Lauren Elliott & Melissa Whitley wrote this article that was published in the Tax Trends newsletter of the Illinois Start Bar Association’s Section on State & Local Taxation.  Click here to read the article.

Property in the northern suburbs of Cook County will be re-assessed in 2022.

Assessment notices are mailed one township at a time, typically from February through September. But this year, they will be mailed late – very late.

Why?

The Assessor implemented a new computer system in 2021 that had many problems. It was poorly planned and implemented and prevented the Assessor from completing his work on time. It will also cause huge delays to other government agencies that need to complete their work before tax bills are issued.

Under normal circumstances, the Assessor starts his work in February, completes it by November and delivers a steady stream of work to the Board of Review during the year so it can hear tax appeal cases. The Assessor usually completes all of his work by November. But this year, he completed no work by November; current projections have him finishing up in April, about 5 months later than normal.

That will delay the Board of Review. Normally, the Board starts hearing tax appeals in August, but the Assessor’s delays prevented the Board from hearing tax appeals until January. The bulk of its work will be delayed until this summer.

So, while the Board normally completes its work by May, this year it may not be done until the end of 2022.

How will this impact tax bills?

Tax bills will be substantially delayed – perhaps up to six months.

Tax bills are usually mailed in June. But this year they may not be mailed until December or January and may collide with the 2023 first installment tax bills that will come out around the same time. That will cause major confusion. But on the positive side, you will have more time to pay your 2021 second installment taxes.

When will you receive your 2022 assessment notice?

 We’re not sure.

If the Assessor completes his 2021 work by April, he may start sending 2022 assessment notices shortly after that (May?). That would move things along but cause confusion because the Board will still be hearing 2021 tax appeals when the Assessor releases its 2022 assessments.

Alternatively, the Assessor could wait to start the 2022 re-assessment until he and the Board of Review complete their work for 2021. If that happens (probably unlikely), the first 2022 assessment notices may not be mailed until the end of this year – 8 to 10 months late. That will delay next year’s tax bills.

We will notify you once we have a better idea of when 2022 north suburban assessment notices will be mailed.

Cook County Assessor Fritz Kaegi was elected in 2018 with a mandate to reform the Cook County Assessor’s office. He implemented several big measures, including a 2021 computer system upgrade that stalled operations in his office as well as new and controversial valuation methods that have caused commercial assessments to increase significantly more than residential assessments.

Crain’s Chicago Business recently interviewed Cook County Board of Review Commissioner Larry Rogers to learn his thoughts on these issues. He said:

“This has been the worst assessment cycle I’ve seen of any assessor that I have served with as an elected official in my almost two decades. The implementation and execution have been horrid.”

A problematic computer upgrade

In 2021, the Assessor replaced a decades-old mainframe computer that integrated with other government agencies (the Board of Review, the Cook County Clerk and the Treasurer) who work together to issue real estate tax bills. While the system was old, it worked and was reliable.

The new system has been fraught with problems. 2021 Chicago property assessments were released late. Data errors were common, and assessments had to be corrected and re-published multiple times. Important data appears to be missing from the Assessor’s public-facing records. And, the Assessor’s office has been unable to publish results of tax appeals filed to their office on a timely basis.

All of this has caused substantial delays in the completion of the Assessor’s 2021 appeal work.

And, since the Assessor is the first step in the process, downstream governmental agencies (the Board of Review, the County Clerk and the Treasurer) are unable to complete their work on a timely basis. This will cause substantial delays in mailing 2021 second installment tax bills.

Major delays

Normally, the Assessor completes his work (publishing assessments and correcting them following tax appeals) by December of each year. As of March 2022, the Assessor has only completed 25% of its work and, according to Rogers, “I don’t know when we are going to get the remainder.”

How will this affect property owners?

• Tax appeal decisions are late. Decisions on tax appeals filed to the Assessor for most Chicago properties are months late and we have no idea when they will be issued.
• Tax bills will be mailed late. According to Rogers, “There is a very real possibility that tax bills may not be mailed until November, December or even January 2023,” causing them to be mailed back-to-back with 2022 first installment tax bills. That’s likely to cause confusion and pain for property owners.
• Many taxing bodies will need to obtain tax anticipation loans and incur interest costs to meet their cash flow needs.
• These delays will burden other taxing agencies, which will need to work overtime to get the tax bills done and out in a condensed time frame.

What about Board of Review tax appeals?

Many taxpayers (especially commercial taxpayers) file tax appeals to the Board of Review seeking assessment reductions. It has been widely publicized that the Board has been reducing assessments substantially.

The Assessor, on the other hand, has steadfastly claimed his assessments are accurate and the Board of Review has wrongly reduced them so much and so often.

What does Rogers have to say about this?

“It is our job to look at evidence of value and see whether there is evidence to support our reductions or to support the Assessor’s number… [Kaegi] has disregarded well-established practices within the property tax field on valuation of property just because he disagrees with them.”

We expect that the Board will take its time to give taxpayers thoughtful consideration in tax appeals, despite the current assessment delays.

