Fellow taxpayers in Cook County, just a quick heads up:
The Cook County Treasurer's Office has announced it will be sending the first installment 2015 real estate tax bills during the last week of January. The official payment due date is March 1, 2016. The first installment is 55% of the previous full year's real estate tax bill (2014).
Cook County is still working on assessment appeals for the 2015 real estate tax year and because appeals fall into the next calendar year, the actual payment of our real estate tax is always one year in arrears.
Most taxpayers will pay approximately the remaining 45% with the second installment but there are some circumstances (changes in your assessment and/ or changes in your taxing rates) that affect the total due on the second installment. If you are budgeting based upon a prior year's total tax bill you have to consider the following:
- If your property is located outside the City of Chicago and your assessment remained the same, the second installment will reflect the changes in the local real estate tax rates and State of Illinois Multiplier. Because of this, whether you have appealed or not, you have to consider the potential of an increase in the real estate taxes based on increases in the taxing rates.
- If your property is located within the City of Chicago, even if you have appealed and received a reduction in your assessment, unless your assessment remained the same or decreased from the prior year's assessment you may find an increase in the total amount of real estate tax to be paid because the 2015 assessment was greater than the 2014 assessment. And again, the second installment will reflect the changes in the local real estate tax rates and State of Illinois Multiplier.
When you budget your real estate taxes for the remainder of the year, always consider the effect your assessment and your local and state taxing rates will have when the second installment is delivered. The due date for the second installment varies depending upon when the appeals are concluded but generally they are mailed to you in August-September.
Aggressive appeals of your assessment in most circumstances will make you fare better than if you do not appeal.
The Cook County Treasurer's Office issued a very useful newsletter this week that includes a lot of helpful information about paying your real estate tax bill. You can find it on our Amari & Locallo website by clicking on to the link below.
