the wasserblawg

Nothing should be simpler than a real estate closing. The buyer shows up with money. The Seller has a deed and some keys. They shake hands and trade. Nice. Turns out (over and over) that in the Venn Diagram of life, "simple" and "closing" seldom intersect. We learned of yet closing-related complication this week, courtesy of our friends at the City of Chicago, Department of Revenue . The Department is charged with "maximizing revenue collections to support the City's "vital" infrastructure. One way they are doing this is by scrutinizing tax declarations filed with the County Recorder , every time a deed or other document is recorded of record. The Department is, apparently, checking the transfer tax declarations to see when they are dated and then comparing them to the dates when the transfer tax stamps are actually purchased.... and they going after purchaser's who may not being paying the tax in a "timely" fashion. For better or