Good News, Sales Tax Drop in Cook County!
by Brian Costin In a bit of good news the arrival of July 1st, 2010 marked a drop in the Cook County sales tax rate. The Cook County portion of the sales tax (1.75%) dropped ½ a percentage point to 1.25%. This means for a $100 purchase of goods the average consumer will save 50 cents. Unfortunately, Chicago...
by Brian Costin
In a bit of good news the arrival of July 1st, 2010 marked a drop in the Cook County sales tax rate. The Cook County portion of the sales tax (1.75%) dropped ½ a percentage point to 1.25%.
This means for a $100 purchase of goods the average consumer will save 50 cents. Unfortunately, Chicago and Cook County still have some of the highest sales tax rates in the country and for that same $100 purchase shoppers in Chicago will still be paying $9.75 in sales taxes with the reduction of the sales tax rate from 10.25% to 9.75%.
A full breakdown of the new Chicago sales tax and where it goes is as follows:
6.25% State of Illinois
1.25% County Home Rule
1.25% Chicago Home Rule
1.00% Regional Transportation Authority
Communities in suburban Cook County also will see the same ½ point reduction in sales taxes.
Originally, in 2008 the Cook County Board voted to raise the sales tax a full 1 percentage point making the sales tax in Cook County one of the highest metropolitan rates in the country. After a backlash by the public the Cook County Board voted to roll back half of the sales tax increase.
A great tool to find out what is the sales tax rate in any Illinois community is the State of Illinois’s rate finder on the Department of Revenue’s website. The rate finder breaks down where (state, county, local, other entities) the sales taxes goes to. It also lists other local sales tax rates such as telecommunication taxes, automobile sales and renting taxes, Chicago’s Soda and McPier taxes.
A small victory for the taxpayers in Cook County, but we have a long way to go to regain competitiveness with other areas both in Illinois and especially across the United States.