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8,500 Cook County homeowners are owed automatic refund for tax overpayments

Pappas: Are you one of the 8,500 homeowners getting an automatic refund? Find out at CookCountyTreasurer.com

More than 8,500 homeowners who overpaid their First Installment taxes are set to receive $12.8 million in refunds without filing an application, Cook County Treasurer Maria Pappas said today.

“Since we launched the automatic refund program in July, 2018, 110,000 property owners have received about $56.4 million in refunds without an application,” Pappas said.

More than 60 percent of the refunds will be deposited directly into property owners’ accounts. To see if you are receiving a refund, visit cookcountytreasurer.com and select the purple box labeled “Your Property Overview.” Just put in your address.

The refunds will be issued starting today and completed by Monday, October 2, 2020. Here is the breakdown:
• 4,552 homeowners who earlier this year paid by check or online will receive credits to their bank or credit card accounts totaling $8.1 million
• 3,998 homeowners who paid through a bank/mortgage escrow account will be mailed refund checks totaling $4.7 million
• In addition, 306 homeowners whose taxes totaling $400,000 were paid in cash will be mailed a refund application to ensure the proper party receives the refund

Most of the refunds go to homeowners receiving property tax exemptions, which are applied to the Second Installment tax bill and reduce the total taxes due. The exemptions include: Homeowner’s, Senior Citizen, Senior Assessment Freeze and Disabled Persons.

The Second Installment property tax bill was due August 3, but property owners can pay without late fees through Thursday, October 1.

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Ray Hanania

Ray Hanania is an award-winning 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.

Hanania also writes about Middle East issues for the Arab News, and The Arab Daily News criticizing government policies in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Hanania was named "Best Ethnic American Columnist" by the New America Media in November 2007, and is the 2009 recipient of the SPJ National Sigma Delta Chi Award for column writing.

Email Ray Hanania at rghanania@gmail.com.