Providing Property Tax Relief Since 1999
The Cook County Board of Review has opened 6 more townships for 2014 property tax appeals. The deadline to file a 2014 appeal is 11/21/14 for the following townships:
Are you eligible for a Cook County Property Tax Exemption?
Eligibility CRITERIA FOR HOMESTEAD EXEMPTION AND OTHER RELATED EXEMPTIONS
For ALL homestead exemptions including the General Exemption, a taxpayer must:
• Live in the property as of January 1 of the tax year;
• Use the property as his or her principal dwelling place; and
• Assume legal responsibility to pay the property taxes.
For the Senior Citizen Exemption, a taxpayer also must:
• Be at least 65-years-old anytime in the tax year.
For the Senior Citizen Assessment Freeze Exemption, a taxpayer also must:
• Be at least 65-years-old anytime in the tax year; and
• Have a household income of $55,000 or less.
For the Returning Veterans’ Exemption, a taxpayer also must:
• Have served in the U.S. Armed or Reserve Forces or the Illinois National Guard; and
• Have actively served in an armed conflict involving U.S. Armed Forces.
For a Disabled Veterans’ Standard Exemption, a taxpayer also must:
• Be honorably discharged from the U.S. Armed or Reserve Forces or the Illinois National Guard; and
• Suffer a service-related disability of at least 50%.
• Live in a property with an equalized assessed value of no more than $250,000 (excluding any part used for business or rented for 6 months or longer.)
For a Disabled Veterans’ Exemption, a taxpayer also must:
• Qualify for the Disabled Veterans’ Standard Exemption (see above); and
• Live in a property with an assessed value of no more than $70,000; and
• Have a disability of such a nature that the Federal Government has authorized payment for purchase or construction of Specially Adapted Housing or as otherwise specified in Section 15-165 of the Property Tax Code.
For the Disabled Persons’ Exemption, a taxpayer also must:
• Be unable to engage in any substantial gainful activity by reason of a medically determinable physical or mental impairment which can be expected to result in death or has lasted or can be expected to last for a continuous period of not less than 12 months.
For the Long-Time Occupant Exemption, a taxpayer also must:
• Have a total household income of $100,000 or less;
• As of January 1 of the tax year, have occupied the property as principal residence for at least 10 continuous years OR have occupied the property as principal for at least 5 continuous years if the taxpayer received the property as part of a government or nonprofit housing program; and
• Face a property assessment increase that exceeds limits set out in Section I S-177 of the Property Tax Code.
Additional information on all exemptions is available online at www.cookcountyassessor.com and in the Illinois Property Tax Code at www.ilga.gov.
Source: Cook County Assessor’s Office
6 More Townships Opened for 2014 Cook County Property Tax Appeals
The Cook County Board of Review has opened 6 more townships for 2014 property tax appeals. The deadline to file a 2014 appeal is 10/17/14 for the following townships:
The Illinois Appellate Court, Second District, issued an opinion on September 3, 2014 in the case of BLTREJV3 Chicago, LLC v. The Kane County Board of Review, 2014 IL App (2d) 140164.
In that opinion, the court held that property tax appeals sent to Kane County Board of Review are not timely when deposited with a third-party commercial carrier (such as FedEx) on due date for filing appeal of property tax assessment. Board had adopted and published rules of procedure that incorporated the Statute on Statutes, which has a “mailbox rule” providing that a document is deemed “filed” as of date of mailing via U.S. mail. Board rules state that “mailbox rule” does not apply to communications delivered by FedEx or other commercial or non-commercial delivery entity. Had Petitioners sent tax appeals via U.S. mail, the postmark would have served as date of filing, and Board would have considered appeals timely. The property owners in this case had 71 of their 72 property tax appeals rejected as untimely as a result of the opinion, because they were sent via FedEx instead of via the U.S. Postal Service.
