Property Tax Rebate Available by Application by July 31, 2019

Attention: McHenry County Homeowners

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If you owned a personal residence in McHenry County on April 16, 2019 and your 2017 property taxes were paid in full during 2018, you may be eligible to receive a rebate of a portion of such taxes paid (the Valley Hi Rebate Program). The McHenry County Board voted on April 16, 2019 to rebate $15 million of a fund surplus for the Valley Hi Nursing Home back to homeowners who take the homestead exemption. Homeowners must complete a rebate application between May 31, 2019 and July 31, 2019. The application is available online through the McHenry County Treasurer’s website, or it can be obtained in person at the McHenry County Treasurer’s Office at 2100 N. Seminary Avenue in Woodstock, Illinois.

To be eligible for this rebate, taxpayers must meet the following three criteria:

Did you own a residential property in McHenry County on April 16, 2019?
Was this property owner-occupied with a homestead exemption on April 16, 2019? On the McHenry County Treasurer’s website, there is a Property Tax Inquiry tool. Once you have searched and located your property, scroll down to the Exemptions section and verify that there is an Exemption Type of “Owner Occupied” shown. This indicates that there was a homestead exemption for this property.
Were the 2017 property taxes (payable in 2018) paid in full? If you owned your residence in McHenry County as of April 16, 2019, you can find whether the 2017 taxes were paid through use of the Property Tax Inquiry tool, and scrolling down to the Payment History section. To be eligible, no amounts should be unpaid. Changes in ownership may be somewhat confusing. If you sold your home prior to April 16, 2019, you would not be eligible for the rebate on that particular property; however, if you purchased a new residence in the county, you would be eligible for the rebate on this new residence.

How do you estimate the amount of this rebate?

On the 2017 property tax bill or through use of the Property Tax Inquiry tool, look for MCHENRY COUNTY in the list of Taxing Bodies and the amount of tax shown in the Extension column. The rebate calculation is based upon the following formula:

How will I know if the application was accepted or denied?

Should the application be denied, you will receive a letter stating the reasons for the denial. You will not receive a letter if the application has been submitted and was approved; rather, you will receive a rebate check by mail around the end of September.