Frequently Asked Questions

For the tax year 2013, most Carpentersville residents paid a total tax rate of 11.484941%; the Village's tax rate was 2.67%. Therefore, on a home with a market value of $300,000 the total tax bill would be $11,485; of that $2,670 goes to the Village.

The rest of your property tax bill is used to fund the daily operations of the Village such as:

• Debt service on bonds sold to pay for capital projects (i.e, Streets and Buildings)
• Employee pensions and health insurance
• Firefighting and Ambulance services
• Police protection
• Snowplowing
• Streets and park maintenance
• Tree planting
• Weekly Trash Collection Pick-up

Several agencies play a role in the levy, extension, and assessment of property taxes. Listed are the steps in tax determination:

1. Individual taxing bodies (school districts, towns and villages, park and library districts, townships, community colleges, and counties) submit their funding needs (tax levy) to the County Clerk's tax extension office.
2. Township assessors determine an approximate market value of your home and submit these to the County Supervisor of Assessments.
3. The approximate market value of your home is multiplied by an equalization factor, currently 33.33% to determine the equalized assessed value (EAV).
4. The funding needs of all taxing bodies that provide services to your property are totaled and divided by the total assessed value of your jurisdiction to determine the tax rate.

Your tax bill is figured by applying the tax rate to every $100 of EAV.

The County is the agency that centralizes all of the information needed to extend, collect, and distribute property taxes. The County Clerk coordinates all municipal tax levies, and the County Supervisor of Assessments oversees the application of assessed values.

The County Treasurer:

• Collects the taxes
• Distributes the funds to all of the taxing bodies
• Generates the tax bills from the information provided by the Clerk and Assessor
• Mails the bills to residents

An abatement is a decision by a governing body to decrease a tax levy obligation. When the Village issues General Obligation bonds to pay for capital improvements, one of the conditions of the bonds is that the repayment of the bonds is backed by the full faith and credit of the Village. Therefore, the Village is legally bound to levy for 100% of the debt service; however, depending on the project the Village may decide to repay the bonds using other sources of revenue, such as Water and Sewer or MFT collections.

Another form of abatement occurs when an entity, other than the Village, pays the costs of maintaining a special service area. An example would be when a Homeowners Association pays for the care and maintenance of a stormwater detention area.

A Special Service Area (SSA) is a segregated section of the Village that benefits from and pays additional tax on a specific capital improvement. For example, water system improvements that are homeowners' responsibility can be costly; the Village may elect to issue bonds on behalf of the homeowners to make the payment more manageable.

Since the burden of repayment lies with the homeowners a separate tax is levied against the affected properties only and is not included in the Village's regular tax rate.

Everyone uses water differently, so it is difficult to compare bills because they are based on actual usage. However, if you notice an extraordinarily large increase in your water bill check to make sure you don't have any leaks (especially toilets since they leak directly into a drain and not the floor) and consider the time of year as most people use more water during warmer months.

The Village generates and mails 5,000 to 6,000 water bills every month. Once they are sent to the Post Office they are out of our control.

We document when bills are returned to us by the Post Office but have no knowledge as to why. We mail delinquent letters prior to disconnection as a reminder of outstanding balances.

Welcome! All owners please bring your settlement statement/purchase papers and a photo ID to the village hall as soon as possible. All renters should be aware that only the owner of a property can set up the water account. No deposit is required at the time of account set up.

Please feel free to call the Finance Department at 847-426-3476 if you have any questions.