Exemption Applications Are Coming Soon 

Good news: The Senior Exemption now renews automatically each year

Exemption applications for the 2019 Tax Year will be available to download from our website on Monday, January 13, 2020 for the Homeowner, Senior, and Senior Freeze Exemptions.

A new law, passed by state legislators in partnership with our office allows for the automatic renewal of the Senior Exemption. This means that a senior homeowner only has to apply once, instead of applying each year to prove they are 65 or older.

Prior recipients of the exemption will receive a postcard in the mail informing them that they no longer need to reapply. New applicants for the Senior Exemption must apply this year and thereafter will automatically renew. Please note, the Homeowner and Senior Exemptions are the only two exemptions that renew automatically each year. 

Prior recipients of the Senior Freeze Exemption will receive renewal forms in the mail in January with a due date of February 13, 2020. The Senior Freeze Exemption still needs to be applied for each year. 

Renewal applications for the Disabled Persons, Disabled Veterans and Long Time Occupant Exemptions will be mailed in early February and can be downloaded from www.cookcountyassessor.com at that time. Taxpayers may also call our office at 312-443-7550 and request applications by mail.

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Education and Outreach

In the News

Why some landlords shouldn't grip too much about the assessor's new math Crain's research contradicts the popular narrative that Fritz Kaegi's office has overshot the market with its recent assessments. Here are the numbers to back it up. Read full article

Big business drivers will keep Chicago moving in 2020 "What Fritz Kaegi is trying to do is bring clarity, and I think that’s a good idea..." Read full article

Property Tax Rate Simulator 

A new tool to help property owners understand their property tax bills

On December 11, 2019, the Assessor's Office, in partnership with the City of Chicago, hosted the first Market Analyst Day. In front of a packed house of real estate market participants, Assessor Kaegi unveiled the new Property Tax Rate Simulator tool. The tool simulates effective tax rates and total property tax bills for property values for single-family homes, commercial apartments, and commercial and industrial properties in the City of Chicago. The simulator, which is a workbook, contains data and models to demonstrate how individual assessments, levies, and overall tax bases interact to produce a Chicago tax bill.

The purpose of this simulator is twofold. First, it demonstrates how historical tax bills can be simulated using mostly publicly-available data. Second, it demonstrates how one might explore hypothetical property tax scenarios in order to better understand the Cook County property tax system. Note that the Cook County Assessor does not calculate tax rates or tax bills. You can read about Cook County’s property tax system here.

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Cook County Assessor's Office

118 North Clark Street, Third Floor, Room #320, Chicago, IL 60602

www.cookcountyassessor.com