Wayne Township Assessor's Office

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150 Years

What's New in the Assessor's Office

From the Spring, 2016, Wayne Township Newsletter

2015 General Assessment Completed

My staff and I completed the 2015 General Assessment in October, 2015. All property owners were mailed assessment notices, and the publication date was November 11, 2015. The final date to file an assessment appeal for 2015 was December 11, 2015. Assessment appeal hearings were held in January and February. The final Board of Review decisions will be mailed in March.

The real estate market has been improving since 2013. As a result, most assessed valuations in DuPage County increased for 2015, following many years of reductions. As a reminder, assessment increases do not automatically result in tax increases. Tax increases are the result of spending increases by your local taxing bodies.

We are now working on the 2016 assessments, and hope to complete them in early fall, 2016.

If you recently purchased your property and have received letters from attorneys or agents offering to represent you in an assessment appeal, please call my office before signing any agreement with them. It is premature to sign an agreement when the 2016 valuations have not yet been determined. If a reduction is warranted based on the purchase price, you should not have to pay a portion of your tax savings to a third party in order to receive the reduction.

U-46 and Community College District 509 Tax Rate Adjustments

As a reminder, DuPage County residents of School District U-46 and Community College District 509 (Elgin Community College) saw artificially high 2013 tax rates (payable 2014). The inflated tax rates were miscalculated due to an apportionment error by the Illinois Department of Revenue (IDOR), as a result of incorrect data provided to the IDOR by the Kane County Clerk’s office.

The 2014 tax rates, payable 2015, were adjusted to reflect both the corrected apportionments and the overpayments in the previous year from DuPage County residents. Therefore, while the 2013 rates were artificially high, the 2014 rates for DuPage residents were artificially low due to the overpayment adjustments.

As a result, the 2015 tax rates for the DuPage residents of these districts will most likely increase as they will no longer contain the reduction for the previous overpayment. For more information about the tax rate adjustments, call the County Clerk’s office at (630)407-5540.

The 2015 tax bills will be mailed by the DuPage County Treasurer in late April.

Senior Citizen Exemptions

The Supervisor of Assessments will mail Senior Homestead Exemption status forms and Senior Citizens Assessment Freeze Exemption applications in early April. Please return the status forms to the Supervisor of Assessments at your earliest convenience.

As always, my staff is available to assist you in completing your Senior Freeze application. Please bring your 2015 S.S.A. 1099 and U.S. 1040 forms. As a reminder, this exemption is available to seniors with total household income of $55,000 or less. This exemption does not freeze the tax bill, but instead freezes the assessed value. The deadline to apply for the Senior Freeze Exemption for 2016 (payable 2017) is October 1, 2016.

As applicants for the Freeze Exemption are well aware, this exemption has not been providing the intended relief for most applicants during the last several years of annual assessment reductions. As assessments decreased, the amount of the exemptions also went down. Because most assessed values increased for 2015, Senior Freeze applicants will again begin benefiting from the exemption on their 2015 tax bills, payable 2016. Each year assessments continue to increase, the amount of savings due to the exemption will also increase.

Please call my office if you have questions regarding your assessed valuation, exemptions, or other property assessment concerns, or if you want me to speak to your homeowner’s association. My staff and I are here to serve you.