (20A), soldier's medal, navy and marine corps medal and airman's medal (20B), combat infantryman badge, combat action badge, combat action ribbon, air force combat action medal and combat medical badge (20C), gold star (24), and United States veteran (27). Medal of honor plates are subsection 8 and ex-prisoner of war plates subsection 8A. Section 35A.11, subsection 2 lists which of these feed the veterans license fee fund. Who qualifies for the plain veteran plate. Section 321.34, subsection 27, paragraph "a" requires only an owner "who served in the armed forces of the United States and was discharged under honorable conditions", on presentation of satisfactory proof of military service and discharge. No Iowa residency at the time of service, no wartime period, no minimum length of service. The Department of Transportation reads guard and reserve service into that requirement: its page requires, for guard and reserve members, "at least 90 days of active duty service for other than training, or National Guard and/or Reserve minimum of 20 years of service, discharge under honorable conditions, eligible for retired pay at age 60." That is the department's construction of "served in the armed forces of the United States"; the statute itself does not spell it out. The state veterans department goes further still: its benefits page says specialty plates are available to honorably discharged veterans "as defined in Iowa Code, Section 35.1", which would import that section's Iowa residency requirement. Subsection 27 does not cross-refer to section 35.1, so a veteran who never lived in Iowa while serving is not shut out of the plain veteran plate by the statute. Three routes out of the annual registration fee, and they are the ones worth chasing. Medal of Honor. Section 321.34, subsection 8: plates issued at no charge in exchange for the previous plates, and "A person who is issued special plates under this subsection is exempt from payment of any annual registration fee for the motor vehicle bearing the special plates." Ex-prisoner of war, or Legion of Merit. Section 321.34, subsection 8A issues the ex-POW plate at no charge "subject to an annual registration fee of fifteen dollars". Subsection 12A, paragraph "a" then extends that: an owner who applies for any type of armed forces special plate gets one set at no charge subject to the $15 annual registration fee if they are eligible for, but have relinquished or not been issued, ex-prisoner of war or legion of merit plates. So an ex-POW may take any military plate they like and still pay $15 a year rather than an actual registration fee. The VA automobile grant. Section 321.105, subsection 5: "Seriously disabled veterans who have been provided with an automobile or other vehicle by the United States government under the provisions of 38 U.S.C. §3901 – 3904, shall be exempt from payment of the registration fee provided in this chapter for that vehicle, and shall be provided, without fee, with one set of regular registration plates or one set of any type of special registration plates associated with service in the United States armed forces for which the disabled veteran qualifies". The veteran must be an Iowa resident. Subsection 12A, paragraph "b" of section 321.34 carries the same exemption across to any armed forces plate. Note what this route is and is not. It is not a disability percentage test. Iowa has no "disabled veteran plate" keyed to a rating. The gate is having actually received a vehicle through the federal automobile and adaptive equipment grant under 38 U.S.C. sections 3901 to 3904, which requires loss or permanent loss of use of a foot or hand, permanent impairment of vision of both eyes to a prescribed degree, or, for adaptive equipment only, ankylosis of one or both knees or hips. A veteran rated 100 percent who never received that grant gets no registration fee exemption from this section. Guides that say "disabled veterans are exempt from Iowa registration fees" are describing a much wider benefit than the statute provides. Surviving spouses may keep the plate, and the terms differ by plate. Section 321.34, subsection 12, paragraph "d" is the general rule: a surviving spouse may continue to use the special plates on registering them in their own name and paying the same annual registration fee if applicable, and "If the surviving spouse remarries, the surviving spouse shall return the special plates to the department and the department shall issue regular registration plates." The Medal of Honor subsection lets a surviving spouse continue the plates with the same remarriage condition. The armed forces retired subsection lets a surviving spouse continue or newly apply, "upon payment of the annual five-dollar special plate fee and the regular annual registration fee". The ex-POW subsection lets a surviving spouse continue or newly apply on payment of the annual registration fee. Eligible vehicles and leases. Subsection 12, paragraph "a" covers a motor vehicle subject to registration under section 321.109, subsection 1, an autocycle, motor truck, motor home, multipurpose vehicle, motorcycle, trailer, or travel trailer. Subsection 9 allows special plates, including the section 321.105 disabled veteran plates, to be issued to the lessee of a motor vehicle on evidence of a lease longer than sixty days. Mechanics. On receiving a special plate you surrender the regular plates to the county treasurer, and if you stop being eligible you surrender the special plates for regular ones. Personalized military plates are limited to five initials, letters or combinations. Apply on the Department of Transportation's Special Plate Application, mailed with the fees due; plates go to your county treasurer's office and take three to six weeks. "Plates must be assigned to a vehicle within 90 days or the plates will be voided and no refund issued." One thing the plate can cost you. If you hold a vehicle provided under the VA automobile grant and you take a military special plate instead of the free regular plates, you lose the automatic disability parking entitlement that the regular plates carry. See the Iowa disability parking entry; that trade is set out in section 321L.2, subsection 5 and it is easy to make by accident. A filing note. Having claimed the chapter 426A military service property tax exemption creates a rebuttable presumption of Iowa residency for vehicle purposes under section 321.1A, subsection 1, paragraph "b".