Financial planning tool offers free online help to budget late tax payments

By Maria Pappas

Property owners unable to pay their tax bills in full by the Dec. 15 due date should look at our free online financial planning tool that helps you make smaller, more manageable payments over time.

It’s called the Payment Plan Calculator and it’s available Dec. 16, one day after the due date, at cookcountytreasurer.com. The calculator lets you:

Set up a schedule to pay off a tax bill in smaller increments instead of all at once.
Choose between making payments once or twice a month.

Create a personalized plan for catching up on delinquent taxes if you owe more than $100.

And you don’t have to wait to sign up. You can register now at cookcountytreasurer.com.

Just click on the purple box. Enter your PIN or your property address and hit “continue.” Then scroll down until you see the Payment Plan Calculator next to the Pay Now button. Click it and a page will appear asking you to type your name and email.

After you enter your information, you’ll receive an emailed reminder from the Cook County Treasurer’s Office to set up your payment plan when the calculator goes live after the due date has passed.

Once the Payment Plan Calculator goes live on Dec. 16, just follow the steps below:

Go to cookcountytreasurer.com and click on the purple box.
Enter the 14-digit Property Index Number (PIN) or the property address to get your tax information.
Scroll down until you see your bills, then click the red ‘Payment Plan Calculator’ button which appears if a bill is delinquent.
Review the disclaimer and click “continue.”
Choose how often you want to make payments — monthly or twice monthly.
The calculator will automatically show a recommended payment schedule to help you pay off your balance before the next Annual Tax Sale.
Select Summary View to quickly compare dates, amounts and your remaining balance.
Or switch to Detailed View for a full breakdown of every payment.
When you find a plan that fits your budget, download or print your personalized schedule to track your payments.
You can also sign up for free email or text alerts, so you never miss a payment reminder.
Or pay right away by clicking Pay Now.

The calculator gives taxpayers as many as 13 additional months to pay off a bill before the unpaid tax debt is auctioned off at the legally required Annual Tax Sale.

During that time, interest will be charged at a rate of 9% a year, or 0.75% a month. The annual interest rate was 18% but I pushed for and won legislative reforms in Springfield that cut the rate in half.

Though the state-mandated interest rate charges can’t be avoided, the Payment Plan Calculator is designed help you avoid borrowing from a credit card company or having to pay back or ‘redeem’ your taxes after they’re sold to a tax buyer. The calculator is a tool that should help more Cook County residents pay off their back taxes and remain in their largest investment, home sweet home.

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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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