For a copy of the complete opinion, check out www.illinoiscourts.gov
The Cook County Board of Review has opened 7 more townships for 2014 property tax appeals. The deadline to file a 2014 appeal is 9/25/14 for the following townships:
The Board of Review has announced that the 2014 appeal session for the first group of townships will open on 8/4/14, with the deadline to file a complaint 9/2/14. Here are the townships that will open for appeal on 8/4/14:
The primary reason to appeal your Cook County property taxes is to ensure that you are paying no more than your fair share. Those who successfully appeal their property taxes save money, typically in the hundreds and sometimes thousands.
Important Note: savings realized from successful appeals do not lessen the overall tax revenue the county needs to generate. It simply shifts the additional burden to those that do not appeal their property taxes. Thus, if you aren’t appealing and your neighbors are, then you are paying more than your fair share.
Appeals can be made through the County Assessor, the Board of Review, the Property Tax Appeal Board, or the Circuit Court. Common methods for appealing include:
This can be a time-consuming, frustrating and often unsuccessful process if you don’t have prior experience doing it. We’ve appealed thousands of property tax assessments and have saved millions for property owners just like you.
If you’d like to know how much Cook County thinks your property is worth, which is what they use to calculate your property tax bill, just follow these steps:
If you’d like to pay 100% of the amount calculated here, be our guest.
If you’re a homeowner and you haven’t appealed your property taxes yet this year, you could potentially save hundreds or thousands with our residential property tax appeal service.
Cook County’s property tax system is complicated:
The following is an estimated residential tax bill example based on Cook County tax rates in 2014:
| Estimated Market | $300,000 |
|
Value Assessment Level (10%)
|
x .10
|
| Proposed Assessed Valuation | $30,000 |
|
2013 State Equalizer
|
x 2.6621
|
| Equalized Assessed Value | $79,863 |
|
Homeowner Exemption
|
– $7,000
|
| Adjusted Equalized Value | $72,863 |
|
Sample Tax Rate (your tax rate could vary)
|
x .10
|
| Estimated Tax Bill | $7,286.30 |
If you’ve noticed that your property tax bill increases at a rate that doesn’t correspond with changes in home prices on the market, you may wonder how your county assessor determines your annual property tax bill. This blog post explains the process of how your property tax assessment is calculated.
You may get more out of this post if you read it with a copy of your latest property tax bill handy.
The first step in determining how much you owe in property taxes is based on how much revenue your county needs to generate to fund the budgets of all of the taxing bodies. Most property tax revenues go towards funding local school districts, followed by the other taxing bodies such as the fire department, police department, libraries, water reclamation districts, forest preserves, park districts, mosquito abatement districts, etc.
After the total amount of the property taxes to be levied in a given year is established, the taxing authorities determine the property tax rate that must be applied to the total value of real property in each taxing district in order to raise the required property tax revenue. In a simplistic example (ignoring adjusting factors such as levels of assessment, exemptions, state equalization, etc.), if a taxing district needs to generate $5 billion in property tax revenues to cover its budgeted spending and all of the real property located in the taxing district is valued at $100 billion in the county, then the tax rate would be 5% or $5B/$100B.
The market value of your home is estimated by the assessor using sales information of homes similar to yours in your area, and then used in determining your home’s assessed value. Your home’s assessed value is then equalized along with all other properties in accordance with applicable law. The tax rate is multiplied by the equalized assessed value (EAV) of your home net of any exemptions applied to your property.
You may qualify for one or more of several property tax exemptions. Exemptions are available to certain taxpayers who may qualify on the basis of:
Thus, whether the market value of your property goes up or down in any given year, may have no effect on your property tax bill because your county needs to fund its budget regardless of home prices and there are other non-market forces that determine your property tax bill.
Because your county is using macro/aggregate information, there are inherently discrepancies in fairness for what you may be asked to pay in property tax relative to other properties.
Ascertaining whether the assessed value of your property is fair or should be appealed can be time consuming and difficult, as there are many factors that determine what properties are actually comparable to yours.
Cook County homeowners: click here for more information on how to read your tax bill.
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