The final word

“The Assessor should have run the new system in parallel with the old system to vet and test the new system. Totally avoidable, if you ask me.” – Larry Rogers, Crain’s podcast.

If you are a Crain’s subscriber and want to listen to the Crain’s podcast, click here.

The Chicago Sun-Times recently published an investigative report claiming Cook County Assessor Fritz Kaegi cut 2020 assessments for nearly all Cook County homes based on a “wild miscalculation” that pandemic-induced job cuts would cause home values to plummet. Home prices skyrocketed, however, and it appears the Assessor jumped the gun.

According to Civic Federation president, Laurence Msall, “They [the Assessor’s office] took a gamble, and the gamble didn’t turn out as they expected.”

How did this impact taxpayers?

Winners and losers

The Assessor’s actions did not reduce government spending. Taxing bodies still needed the same money to operate, but the Assessor’s COVID adjustments did impact tax bills. Since property taxation is a zero-sum game, many taxpayers ended up paying more (often, much more) so others could pay less (mostly a little less).

And, the pain suffered by the losers was much worse than the gain enjoyed by the winners.

Who paid more?

It’s fair to say that everyone in Cook County paid 10.54% more because of the Assessor’s COVID tax relief.

Why? These huge reductions in the assessment base caused the Cook County equalizer to spike 10.54% and that caused 10.54% upward pressure on every 2020 Cook County tax bill.

But, many homeowners experienced offsetting tax savings (10% or so) because of the Assessor’s COVID assessment reductions. In the end, however, many homeowners paid higher taxes as the 10.54% increase in the equalizer was greater than the 10% (+/-) savings they experienced from their assessment reductions.

The Sun-Times and Cook County Treasurer Maria Pappas report that “50% of the county’s homeowners ended up with bigger tax bills, and 78% of the commercial property owners ended up with bigger bills to cover the COVID discounts homeowners got.”

So, there was much pain for many because of a “miscalculation” that proved wrong. And, according to the Civic Federation, “A lot of the relief they gave was uneven and not where it was needed.”

At the end of the day, this ended up being a shell game that confused everyone.

Our Thoughts

The Assessor’s job is to value real estate based on market data. He is not supposed to speculate what property might be worth in the future, but to value property based on actual data and events that occurred before the valuation date (January 1^st of the tax year). It’s NOT the Assessor’s job to speculate on future property values, nor to make tax policy (to determine who should pay more or less). That’s the job of the legislature. The Assessor’s job is to value properties based on hard data.

It’s clear the Assessor had no solid data on how COVID impacted property values when he made his COVID adjustments at the beginning of the pandemic. In fact, his former data chief, Robert Ross, admitted, “We guessed it wrong” (quoted in the Sun-Times).

That being the case, if any taxpayer believed COVID impacted the value of his or her property, that issue should have been raised by the taxpayer in a tax appeal supported by appropriate evidence. That’s how the law is supposed to work. And that would have resulted in a fair outcome for all taxpayers.

 What can you do?

 The property tax world today is ever-changing. Old approaches to contesting assessments don’t work as well today. To get the lowest tax bill possible, you must keep your ear to the ground and adapt your tactics and strategies to work in the current environment. Today, there is no substitute for good lawyering and sage valuation knowledge.

To read the Sun Times article, click here.

Chicago is being reassessed this year. Assessment increases for commercial taxpayers have gone through the roof. The Assessor started four months late but he wants to finish on time – in December. That means he will decide a record number of tax appeals in about half of the normal amount of time!

Also, the assessing officials are becoming tougher. They now require more and better documentation to even consider lowering your assessment. The bar for successful appeals has been raised.

But there is good news: You can get good relief in this environment. But we need your help to do so. Here’s what you can do to make it easier for us to get the best results for you.

• Get us documents in 7 days. We only have 30 days to file an appeal with all evidence, including appraisals. By the time we write you to request documents, a week has already passed. Many of our clients send us their evidence within days of the appeal deadline. That doesn’t give us enough time to do a good job. Please give us all documents within 7 days so we can do the best job for you.
• Give us all the documents we ask for. During the appeal process, the assessing officials ask for certain documents. If you don’t provide all of them, they may deny your appeal because of a lack of complete evidence. They have a huge caseload. They’re very busy and get quite frustrated if they aren’t given all documents that their rules require. When they’re faced with inadequate evidence, the easiest thing to do is deny your appeal. Don’t let that happen. 
• Be legible and complete. We often receive documents that have been xeroxed to the point of being unreadable, have illegible handwriting or are incomplete. If the assessing officials can’t make sense of a document, it’s as if you submitted nothing. You probably won’t win your appeal.
• Make sure the documents are correct. The assessing officials are scrutinizing documents and comparing them to what you’ve submitted in prior years. They’re looking for inconsistencies. When documents appear to be misleading or incorrect, they aren’t considered and your appeal will probably be denied. Make sure the documents you provide are truthful, correct and complete – especially rent rolls, vacancy affidavits and profit-and-loss statements.
• Approve appraisals in 3 days. If we ask you for authorization to order an appraisal, it’s because we think one is necessary. We believe it’ll result in tax savings that are significantly more than the cost of the appraisal. We need to order them quickly to obtain them during the Assessor’s strict 30-day filing window. So, please authorize appraisal requests within 3 days.

