VOCAL Neighbors

City of Chicago landmark property tax relief -- not as good as you would think.

Reviewing City of Chicago information on property tax relief, I found some information that shows that property or income tax relief is not as goos as you would think based on the hype.

Check out this flyer:

http://www.cityofchicago.org/Landmarks/Preservation.html

Moral of the story?

If you are an owner of a residential building, and using it for rental purposes, you can get a 20% income tax offset on your rental income, but ONLY if you invest 100% of the building value into the historic improvements.

If you want to actually live in your historic property, and want to invest 25% of your property's market value into approved rehab projects, your property taxes will be frozen for eight years, and then they will increase back up to market value over the next four years. (This is the State of Illinois program).

You can donate the facade of your house to a preservation society, take a charitable deduction on your income tax, and then you will forever be bound to make repairs per Landmarks Commission instructions.

Oh, and the City might be willing to waive all building permit fees if you landmark your house. Of course, under the Municipal Code, you have to get an Order of the City Council before that happens. See 2-120-815.

posted by The Grants @ 7:49 AM