ProTaxAppeal will file your appeal for FREE and only if there is an assessment reduction will there be a fee. Our fee is entirely contingent upon receiving an assessment reduction. No assessment reduction, NO fee. Also there are No upfront fees, No application fee, No appraisal fee, and No retainer fee. Therefore we work hard to get you an assessment reduction and save you money because the more money we save you the more money we make.

Our appeal fee is a percentage of your estimated property tax savings (PTS) based on the actual assessment reduction, per appeal filed. The appeal fee is 50% of the estimated PTS based on the difference between the proposed assessed value (AV) and the final AV for the tax year being appealed. This is a one-time fee per appeal filed

Your estimated PTS or tax refund is calculated by taking the assessment reduction times the most current known tax rate (TR) and state equalization factor (SEF), at the time of agreement. The assessment reduction is determined by taking the difference between the proposed AV and the final AV for the tax year being appealed. The most current known TR and SEF is typically from the prior tax year since the current tax year information is not available at the time of agreement

It is important to note that the estimated PTS is NOT the difference between the current tax bill and prior tax bill. Your final AV is only one part of the information needed to calculate your property tax bill. The TR, SEF, and exemptions, all of which may change from year to year, are also used to calculate your property tax bill and must be taken into account to determine your actual PTS. A successful appeal will result in a proposed AV reduction. An AV reduction will generally result in a lower tax bill but even if your tax bill is not lower than the prior year, or even increases, it certainly will be less than what it would have been with no AV reduction.

The property tax system, by design, is complicated. ProTaxAppeal understands that trying to determine the benefit of appealing compared to the cost can be confusing. For clarification, the following example is useful.

For this example we will assume the following:
TR = 9.1234%
SEF = 1.0567
Assessor proposed AV = $95,000
BOR or PTAB final AV = $80,000

In this example, after appeal the BOR or PTAB reduced the AV by $15,000, from a proposed AV = $95,000 to final AV = $80,000 resulting in the following:
Estimated PTS = $15,000 x 9.1234% x 1.0567 = $1,446.10 Appeal fee = $1,446.10 x 50% = $723.05.

As shown in this example, the benefit-cost analysis is 2:1, meaning the benefit exceeds the costs by a factor of 2. This is considered a no brainer in financial terms, especially since you have no risk of financial loss.

Typically yes, assuming year to year variables, such as the TR and SEF do not increase to offset the assessment reduction or if you are no longer entitled to an exemption that you previously received. If the TR, SEF, and exemptions remain unchanged from the prior tax year, your tax bill is guaranteed to be lower. In other words if, after appeal, there is an AV reduction your tax bill will be less than it would have been and probably less than the prior year but not guaranteed to be.

Typically no. Since taxes are paid the following year that they are assessed, any AV reduction will be reflected on your next tax bill. However if your taxes have already been paid for the tax year being appealed, then you will receive a refund for overpayment of taxes from the County Treasurer. In general appeals filed with the Assessor/County BOR will be decided before tax bills are issued so any AV reduction will be reflected on your next tax bill. Appeals filed with PTAB usually are not decided until after tax bills are issued so you will need to pay the tax bill first and then if any AV reduction is granted by PTAB you may receive a tax refund from the County Treasurer.

Our service includes everything necessary to have the best chance of obtaining an AV reduction. This includes research, analysis, and all required documentation to support an AV reduction. We have a proven system to achieve the best possible AV reduction. This may include filing several levels of appeals to obtain the requested reduction or until all appeal options are exhausted. However we cannot guarantee any AV reduction.

We provide you with written confirmation from either the Township/County Assessor, County Board of Review, or State Property Tax Appeal Board as proof of the AV reduction

No. ProTaxAppeal will represent you during the entire appeal process, or if required by law, ProTaxAppeal will engage legal counsel on your behalf. This includes attending any hearings on your behalf. There is no additional cost if ProTaxAppeal engages legal counsel.

We invoice you only after we receive written confirmation from either the Township/County Assessor, County BOR, or State PTAB stating an AV reduction was granted. Invoices are due within 30 days of the invoice date. Invoice due date is not related to tax bill due date or in case of a tax refund, the refund date. A late fee will be added if not paid by the due date unless a payment plan has been agreed upon. ProTaxAppeal offers several payment plan options if needed.

We recommend you submit a copy of the appeal findings and invoice to your mortgage company as soon as you receive it and ask for the invoice to be paid out of escrow. Some mortgage companies will pay our invoice from escrow and some will not but it is always worth asking. Please note that regardless of who pays the invoice it is due within 30 days of the invoice date to avoid a late fee.

