Sangamon County property tax appeals

In Illinois, your township or county assessor values your home, and outside Cook County it is assessed at one third of market value. Cook County classifies property under its own ordinance and assesses homes at 10 percent of market value, reassessing each of its three regions every three years. You appeal the assessed value, not your tax bill, and appeal windows open township by township: you generally have 30 calendar days from the day your township's assessment list publishes to file with your county board of review. In Cook County you can appeal first at the Assessor's office and then again at the Board of Review, and filing is free at both. If the board's written decision still seems wrong, you can take it to the state Property Tax Appeal Board within 30 days. An appeal helps when recent comparable sales show your home is valued above market, or when it is assessed unevenly against similar homes. It usually will not help if your bill rose because of tax rates or local levies, since those are set by the taxing bodies, not the assessment. This is general information, not tax advice.