Paying your tax bill online is easy and safe, but you can also pay by mail or in person

By Maria Pappas

In 1789, Ben Franklin wrote that nothing was certain “except death and taxes.” Today I write about the taxes part of the great American statesman’s uncomfortable reminder:

The due date for Cook County property owners to pay their First Installment 2024 tax bills is March 4. And there are numerous ways to do so.

Many property owners authorize their mortgage company to pay their two annual property tax installments from an escrow account. Those homeowners pay their mortgage company an amount every month that covers the cost of taxes as well as principal and interest on their loan.

But many others are responsible for paying themselves. Those owners have numerous ways to pay their property taxes:

Pay online (for free with your bank account)
Pay at a Chase Bank location
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’s no fee to pay online by transferring funds from your bank account. It’s the most convenient option because you can pay 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 Cook County. You must present your tax coupon with your payment. Payment coupons can be printed online or detached from the bottom of tax bills that were mailed in late January to owners of nearly 1.8 million Cook County parcels.

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 more than 100 community bank locations. A list of participating local banks where tax payments are accepted is available online at cookcountytreasurer.com. Bring your entire original tax bill with you, and a bank representative will give you a payment receipt.

For those opting to pay by mail, your check must include a PIN and the same information listed above for paying at a bank branch. 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 also can pay via credit card online at cookcountytreasurer.com. There’s a 2.1% convenience fee associated with credit card payments that goes to the payment processor.

State law requires those who fail to pay their bills in full by the due date to be charged 0.75% per month in interest, or 9% a year. The Treasurer’s Office allows taxpayers to make partial payments over time as their budgets allow. But taxpayers are responsible for paying the total tax amount owed, along with any interest associated with late tax payments.

A payment plan calculator is available at cookcountytreasurer.com at no cost to help property owners who are paying late after the second installment. The calculator will help taxpayers spread out their expenses over monthly or biweekly payments.

While what Ben Franklin wrote about taxes 236 years ago is nothing we look forward to, it should be made as easy as possible in Cook County today. I hope the above shows that it can be.

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Ray Hanania

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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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.

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