Click here to subscribe FREE to Ray Hanania's Columns
Paying tax bill online is easy and safe, but you can also pay by mail or in person
By Maria Pappas
Property owners face an Aug. 1 due date to pay their Second Installment 2023 tax bills.
Many homeowners authorize their mortgage company to pay their two annual property tax installments from an escrow account.
They pay their mortgage company an amount every month to cover the cost of taxes as well as principal and interest on their home loan.
But many others are responsible for paying tax bills themselves. Those property owners have several ways to pay their property taxes:
- Pay online (for free with your bank account)
- Pay at Chase Bank
- Pay at a community bank
- Pay by mail
- Pay at the Treasurer’s Office
- Pay by credit card
Paying online is the quickest and easiest way to pay a tax bill. There is no fee to pay online by transferring funds from your bank account. The option is convenient because you can pay from home at any time, day or night. Plus, this method is secure and avoids the risk of someone stealing your check from a mailbox and draining funds from your bank account.
A second option is to pay in person at any one of nearly 400 Chase Bank locations in Illinois, including those located outside of Cook County. You must present a tax bill payment coupon with your tax bill. Payment coupons may be detached from the bottom of tax bills that were mailed in early July to owners of nearly 1.8 million parcels or printed online.
When paying at a Chase Bank, your check must include the following information:
- Property Index Number (PIN)
- Taxpayer name
- Property location, including unit number
- Mailing address
- Telephone number
- Email address
- Tax year/installment
Another option is to pay at a community bank. Payment is accepted at more than 100 community bank locations. A list of community bank locations that accept tax bill payments is available online at cookcountytreasurer.com. Bring your entire original tax bill with you, and a cashier will give you a receipt for your payment.
For those opting to pay by mail, your check must include a PIN and other information listed above for paying at a Chase Bank. Your canceled check is your receipt. Mail checks for current tax bills to the Cook County Treasurer’s Office, P.O. Box 805438, Chicago, IL 60680-4116.
The Treasurer’s Office welcomes walk-ins who prefer to pay their tax bills in person at 118 N. Clark St., Room 112, in downtown Chicago.
You may submit payment via credit card online at cookcountytreasurer.com. There is a 2.1% convenience fee associated with credit card payments that is paid to the payment processor.
State law requires that those who fail to pay their bills in full by the due date will be charged 0.75% per month in interest, or 9% per year. The Treasurer’s Office allows taxpayers to make partial payments over time as their budgets allow. Taxpayers are responsible for paying the total tax amount owed, along with any interest associated with late tax payments.
A payment plan calculator will be available Aug. 2 at cookcountytreasurer.com at no cost to help property owners who are late paying their taxes. The calculator will help taxpayers budget their property tax expenses over monthly installments or every two weeks.
Click here to subscribe FREE to Ray Hanania's Columns
His award winning columns can be found at www.HANANIA.COM Subscribe FREE today
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 [email protected].
Follow RayHanania at Twitter