The bottom line: Get your documents to us fast
The odds of you winning your tax appeal and reducing your property taxes are much higher if you provide us with correct, complete and legible documents within 7 days. And, the reverse is true, of course.

Please help us to help you by giving us all the documents we request within 7 days.

Our staff thanks you!!

You may have heard that property taxes on commercial properties in Cook County are on the rise. But you may not know why this is happening or what you can do about it.
 
As part of a new series of messages that aims to reveal the truth about property taxes, we’re going to take a closer look at this situation. We’ll tell you what’s going on and arm you with the knowledge you need to lower your property taxes.
 
What happened?
 
In Cook County, the Assessor and the Chicago Tribune have been vocal in their belief that commercial property owners have not been paying their fair share of taxes, causing homeowners to pay more. There’s also a growing public mindset that the wealthy should pay a greater share of taxes.
 
As a result, we have seen commercial assessments skyrocket, with little relief coming from appeals to the Assessor, but with significant adjustments coming from the Board of Review.  But overall, commercial assessments have risen much more than in past years and the commercial tax base is growing.
 
The impact
 
As a result of these trends, commercial property taxes are rising in Cook County. In addition, the tax appeal process has been steadily becoming more challenging to navigate. Due to a barrage of criticism from the Assessor and the press, assessing officials are overreacting and asking for more (and sometimes unnecessary) documentation and records to justify tax relief. Their mindsets have changed. They are simply less willing to grant as much relief as they have in the past.
 
The bottom line is that outcomes of appeals have become less favorable and predictable than in the past.
 
Here are your options in Cook County to get maximum relief from high commercial property taxes:
 
1. The Cook County Assessor’s office. The current Assessor is steadfastly defending his assessments and denying most commercial appeals. So you may not find much relief here. Many attorneys are bypassing appeals to the Assessor altogether. We continue to file appeals with the Assessor’s office but are being more selective.
 
2. The Cook County Board of Review. Fortunately, the Board is granting substantial relief to commercial property owners, although not as much as in the past. This makes the Board the most valuable appeal route. But, unfortunately, because of the huge assessment hikes coming from the Assessor and capped relief from the Board, commercial assessments are growing more than in the past.
 
3. The State of Illinois Property Tax Appeals Board or Circuit Court. Taxpayers have a third option: filing appeals to the State of Illinois Property Tax Appeals Board (PTAB) or Circuit Court. If you win here, you’ll be rewarded with a tax refund plus interest. You have greater leverage in these third-level appeals – especially if you are willing to take a case to trial – and a better opportunity to secure a fair tax bill. This makes these level 3 appeals extremely valuable, but they take more time to resolve.
 
What can you do about it?
 
The assessment environment has changed. Old approaches are increasingly ineffective. To achieve a fair tax bill, you need a knowledgeable attorney with a strategic plan designed to work in today’s environment. Here are three factors to keep in mind for best results:
 
First, your attorney should be aware of how the environment is changing and what can be done to win in it. 
 
Second, your attorney should know the law and appraisal theory, as well as how to use those tools to your advantage. They must be willing to appeal relentlessly through all stages of the appeal process.
 
Finally, you need to stay the course, be patient and have reasonable expectations of what success looks like today. You may not get as much relief from the Assessor as in years past. You should get good relief from the Board, but your assessment today may grow more than in the past. And, you may need to pursue third-level appeals to get the relief you truly deserve.
 
The right legal partner can help you develop a strategic plan designed to achieve success in today’s environment, relentlessly pursue fair taxes on your behalf and guide and educate you each step of the way.
 
Stay tuned for more common-sense advice on how to get the best results in today’s challenging tax environment.

Joanne Elliott is moderating a panel discussion on Real Estate Tax Incentives in #CookCounty. Too often, the opportunity to secure an #incentive is missed due to lack of knowledge. Don’t miss your (or your client’s) opportunity to secure 60% tax savings, click here.

Panelists include: Brian Liston, Melissa Whitley, Lauren Elliott, Cook County Assessor’s Office – Tatia Gibbons, Ira Horwitz and Dominick Spalla, Cook County Bureau of Economic Development – Sheryl Stewart-Caldwell, South Holland – John Watson, Jr., Village of Schaumburg – Matt Frank, and Brown Commercial Group – Trinity Scurto.

We hope you can join us!

Elliott Associate Request for Reissuance of Fund Check  Form

You may receive a notice from the Assessor stating that your assessment is being reduced due to COVID but that may not mean a reduction in your tax bill. Why? Read the full Crain’s article here.

UPDATED 11/19/2020 – If you are not a Crain’s member, Alby Gallun, the author of the article, also was interviewed in a podcast. You can click here to listen.