Pappas refunds taxes to 30,000 Cook County homeowners

Cook County Treasurer Maria Pappas helped taxpayers cut through the county’s bureaucracy and ordered refunds of more than $8.3 million to 30,000 homeowners who qualified for refunds but failed to apply. Pappas said the refunds were made without the taxpayers having to file refund request forms

The Cook County Treasurer’s Office is sending nearly 30,000 homeowners refunds totaling $8.3 million without requiring an application, another example of using technology to make things easier for taxpayers, Treasurer Maria Pappas said today.

“We’ve taken steps in the past to make the refund application process easier,” Pappas said. “Now we’re trying to eliminate the application altogether.”

Overpayments occur for a variety of reasons, including the simple mistake of paying more than is owed on the tax bill. More often, overpayments result from a reduction in property taxes after the bill was paid. Here are details about the 29,752 refunds:

The 8,947 homeowners who paid their taxes through a bank/mortgage escrow account are receiving refund checks
The 20,805 homeowners who paid by check or online are automatically receiving refunds to their bank or credit card accounts

To see if you are entitled to a refund, visit cookcountytreasurer.comand take these steps:

Select the purple box“Your Property Overview”
Enter your address or Property Index Number (PIN)

The refunds are due to tax overpayments made since 2013. Using bank, credit card and property records, the Office has electronically determined who made the overpayment in these cases, making refund applications unnecessary.

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Ray Hanania is an award-winning opinion columnist, author & former Chicago City Hall reporter (1977-1992). A veteran who served during the Vietnam War and the recipient of four SPJ Peter Lisagor Awards for column writing, Hanania writes weekly opinion columns on mainstream American & Chicagoland topics for the Southwest News-Herald, Des Plaines Valley News, the Regional News, The Reporter Newspapers, and Suburban Chicagoland.

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