Taxes in Chicago (sales, city hall, how much)

[djkkt6]

I'm hoping someone can share some info on taxes in Chicago. Income taxes, sales taxes, etc. Anything and everything really. Thanks.

[Jesse69]

IL Tax - I didn't get my last one, $660, because the IL gov scammed it from me. They sent a letter recomputing my taxes but I noticed they didn't include a std deduction in it which would have resulted in a refund! I complained with a letter and no refund yet! - Maybe because of a big time budget deficit!

Is Chicago Sales Tax now 10.25% ?

[Mamama Mia]

Highest sales tax in the nation.

[Drover]

Here's what taxes are like in Chicago:

Step 1: Determine how much money you had left after paying last year's federal and state income taxes.

Step 2: Send half that amount to City Hall.

Step 3: Send the other half to Todd Stroger and/or Stroger-approved cronies.

Step 4: Have a nice day, sucker!

[djkkt6]

10.25? Holy crap! Really??

I thought I read that grocery tax was significantly lower... is there anything else like that, or is everything as at 10.25?

[lincolnparker]

Grocery taxes are much lower than 10.25%. Items containing alcohol has a different tax structure, so does bottled water, which has a special city tax.

Originally Posted by djkkt6

10.25? Holy crap! Really??

I thought I read that grocery tax was significantly lower... is there anything else like that, or is everything as at 10.25?

[oakparkdude]

Income tax in Illinois is a flat 3% regardless of your income level. In contrast, many (most?) other states have a graduated/progressive income tax. As a result, high income earners do much better financially in Chicago than in NYC or LA. In CA the top state tax bracket is 10%! This shifts more of the burden of taxation onto the middle class and poor. Since the state can't raise enough money via the income tax, sales and property taxes are jacked up to compensate.

Another problem is that sales tax is levied only on goods, not services. In todays economy, more and more economic activity is in the form of services (hair cut, doctor bills, lawn care, etc) and less and less are goods. Thus, the sales tax is levied on a smaller and smaller proportion of overall economic activity every year. Consequently, small tax base, high tax rate. It would be more efficient (from an economist's perspective) to have a wide tax base and low tax rate. Unfortunately, too many powerful interest groups fight to widen the sales tax base.

[almost3am]

Originally Posted by lincolnparker

Grocery taxes are much lower than 10.25%. Items containing alcohol has a different tax structure, so does bottled water, which has a special city tax.

IL state tax on beer is $0.185 per gallon, which is under the national average...oh, unless you are in Chicago, then add an additional $0.29 (!) per gallon, putting Chicago well over the national average.

Cook County is an additional $0.06 over the $0.185 state tax.

Then, of course, there is the state sales tax on top of it. I think there is a special tax on Club Stores that sell beer, but not 100% on that.

[andrew61]

Originally Posted by djkkt6

10.25? Holy crap! Really??

I thought I read that grocery tax was significantly lower... is there anything else like that, or is everything as at 10.25?

Sales tax is 10.25 in most of the city of Chicago, but actually 11.25 in the downtown area (you know, sock it to the tourists).

Grocery tax in Chicago is only 2.25 (raised from 2.0 recently), except for certain beverages (soft drinks, etc.) where, IIRC, it's 11.75 (or something like that). There's an additional tax on bottled water which took effect over the past year or so... and, of course, liquor products are taxed at a very high rate.

There's no city income tax (don't give Daley any ideas!), but Illinois state income tax is a flat 3 percent on income after deductions, regardless of whether you make $10K or $10 million.

There are also lots of "hidden" taxes in Chicago... parking taxes, "amusement" taxes (built into the price of movie tickets and such), gasoline taxes, etc.

[djkkt6]

Thanks for the info, everyone. I appreciate it.

10.25 is unreal though, my goodness.