Property Tax Appeal Services
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Most localities determine your property tax burden based on an ad valorem assessment of the property's value. If you you get an unwanted surprise in the mail stating your taxes are going up, you may have good reason to differ with their assessment. Sometimes, matters like this can be solved with a phone call. However, if after discussing your assessment with your local taxing authority you still feel your property was overvalued, an independent, third-party appraiser is often your best bet in proving your case.
There are as many different procedures for appealing assessments as there are property taxing districts, so it's important to enlist the help of a professional appraisal firm that's experienced and trained in the ins and outs of your particular jurisdiction.
Please note: It makes sense to do your own research before determining whether to go forward with a property assessment appeal, especially before you make the decision to hire a professional appraiser. However, according to the Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice (USPAP), we are not allowed to take "shortcuts" -- i.e., your research -- and use it on its face as part of our independent evaluation. When you hire us for an assessment appeal, you're commissioning an independent, third-party professional appraisal report. As such we do our own evaluation, beginning to end. If you're right that your property has been overvalued, an independent report such as ours will be even more persuasive than any other evidence you can marshal on your own. But it depends on our ability to do the work independently.
Sometimes, you will have a hearing on your assessment appeal and will need for the appraiser you've hired to testify on your behalf. Be assured that at TYKE Appraisals, we are able to professionally and persuasively testify at appeal hearings. Browse our website to learn more about our qualifications, expertise and services offered.
PROPERTY TAX APPEAL ARTICLES - 1
New Property Tax Increases Hit Hispanic Wards Hardest in Chicago
Published December 1, 2022 • Updated on December 1, 2022 at 4:20 pm
Most Cook County property owners will see a larger tax bill this year, but owners in gentrifying Latino neighborhoods in Chicago will see some of the biggest hikes.
Some will see tax bills three times as large.
County Treasurer Maria Pappas released an analysis of the new tax bills Thursday morning. She said the hikes were “overly burdensome on middle-class, working people” and pointed to several reasons behind them:
Tax increment financing districts, rising property assessments and a new state law that allows local governments to recoup losses from reassessed property taxes.
Pappas called that law, known as a recapture provision, an “automatic tax increase” with “no oversight whatsoever.” That provision alone added $131 million to the county tax bill and accounted for one-fifth of the increase.
“The recapture law will be a permanent boon to taxing districts and an annual burden on taxpayers,” Pappas’ analysis found.
Gentrification was behind the biggest tax increases that hit mainly minority or Latino neighborhoods, Pappas said.
On the Lower West Side, property owners saw their median tax bill more than double, from $2,275 to $7,239, according to the analysis.
In Avondale, another heavily Hispanic neighborhood, the median tax bill went up 27%.
Those increases could price out many people from their homes.
“The system is broken,” said Ald. Byron Sigcho-Lopez, whose 25th Ward covers much of the Lower West Side that saw the biggest hikes. He called for reforms to the property tax system and blamed corrupt politicians who took advantage of the Cook County Board of Review to give their buddies tax breaks while passing on the slack to homeowners.
“This is simply unethical,” he said. The median tax increases in the analysis don’t represent those who were hit the hardest, he said. He’s talked to a homeowner that saw their tax bill triple this year. He called for a property tax system that considers the ability to pay.
Meanwhile, several neighborhoods saw median decreases in property tax bills. In West Garfield Park, homeowner taxes dropped nearly 45%.
The analysis, which Pappas’ office does yearly, examined the 1.8 million tax bills posted online in November. Paper bills begin arriving in mailboxes Thursday.
The median tax bill for homeowners increased this year by 8%.
The analysis found that property taxes rose by $614 million — a 3.8% increase — for a total of $16.7 billion. The money pays for schools, public safety, medical care, parks, libraries and other government services. Tax bills have been rising each year in Cook County for 22 years.
Homeowners are picking up most of that increase: about $330 million, or 53.6%. That’s due to reassessments of commercial properties that saw their values lowered. Homeowners had to pick up the slack.
Pappas’ analysis points to other reasons tax bills increased so much this year.
Chicago’s City Hall increased its tax burden by $94 million, and Chicago Public Schools increased its levy by $114 million, her office said.