In addition, you want to request that your mortgage company does an escrow analysis as soon as possible to take advantage of the lower AV. The escrow analysis is important because it could result in your escrow payment being reduced and maybe even an escrow refund being paid to you for excess escrow funds.

It depends on the type of appeal. For Assessor/BOR appeals usually 3 – 9 months from the appeal deadline. For PTAB appeals usually 1 – 3 years from the appeal deadline. The appeal deadline varies each year by Township and County. We will notify you once we receive your appeal findings.

Maybe. We recommend that you review your AV every tax year and consult with us to make sure that your AV is fair. As part of our service we will do a free property tax AV review upon request.

Yes. As a property owner you may appeal your property AV yourself. However, it can be very challenging. There are short deadlines and rules that are strictly enforced. Without having experience navigating through the appeal process, your appeal may be denied for any number of technicalities or for lack of proper evidence to support your appeal. But if you are lucky enough to receive an AV reduction, will you know if it is fair or not? Or if you should continue the appeal process? Most property owners understandably have no idea and simply are happy with any AV reduction, but in many cases you should have received even more of an AV reduction. Thousands of clients already trust ProTaxAppeal to handle their property tax AV review and appeal because of our experience, knowledge, and determination to get them the best possible AV reduction. Only you can decide if it is worth your personal time and effort to appeal yourself or if it is best left to the professionals at ProTaxAppeal. As previously shown, the benefit-cost analysis is a no brainer in financial terms, especially since you have no risk of financial loss.

We are professional property tax consultants with years of experience in appealing property AVs with hundreds of satisfied clients each year. Our team includes Attorneys, Brokers, Agents, Builders, and Data Analyst. They each have extensive knowledge of the real estate industry and of the appeal process. We have done thousands of successful appeals over the years, saying our clients tens of millions of dollars in property taxes.

We are very aggressive in our appeal approach and expect to get the best AV reduction possible by providing appeal evidence and appeal techniques that we have developed over many years which have proven to be successful. We take pride in treating every appeal like it is our own and we will exhaust all appeal options for you. All our clients have the benefit of knowing we are using state of the art techniques to help reduce their property AV. We have developed a proprietary, Property Tax Analysis (PTA), software system that assists us in finding, scoring, and equalizing the best comparable properties within your area to support an AV reduction. The PTA system was specifically designed for property tax appeals and has proven to be a very successful and priceless advantage for our clients. We are the industry leader with our state of the art property tax analysis system. This system helps us get you the best AV reduction possible and it is available only to our clients, at no additional cost.

Plus we are A+ rated with the BBB, not because we pay to be accredited but rather because of our exceptional track record and business practices. The chances are good that we will get you an AV reduction if you are over assessed.

We do not limit ourselves to just one county or even a few counties. We provide appeal services for Cook County and all the collar counties, including but not limited to, DeKalb, DuPage, Kane, Kankakee, Kendall, Lake, LaSalle, Madison, McHenry, Will and Winnebago If your county is not listed, email us at appeal@ProTaxAppeal.com to inquire.

The first step is for ProTaxAppeal to determine if you have a basis to appeal. If you received a postcard from ProTaxAppeal then we already know that there is a basis to appeal and you can start the appeal process online at www.ProTaxAppeal.com or email us at appeal@ProTaxAppeal.com. We will then email you the appeal forms for you to review, complete, and sign, where highlighted, and return the appeal forms to ProTaxAppeal by email (appeal@ProTaxAppeal.com) or fax at 847-739-7404. When emailing us the appeal forms, please attached the appeal forms to the email in PDF format only. Once your completed appeal forms are received by ProTaxAppeal, you will receive a confirmation email and we will start your appeal immediately. If any additional information is needed by ProTaxAppeal, we will notified you. Otherwise you can request a free property tax AV review either online at www.ProTaxAppeal.com or email us at review@ProTaxAppeal.com.

No. We are a professional property valuation consulting firm that specializes in property tax valuations and appeals. We do NOT provide certified appraisals for any appeals. If you have a recent certified appraisal we will review it to determine if it can be used as part of the appeal. We do NOT require a current certified appraisal to appeal since we use our own proprietary state of the art automated valuation software system to determine fair market value.

No. We are a professional property valuation consulting firm that specializes in property tax valuations and appeals. If required by law and with your authorization we will engage Counsel on your behalf to represent you on any appeal matters needing legal Counsel. We do NOT provide any legal advice.

