Who qualifies for the General Homestead Exemption in Illinois?

You own and live in the home as your main home, and you are liable for the taxes. A qualifying single-family leasehold also counts. Lowers your EAV by the increase over the 1977 EAV, up to $10,000 in Cook, $8,000 in counties next to Cook, and $6,000 elsewhere. It applies to all taxing districts. Deadline: Each county has its own filing window. If you missed it, Cook treats a missing exemption as a Certificate of Error.

Who qualifies for the Senior Citizens Homestead Exemption in Illinois?

You were 65 or older during the assessment year, you are liable for the taxes, and you own (or qualify through a leasehold) and live in the home as your main home. Lowers your EAV by up to $8,000 in Cook and counties next to Cook, and up to $5,000 elsewhere. This is on top of the General Homestead Exemption. Deadline: Set by your county. The Cook 2026 regular window has closed. Later filings go through a Certificate of Error.

Who qualifies for the Low-Income Senior Citizens Assessment Freeze in Illinois?

You are 65 or older with household income at or under the limit. You owned and lived in the home as your main home on January 1 of the base year and of the tax year, and you are liable for the taxes. Exempts the rise in your EAV over your base-year EAV (the year before your first qualified year). It does not freeze tax rates or cover new improvements. In Cook, the exemption is the greater of that difference or $2,000. Deadline: Many counties say July 1 of the assessment year. Cook sets its own date on the mailed booklet.

Who qualifies for the Homestead Exemption for Persons with Disabilities in Illinois?

You have a disability, you own or have a written interest in the home, you live in it as your main home, and you are liable for the taxes. $2,000 off your EAV. You can't combine it in the same year with the Standard Homestead Exemption for Veterans with Disabilities or the specially adapted housing exemption. Deadline: Set by your county assessment office.

Who qualifies for the Returning Veterans' Homestead Exemption in Illinois?

A veteran who returns from active duty in an armed conflict and owns and lives in the main home on January 1 of the tax year. $5,000 off your EAV for the year you return and the next year. Deadline: Your county's deadline for that tax year.

Who qualifies for the Senior Citizens Real Estate Tax Deferral in Illinois?

You are 65 by June 1 of the filing year. You owned and lived in your Illinois main home (or a qualifying earlier one) for the last three years. Household income is no more than $75,000 for tax year 2025, $77,000 for 2026, and $79,000 for 2027 and after. The state pays your tax and special assessments, up to $7,500 a year, as a loan secured by a lien. The total deferred, with interest and fees, can't exceed 80% of your equity. It is due within one year of death or 90 days after the home stops qualifying. Deadline: Every year, before your county's deferral cutoff for that bill.

Rules by state / Illinois

Illinois property tax, line by line.

Your county collector (treasurer) sends one bill a year, paid in two installments, and it is a year behind (tax year 2025 is paid in 2026). The bill shows tax on your equalized assessed value (EAV) from each taxing district, plus any special assessments.

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At a glance

Who sends the bill: The county collector or treasurer. Taxes are a year in arrears (tax year 2025 is paid in 2026).
When it comes: Set by your county collector. Cook County mailed 2025 second-installment bills about September 1, 2026.
When it's due: By law, the first installment is late after the later of June 1 or the date on the bill. The second is late after the later of September 1 or the date on the bill. In Cook for tax year 2025, the first installment was due April 1, 2026 and the second is due October 1, 2026.
If you pay late: Interest, not a flat penalty. Counties under 3,000,000 people: 1.5% per month or part of a month. Cook: 0.75% per month for tax year 2023 and after, and 1.5% per month for earlier years. A postmark on the due date counts as on time.
Value is set as of: January 1
Limits on increases: There is no cap on one home's assessment or bill. A state law (PTELL) limits how much non-home-rule districts can collect overall to the lesser of 5% or inflation, plus new construction.

Bill dates source · Assessment source

What may come off

9 programs homeowners can claim

None of these are applied for you automatically. Each one is free to apply for. If you upload your bill, we check which ones are already on it and which may fit you.

General Homestead Exemption

Who: You own and live in the home as your main home, and you are liable for the taxes. A qualifying single-family leasehold also counts.
What you get: Lowers your EAV by the increase over the 1977 EAV, up to $10,000 in Cook, $8,000 in counties next to Cook, and $6,000 elsewhere. It applies to all taxing districts.
How to apply: Apply once to your chief county assessment officer (in Cook, the Cook County Assessor). In many counties, including Cook, it then renews automatically.
Deadline: Each county has its own filing window. If you missed it, Cook treats a missing exemption as a Certificate of Error.
If you're late: Cook is taking Certificates of Error for missing homestead exemptions for tax years 2021 through 2025. State law bars most certificates more than 3 years after the annual judgment and order of sale.
After that: One time, then automatic while you stay eligible. Cook renews it for you.

