Local taxing bodies don’t anticipate that repaying money mistakenly issued to them by the state of Illinois will be much of a burden.
Illinois mistakenly overpaid a total of $168 million in personal property replacement tax to about 6,500 taxing districts in Illinois under the administration of Gov. Pat Quinn.
Personal property replacement taxes are revenues collected by the state and distributed to local governments after 1970 to make up for money they lost when no longer allowed to tax corporations, partnerships and other business entities, according to the state.
For nearly 5,300 of the taxing districts impacted, the state said, the overpayment was less than $10,000. In a released statement, the Illinois Department of Revenue said it recently uncovered the misallocation in the tax through an upgrade in the tax system.
In Lake Bluff School District 65, Jay Kahn, director of finance and operations, said the district received $19,714 extra. While the state has not contacted any of the local taxing bodies about repayment, Kahn has tentatively budgeted paying it back over a two year period.
“It’s not going to cause the district any trouble,” Kahn said. “We get about $160,000 a year in personal replacement tax. $20,000 or so is a small percentage of that.”
He added that the state is about a month late in other payments including transportation and special education costs.
Lake Forest District 115 was overpaid about $40,000 said Allen Albus, deputy superintendent of finance and operations. District 67, whose finances Albus also oversees, got about $25,000 extra.
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“At the high school, that’s about one tenth of one percent of our total revenue,” Albus said.
While the state has yet to contact any of the local taxing bodies about repayment, Albus said he anticipates repayment will take place over the same period of time as it was overpaid.
Lake Bluff received an extra $7,121, said Susan Griffin, finance director. She doesn’t anticipate the village needing to repay anything until 2017.
“[The state] is auditing 2014 tax returns right now,” Griffin said. “Most of the 2015 returns are going to be audited as they come in from April to October 2016. Then they will discuss a repayment plan.”
In the Lake Forest, director of finance Elizabeth Holleb said the city received $20,811 in overpayments. She plans to budget that money as a liability in fiscal year 2016.
Pioneer Press reporter Mike Isaacs contributed.
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