Providing Property Tax Relief Since 1999
On 12/21/15 the Cook County Board of Review will open four more townships for 2015 property tax appeals.
The deadline to file an appeal is 1/19/16.
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In a recent move described as “historic,” the Cook County Board of Commissioners have approved the “Cook County Taxation Predictability and Long-Term Fiscal Forecasting Amendment.” This has been described as freezing Cook County’s property and sales tax rates until January 1, 2020.
The amendment provides certain impediments to future tax levy increases after January 1, 2020, including that the Cook County Bureau of Finance must provide the Board with a fiscal forecast that analyzes revenues, expenditures and planned debt issuance for three years should the tax change occur.
This sounds good on the surface but is less appealing once you dig into it.
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6 more Townships opened at the Board of Review for 2016 property tax appeals today. The deadline to file an appeal is January 3, 2017, for the following Townships:
Most property tax reductions are achieved by successfully associating your home with comparable homes (comps) that are assessed less than yours.
However, there are two additional scenarios that could dramatically reduce your property assessment and tax bill: home vacancy and if your home is uninhabitable.
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Important changes were made to Illinois real estate law as part of Public Act 096-1083, which became effective on July 16, 2010. This law sought to address the problem of assessment officials in Illinois ignoring sales transactions for property assessment purposes on the grounds that they were “non arms-length transactions” and therefore not reflective of a property’s true fair cash value.
This problem applied to an exponentially increasing number of properties following the collapse of the real estate market during the Great Recession, and this legislation was designed to fix the problem.
However, one aspect of this law is being ignored by public assessors in Illinois. If you’re an investor of foreclosure or real estate owned (REO) properties, here’s what you can do about it.
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The Cook County Board of Review opened 4 more Townships for 2016 property tax appeals. The following Townships will accept appeals until 12/13/16:
Update: the tax rebate deadline to file applications has been extended to December 31, 2016
In an effort to offset his recent $838 million property tax hikes over the past year, Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel and the city council have implemented a homeowner rebate program.
Qualified homeowners will receive $25 to $200. You may also qualify for an additional $150 senior supplement and hardship grant that extends your total rebate up to $1,000.
Not many people know about it—we just learned about it and we follow Chicago and Cook County property tax appeal-related news closely—so please read below and share with anyone you think may meet the qualification criteria.
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A question that we get a lot about appealing property taxes in Cook County is whether or not the County Assessor or anyone else can retaliate for a successful property tax appeal and reduction.
Since we started working on property tax appeals, we’ve found no evidence of retaliatory measures of any kind.
Instead, we’ve discovered the opposite.
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While Cook County property taxes have skyrocketed for just about every homeowner thanks to Rahm Emanuel’s combined $838 million property tax hikes over the past year, there are some who actually saw theirs decrease.
However, there’s a “catch” for these homeowners and here’s what can be done about it.
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An often overlooked impact of Rahm Emanuel’s combined $838 million property tax hikes over the past year is the impact it’s having on renters.
How can apartment building owners relieve the financial pressure without increasing rents that drive out renters, particularly in the face of additional property tax increases looming on the horizon? There is only one thing that can be done…
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