Most property owners do not realize that they have the right to appeal their property assessment every year regardless if their assessment has changed. So you have the option to appeal yearly but it really depends on if you are over assessed or not. If you are like most property owners you probably have no idea if you are over assessed or not. The worst thing to do is assume the assessor is knows best. Based on our extensive experience there is a very good chance you are over assessed so you owe it to yourself to find out. Please contact us online at www.ProTaxAppeal.com to request a FREE property tax review. We recommend your property be reviewed yearly and appealed when necessary.

You also have the right to file a State PTAB appeal if you are not satisfied with the decision from the Assessor/County BOR appeal. ProTaxAppeal will exhaust all appeal options for you if necessary.

No. Since each property is unique we must review, analyze, and appeal each property separately for the best results.

The general assessment period covers 3 tax years in Cook County and 4 tax years in all other Counties. For all counties except Cook County, the current general assessment period covers 2023 – 2026 tax years and continues every 4 years thereafter. In Cook County the 3 year general assessment period depends on what township the property is in.

Simply provide ProTaxAppeal with any and all required or requested documentation. Doing so will provide the best opportunity for an assessment reduction. Not doing so may result in your appeal being dismissed and trigger the cancellation clause of the agreement.

Once the agreement is received and accepted by ProTaxAppeal, the agreement cannot be cancelled unless agreed to by ProTaxAppeal which would require a cancellation fee to be paid. The cancellation fee will not exceed 50% of the expected property tax savings as solely determined by ProTaxAppeal based on expected assessment reduction, even if there is no assessment reduction.

You have a right to appeal annually within 30 days of the assessment notice date.

The assessment notice is required to be mailed annually to all property owners if there is a change in assessment from the prior year. Typically all Counties except Cook County mail assessment notices annually, regardless. The date of the assessment notice varies each year making it difficult for most property owners to meet statutory deadlines but ProTaxAppeal has you covered and we will notify you when an upcoming deadline approaches, assuming an appeal is recommended.

The agreement with ProTaxAppeal covers the current tax year and the remainder of the general assessment period, as determined by statute. ProTaxAppeal does not have an open ended agreement, however cancellation has conditions.

Patience and persistence. ProTaxAppeal is relentless in the pursuit of a fair assessment. If we think your assessment is not fair we will exhaust all your appeal options, annually if necessary.

No. ProTaxAppeal is serious about what we do and property taxes are all that we do while others pretend to be property tax experts but in reality have very little experience needed to be successful. So please ask others you may be considering if property taxes are all that they do. If they are honest, most if not all, would have to say no. It is also important to understand that any percentage based fee is relative to the savings. A low percentage fee may sound great but if there are no savings who cares what the fee is. If it sounds too good to be true then one should be suspicious of extra fees or wonder why the fee is less. For our experience a lower fee usually is needed to get any business. Just as important is the added value provided by ProTaxAppeal with our state of the art software, experience, knowledge, and determination. Appeal after appeal our clients are amazed at the success we have and the amount of money saved for them. ProTaxAppeal has no upfront fees and will never require you to pay for an appraisal. We provide our own in depth proprietary property tax analysis, available only to our clients, when needed as evidence to support a request for assessment reduction.

To better understand percentage based fees take a look at the following comparison example between a 33 1/3% fee and a 50% fee. This seems like a simple decision, why pay 50% when you can pay 33 1/3%, right? Well maybe not. Let’s see.

At 33 1/3% if you save $900 then the fee is $300 and you save $600. At 50% the fee is $450 and you only save $450. Lower fee looks good so far, but you really do get what you pay for. Time and time again we see appeal results that failed to get the best possible reduction only for ProTaxAppeal to continue the appeal process and get a further reduction. So what if you could have saved twice as much or $1,800 instead, like many of our clients? Very rarely can anyone get a better reduction than ProTaxAppeal. We are very aggressive in our appeals and expect to get the best reduction possible by providing appeal evidence and appeal techniques that we have developed over many years which have proven to be successful appeal after appeal. That is why we developed the state of the art Property Tax Analysis software system. Before we appeal we know what our goal is. If our appeal system determines you should get a $1,800 savings then we will work hard to get you that $1,800 savings. We do not just appeal and hope for the best and take whatever we can get. Therefore, based on a $1,800 savings, our fee is $900 but you save $900 too. Even though we are making more money you are also saving more money. By setting our fee at 50% we are actually more motivated and incentivized than someone else with a lesser fee percentage. We think you would agree that less is not always the best.