Tax time: DuPage County aims for ease with property payment options

DuPage County Treasurer Gwen Henry knows no one likes to pay taxes.

So her office has tried to make the experience as pleasant as possible, including making sure people have a variety of ways to pay.

The DuPage County Treasurer's Office sent out property tax bills at the end of April, and taxpayers need to pay the first installment by June 1 or face a late fee.

"We're going to collect over $2.7 billion before the year is over," Henry said. "And in theory, we should get at least half of that by June 1."

That money is then distributed to more than 400 taxing districts in DuPage County.

The Treasurer's Office sends out about 334,000 real estate tax bills a year. DuPage County taxpayers have a variety of ways they can pay their taxes, including by mail and in person at the Treasurer's Office, 421 N. County Farm Road, Wheaton.

These days, they also can pay their taxes electronically through an online payment system.

"We've had it for quite a while," Henry said. "We've expanded it. A few years ago, we added credit cards. You can go online to our website and pay either by credit card or by an e-check."

A growing number of people are paying their taxes online, she said. Those who use ePay can have their payment automatically withdrawn from their savings or checking account in the amount and on the date they set, or they can pay using their credit card.

Those who pay by credit card will be charged a fee amounting to 2.1 percent of the bill.

"That is a convenience fee that does not come to us, but it goes to the credit card processor," Henry said. "If you use a credit card at a grocery store or any kind of other store, that fee is already built into your price. We can't build it in, and we have to collect the full taxes. So that's an add on for anybody using a credit card."

They also can pay their taxes by phone using a credit card, an option that has proven to be popular.

"That [option] we just added last year," Henry said. "We didn't know if anybody would use it. It did get used quite a bit last year. Some people don't trust the internet, but they'll trust the telephone."

And inevitably, her office fields calls from people wondering why their taxes are so high. With each tax bill, her office includes a brochure that explains how the taxes are used.

"They know how much goes to schools, how much to the park districts and how much goes to their municipal governments, those kinds of things," Henry said.

Her office also will try to clear up questions from people wondering about the assessed value of their home.

"A lot of people wonder where it comes from, so we usually have to refer them back to their local assessors, who do the assessments," Henry said. "It's a major factor in determining how much their tax bill is."

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Know more

For a detailed breakdown of a sample property tax bill, visit shawurl.com/32qy.