Legislators: IRS Might Have Ruling on Property Tax Prepay in 48 Hours

kanecountyconnects / March 12, 2018 / Comments Off / Education, Government, Homeowners, Kane County Treasurer's Office, Taxpayers

One of the U.S. congressmen at today’s (Monday, March 12, 2018) Legislative Breakfast at the Kane County Government Center said he expects an announcement sometime in the next 48 hours regarding whether residents can claim prepaid property taxes as a deductible on their federal income taxes.

Speaking to an audience primarily made up of elected officials and media, 14th District Congressman Randy Hultgren said legislators were “working on a solution for property tax prepay.”

Hultgren said he hoped the announcement would be definitive and soon. The deadline to file 2017 federal individual income tax returns is April 17, 2018.

The line to prepay property taxes literally was out the door in December 2017.

Thousands of Kane County residents decided to prepay their 2018 property taxes in December following announcements about changes to the 2018 federal tax law. The final deadline to prepay property taxes in Kane County was Friday, Dec. 29, 2017.

As a result the announcements, there was a kind of “run on the bank” at the Kane County Treasurer’s Office and other property-tax-collecting offices across the country. Here, lines to make the prepayment went down the hall and out the door of Building A of the Kane County Government Center.

County government officials met the customer-service challenge through unprecedented teamwork, with several departments loaning workers to the Treasurer’s Office so that taxpayers could get through the lines quickly and efficiently.

In the final days of 2017, the Treasurer’s Office ended up collecting more than $40 million in prepayments.

Near the end of the collection process, the Internal Revenue Service published a statement saying prepaid property taxes would be deductible for 2017 income taxes but only under certain conditions. That left many taxpayers wondering whether they would be able to claim the deduction.

Susan Starrett, co-chair of the Kane County Legislative Committee that hosted today’s Legislative Breakfast, said she was “encouraged” by Hultgren’s announcement.

“In 48 hours, we’ll find out if there’s a commitment from the IRS,” she said. “That would be great news for a lot of Kane County taxpayers.”

The Legislative Breakfast included representatives of federal and state elected officials, including Hultgren, 6th District U.S. Congressman Peter Roskam, 11th District U.S. Congressman Bill Foster, U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, U.S. Sen. Tammy Duckworth, 66th District state Rep. Allen Skillicorn and 84th District state Rep. Stephanie Kifowit.