Pappas said the majority of property tax money goes to funding schools. To save homeowners from being priced out, she said county residents need to consider funding schools in other ways.
“They need to find another way to fund schools other than property taxes,” Pappas said. If this continues, people will begin to leave,” she said.
And although the assessor’s office reduced home values last year by 8% to 12%, real estate prices rose as well, increasing overall taxes, Pappas’ analysis found.
“This is tragic and can have terrible consequences for the community,” said Ald. Rossana Rodriguez-Sanchez, whose 33rd Ward covers parts of Avondale that saw a median tax bill increase from $6,060 to $7,398.
“We’ve already seen a displacement of Latinos to the suburbs because they can’t afford to live here already. Many live on fixed incomes. They can’t afford a property tax increase,” she said. “It’s incredibly disappointing the people making these decisions aren’t considering the consequences these actions have in vulnerable communities,” she said.
Property assessment increases last year gave TIF districts an extra $141 million boost, spurring development in those districts. But little of that tax money relieved the overall burden on homeowners, Pappas’ analysis found.
Taxes also rose in suburban Cook County. In the north and northwest suburbs, taxes rose by $94 million, with most homeowners and commercial property owners facing higher bills. In the south and southwest suburbs, taxes grew by a smaller amount: $35 million.
Copyright CHIST - SunTimes
PROPERTY TAX APPEAL ARTICLES - 2
Cook County Property Tax Portal
Cook County property tax analysis: Latino wards see dramatic increases; new state law, reassessments and controversial TIF funds result in higher taxes for most property owners 12/01/2022
As property tax bills land in Cook County mailboxes over the coming days, businesses and homeowners will likely find higher bills with some gentrifying Latino neighborhoods in Chicago seeing eye-popping increases of nearly 46%, according to a Treasurer’s Office analysis of 1.8 million tax bills.
The analysis, which examined bills for the 2021 tax year, shows that property taxes across Cook County rose by $614 million — a 3.8% increase — for a total of $16.7 billion going to pay for schools, public safety, medical care, parks, libraries and other government services.
The increased tax burden is not shared equally. Homeowners will pay 53.6% of the rise, while businesses will pay 46.4%. Some Chicago communities — affluent areas along the north lakefront and pockets of working-class Latino neighborhoods — will see their taxes jump dramatically.
The increase in taxes in some gentrifying Latino neighborhoods likely will raise concerns that residents could be priced out of their homes. In the Lower West Side, a predominantly Latino community, the median homeowner’s tax bill increased by $2,275 to $7,239, a 46% jump over 2020's property taxes. In Avondale, another predominantly Latino community, the median tax bill shot up 27%.
"There are still inequities in our property tax system and we need to straighten it out," said Cook County Treasurer Maria Pappas.
Meanwhile, many struggling, predominantly Black neighborhoods saw significant reductions in their median taxes, such as West Garfield Park where homeowner taxes dropped nearly 45%.
Overall, the median tax bill for homeowners in Chicago went up nearly 8%. The Treasurer's analysis shows four factors drove those increases:
- A new Illinois property tax law allows many governments to "recapture," or recover, the total of any taxes refunded to property owners who appealed their taxes the previous year. This new recapture law added $131 million to tax bills across Cook County. Chicago Public Schools is getting $32.3 million, the largest recapture payment in Cook County.
- Property assessments, used to determine how much someone pays, rose across the city this year — fueling a $141 million increase into the city’s special economic development funds, known as Tax Increment Finance districts. None of that $141 million may be used to cover government services, so it is effectively an additional property tax.
- City Hall increased the amount of money it needed for operations by $94 million, and Chicago Public Schools increased its tax levy by $114 million.
- The Assessor's Office last year reduced the values of homes anywhere from 8% to 12% because of the COVID-19 Pandemic. But homes' estimated market values have risen, and the Board of Review, the tax assessment appeal agency, dramatically lowering commercial assessments set by the Assessor, which caused more of the overall tax burden to fall on homeowners.
Pappas, who annually studies the impact of government property taxes, said the newly enacted recapture law "now will be an annual tax increase."
Elsewhere, taxes in the North and Northwest suburbs, increased by $94 million, with most homeowners and commercial property owners getting higher bills. Taxes grew to a smaller extent in the South and Southwest suburbs, where the increase was $35 million.