Cook County Assessor Jim Houlihan Announces Property Tax Relief Available for Senior Citizens

-Senior Freeze Exemption Applications Mailed to Senior Citizens- 

-Senior Citizen Exemption Renewal Automatic-

Chicago – January 21, 2009– Cook County Assessor Jim Houlihan announced that Senior Freeze Exemption applications have been mailed to the 135,000 taxpayers who received the exemption last year.

The Senior Freeze Exemption is available to all Cook County homeowners who were born prior to, or in, the year 1943 and have total household incomes of $55,000 a year or less. Requirements also state that eligible seniors must have used their home as their primary residence and resided there January 1^st of 2007 and 2008. This valuable exemption protects limited-income senior citizen homeowners from increases in the equalized assessed values of their properties. The Senior Freeze Exemption must be applied for annually.    

In a continued effort to streamline the exemption application process, Assessor Houlihan announced last year that homeowners who received the Senior Citizen Exemption on their tax bills last year and did not sell their homes in 2008 do not need to reapply for the Senior Citizen Exemption.  

Taxpayers who received the Senior Exemption last year will have the exemption automatically applied to the second-installment tax bills received this fall, and they do not need to take any further action.  Last year, over 260,000 homeowners qualified to receive the Senior Exemption. 

The Senior Citizen Exemption is available to all Cook County homeowners who were born prior to, or in, the year 1943 and use their home as their primary residence. This exemption entitles a senior to a reduction in the equalized assessed value of his or her property resulting in hundreds of dollars in tax savings.  Taxpayers receiving the Senior Exemption will also automatically receive the Homeowner Exemption.

Taxpayers who wish to apply for any of the exemptions for the first time this year may download applications from the Assessor’s website at www.cookcountyassessor.com or contact the Assessor’s Office at 312-443-7550 to have an application mailed to them. 

“The property tax burden can weigh heavily on all property owners, especially senior citizens,” Houlihan said.  “I encourage all homeowners to ensure that they are receiving all the money-saving exemptions to which they are entitled.”