Source

Senior Citizens Homestead Exemption

Who: You were 65 or older during the assessment year, you are liable for the taxes, and you own (or qualify through a leasehold) and live in the home as your main home.
What you get: Lowers your EAV by up to $8,000 in Cook and counties next to Cook, and up to $5,000 elsewhere. This is on top of the General Homestead Exemption.
How to apply: File with your county assessment office. Cook requires an annual application to the Assessor. Form: PTAX-324 (first application); PTAX-329 (annual in some counties).
Deadline: Set by your county. The Cook 2026 regular window has closed. Later filings go through a Certificate of Error.
If you're late: Same Certificate of Error path as the general homestead exemption.
After that: Every year in Cook. Other counties vary, and some renew automatically after the first year.

Source

Low-Income Senior Citizens Assessment Freeze

Who: You are 65 or older with household income at or under the limit. You owned and lived in the home as your main home on January 1 of the base year and of the tax year, and you are liable for the taxes.
What you get: Exempts the rise in your EAV over your base-year EAV (the year before your first qualified year). It does not freeze tax rates or cover new improvements. In Cook, the exemption is the greater of that difference or $2,000.
How to apply: File with your county chief assessment officer every year. Cook mails renewal booklets. Form: PTAX-340.
Deadline: Many counties say July 1 of the assessment year. Cook sets its own date on the mailed booklet.
If you're late: Cook accepts a missed freeze through a Certificate of Error for open years.
After that: Every year.

Source

Homestead Exemption for Persons with Disabilities

Who: You have a disability, you own or have a written interest in the home, you live in it as your main home, and you are liable for the taxes.
What you get: $2,000 off your EAV. You can't combine it in the same year with the Standard Homestead Exemption for Veterans with Disabilities or the specially adapted housing exemption.
How to apply: File with your county chief assessment officer, with proof of disability. Then file the renewal form each year. Form: PTAX-343 (first year); PTAX-343-R (annual).
Deadline: Set by your county assessment office.
If you're late: A Certificate of Error may work if your county still allows that year.
After that: Every year.

Source

Standard Homestead Exemption for Veterans with Disabilities

Who: A veteran with a VA service-connected disability rating who owns or leases a single-family main home and is liable for the taxes. An unremarried surviving spouse can continue or transfer it. An unremarried surviving spouse of a line-of-duty death, or of a veteran whose death was service-connected and who received DIC, may qualify even if the veteran never had it. A WWII veteran gets the full exemption regardless of rating for tax years 2024 and after.
What you get: 30% to under 50% rating: $2,500 off EAV. 50% to under 70%: $5,000. 70% or more: the first $250,000 of residential EAV is exempt. A line-of-duty surviving spouse or a qualifying WWII veteran gets 100% of EAV exempt.
How to apply: File with your county chief assessment officer. In Cook, reapply only if the Assessor mails you a notice to do so. Form: PTAX-342.
Deadline: Set by your county assessment office (in Cook, the Assessor's window).
If you're late: A Certificate of Error may work for missed years that are still open.
After that: Every year where your county requires it. A surviving spouse transfer needs a new PTAX-342.

Source

Veterans with Disabilities Exemption for Specially Adapted Housing

Who: A disabled veteran (or spouse, or unmarried surviving spouse) living in housing bought or built with federal specially adapted housing funds, or donated by a charity after VA approval. A qualifying mobile home counts.
What you get: Up to $100,000 off assessed value. You can't combine it in the same year with the disabled persons exemption or the standard veterans disability exemption.
How to apply: Go through your local veterans service officer or your county chief assessment officer. This is not a PTAX homestead form.
Deadline: Valid while the qualifying person lives there.
After that: Continues while the veteran, spouse, or unmarried surviving spouse lives on the property.

Source

Returning Veterans' Homestead Exemption

Who: A veteran who returns from active duty in an armed conflict and owns and lives in the main home on January 1 of the tax year.
What you get: $5,000 off your EAV for the year you return and the next year.
How to apply: File with your county chief assessment officer. Form: PTAX-341.
Deadline: Your county's deadline for that tax year.
If you're late: If you buy after January 1 of the return year, you qualify the following January 1.
After that: Two tax years in a row only. A later return from active duty can qualify again.

