Skip to main content

EZ DEC to debut soon

Cook County real estate professionals will soon need to follow new protocols and procedure in the reporting of property transfer taxes due in their client's transactions. The new EZ Dec system is said to be going live next week, and in the new year, it will become the only way to do so.

Transfer taxes are assessed against just about every real estate transaction. The State, County, and City each levy a tax based on the sales price. In 2008, the City tax was famously increased to give a new revenue stream to the CTA. At present, we file three separate forms - one to pay each transfer tax. Frankly, the process is a collosal pain. The forms each ask for a whole lot of common information, but each form is (predicatbly enough) worse than the next. The County gets all the data it needs in a 2 page form. The State form runs 4 pages. The City's 7. Data idata input is sloppy, often inaccurate. I cannot even begin to speculate how cumbersome it is for the tax revenue agents to unspool the reported sales information or monitor compliance.

The new process funnels everything to a singe web portal. According to the Illinois Department of Revenue:

  • Combines City, County and State real-property transfer forms (over 300 fields) into a cohesive online website;
  • Eliminates five real property transfer tax forms;
  • Automates tax calculations, and identifies exemptions;
  • Eliminates tens of thousands of real property transfer tax paper declarations;
  • Validates property data electronically with Cook County;
  • Enables title companies to sell, print and issue a "smart" stamp that can be placed on the deed that captures the amount of tax to be paid to each governmental body including the CTA. The new application:
  • Creates electronic files for appropriate agency data that will be distributed to each governmental body on a daily basis.
This change should certainly streamline things on the goverment side of the tranfer tax process. It should not probably cause to much inconvenience on the user side of the deal either, though I imagine that there will some rough patches as lawyers and title companies change their work flows to integrate this new procedure.

For myself, I prepare closing documents using a proprietary set of forms using HotDocs. It took me a long time to get the transfer declarations coded properly so that I could full them out automatically at the same time I prepare all the other necessary paperwork. The key benefit has always been that I need only enter data into my computer one time. Everything is produced from a single "answer file." Looks like I am going to have to enter most of that data onto the EZ Dec platform as a separate task. Bummer.

For Buyers, Sellers & Realtors at large, this is going to cause some trouble whenever a deal involves a legal Luddites who or unrepresented seller that is not "computer enabled" or one of the 70,000 or so Illinois lawyers who handles one transaction every five years or so. The rest of us are going to have clue them in early - or do the work ourselves in order to avoid delays at the closing table.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

PLM Title Shuttered

Title insurance is a critically important part of any real estate transaction; or at least it should be. The title company guaranties the "quality" of an owners interest in the property - that there aren't any (unknown) liens or defects. No buyer that I work for will purchase a property without it. Title insurance is only as good as the insurer. We want to know that the insurance company, like the Rock of Gibraltar , will always be there. We want to sleep easy at night, knowing that the client is protected. That said, it was a bit distressing to see that PLM Title Company shut its doors, without any forewarning last week. Worse still, this morning's news is that there is a criminal investigation underway - and that we do not yet know why. Old timers like me shudder with memories of the great Intercounty Title debacle five years ago. Here's to hoping that this one is nothing like that one. Set aside the problems involved trying to make a claim against a defun
6 comments
Read more

FHA Loans and Condo Sales - Is Relief on the Way?

By all outward appearances, state government in Illinois has ground to a complete halt, with all eyes focused on the Governor's "problem" and all the related fal - der -rah. Its hardly business as usual in Springfield, but not everything has ground to a halt. Several new bills have been introduced this week. That is not to say that they will be of benefit to we the people. Nonetheless, the cogs and gears are turning, and we are hoping for the best. One such proposal comes from Rep. LaShawn Ford of Chicago's west side, who is himself a real estate broker and entrepreneur . He is the author of House Bill 155 , introduced & referred to the Rules Committee Wednesday. It seeks to address one of the most common problems I am seeing in condominium resale transactions these days; the tension between many Declarations of Condominium and FHA loan guidelines. Many Condo Declarations provide Associations with a "right of first refusal," which basically allows t
3 comments
Read more

MAYOR DALEY PROPOSES TIF FINANCING FOR SOME DISTRESSED PROPERTIES

Lets see how City Council reacts on this one, but the Mayor introduced a pretty interesting little ordinance that might be a real boon to first time area home buyers willing to buy and rehabilitate some bank-owned properties. Progress Illinois reports that the mayor's bill, introduced on March 9: "seeks to tackle the growing problem of vacant homes that are blighting neighborhoods across Chicago, and in particular in minority communities. Called the Vacant Building TIF Purchase and Rehabilitation Ordinance, the  bill  (PDF) proposes allowing residents with a household income no greater than 100 percent of the regional median income to apply for a tax increment financing (TIF) grant that would pay for up to 25 percent of the cost of purchasing and rehabilitating an empty residential property. Single-family empty homes or units in condo and cooperative buildings with four units or fewer are eligible. The empty homes must be located in a TIF district and must be in need of
Post a Comment
Read more