Source

Senior Citizens Real Estate Tax Deferral

Who: You are 65 by June 1 of the filing year. You owned and lived in your Illinois main home (or a qualifying earlier one) for the last three years. Household income is no more than $75,000 for tax year 2025, $77,000 for 2026, and $79,000 for 2027 and after.
What you get: The state pays your tax and special assessments, up to $7,500 a year, as a loan secured by a lien. The total deferred, with interest and fees, can't exceed 80% of your equity. It is due within one year of death or 90 days after the home stops qualifying.
How to apply: Apply through your county treasurer. Form: IL-1017 and IL-1018.
Deadline: Every year, before your county's deferral cutoff for that bill.
After that: Every year.

IL-1017 and IL-1018: the form

Illinois income tax property tax credit

Who: You are an Illinois resident who owned and lived in an Illinois main home. Not allowed if your federal AGI is over $250,000 ($500,000 married filing jointly).
What you get: 5% of the qualifying property tax you paid. It is nonrefundable and limited to your tax after the credit for taxes paid to other states. It excludes mobile-home privilege tax, penalties, fees, and any business portion.
How to apply: File Schedule ICR with your Form IL-1040. Your 2026 return uses property tax paid in 2026.
Deadline: April 15, or October 15 with an extension.
After that: Claim it each year on your return.

Schedule ICR: the form

In some situations

If you moved, inherited, built or had a disaster

Homestead Improvement Exemption

Who: Your home has a new improvement, or you rebuilt after a catastrophic event.
What you get: The added value is exempt, up to $75,000 a year ($25,000 assessed value), for four years after the work is finished and you move in.
How to apply: Often automatic. Some counties require a form. In Cook, apply to the Assessor along with a valuation complaint. Form: PTAX-323 (some counties).
Deadline: Cook ties it to the valuation complaint window.
If you're late: The exemption lasts four years from completion and occupancy.
After that: Up to four years.

Source

Natural Disaster Homestead Exemption

Who: You rebuilt your home after a widespread natural disaster in 2012 or later.
What you get: Lowers your EAV by the rebuilt home's first-year EAV minus its pre-disaster EAV, frozen at that amount until the home is sold or transferred.
How to apply: File with your county chief assessment officer. Form: PTAX-327.
Deadline: July 1 of the first tax year after the home is rebuilt, or your county's date.
If you're late: You must refile each year.
After that: Every year.

Source

Long-Time Occupant Homestead Exemption (Cook County only)

Who: You owned and lived in the home from January 1, 2015 through January 1, 2025, and your 2024 household income was $100,000 or less. Your EAV rose every year for ten years by more than 7% (income $75,000 or less) or more than 10% (income over $75,000 up to $100,000).
What you get: Replaces the capped General Homestead Exemption with a larger one that has no set dollar maximum. Very few parcels qualify.
How to apply: Apply to the Cook County Assessor. Applications were mailed in April 2026 to parcels the Assessor flagged.
Deadline: May 15, 2026.
If you're late: Applications received after May 15, 2026 are handled as Certificates of Error.
After that: Every year.

The official page

Think your value is too high?

Asking for a lower assessed value

Free review: In Cook, you can make a free appeal to the Assessor after you get your reassessment notice, township by township, before you go to the Board of Review. Elsewhere, talk to your township or county assessor, but that step is not a guaranteed right.
Formal appeal: Your County Board of Review, then the Illinois Property Tax Appeal Board. You can also file a tax objection in circuit court after you pay the tax.
Deadline: Board of Review: 30 calendar days after the assessment list is published. Property Tax Appeal Board: 30 days from the postmark of the Board of Review decision. Cook's 2026 township windows are on the Assessor's calendar.
Fee: No Board of Review or Property Tax Appeal Board filing fee was found in state law.
Good to know: An appeal can lead to a higher value as well as a lower one. At the Property Tax Appeal Board you can appear without a lawyer, but only you or a lawyer can question witnesses.

A formal appeal reopens your whole value: the board can raise it as well as lower it. Bring recent sales of similar homes.

Source · We never charge for help asking for a lower value.

What can't come off

Charges you can't remove

The tax rate and any voter-approved increase.
Benefit special assessments.
Interest on a late installment.
New construction or an improvement above the $75,000 homestead improvement exemption.
Any residence that is not your main home, and the business part of a mixed-use property.

Special assessments and special service area charges are collected by your county collector and often show as their own lines on the tax bill. Homestead exemptions lower taxes based on EAV. A benefit special assessment that is not based on EAV is not reduced by a homestead exemption. The senior deferral does cover special assessments.

Watch out. Cook's first installment is an estimate (commonly 55% of the prior year's total). The second installment is the balance after exemptions and the final rate. Missing exemptions are fixed with a Certificate of Error, which has time limits. Paid help is not licensed statewide, so check who you hire. You can file your own exemption forms and appeal for free.

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Rules checked October 28, 2026 against official Illinois sources. Rules change: check the deadline with your county before you rely on it. Not legal or tax advice.