Cook County will hold its tax sale on Dec. 15, 2026, and the properties in it are the ones with unpaid Tax Year 2023 property taxes. The Cook County Treasurer’s website lists how to avoid the December 15, 2026 tax sale and publishes lists of properties with delinquent 2023 taxes. For a homeowner in Chicago or the suburbs who is behind, that date is the one that separates a payment problem from a sale of the debt.
What the Treasurer has announced
The Treasurer’s delinquent-taxes page names the sale date, Dec. 15, 2026, and ties it to Tax Year 2023. It offers lists of properties with delinquent 2023 taxes and a search tool to see whether a given property is on the delinquent roll. The page also carries guides to avoiding the sale in English, Spanish and Polish.
The sale page does not list the last day to pay, the fees or the redemption terms. Those details are in the Treasurer’s guide, and the office at (312) 443-5100 can confirm them for a specific property.
The office, at 118 North Clark Street in Chicago, will be closed to the public on Monday, Oct. 12, 2026, for Columbus Day, the Treasurer’s home page says. The site says all business can be done online.
Two bills that can overlap
A Cook County owner can be dealing with two separate bills at once. The sale on Dec. 15 is about Tax Year 2023. A separate current bill, for Tax Year 2025, had its second installment due on Thursday, Oct. 1, 2026, according to the Treasurer’s important dates page. The first installment was due Wednesday, April 1, 2026.
That means an owner who missed the October installment is now late on a newer bill while also possibly carrying an older balance. The late-payment interest rate is not stated on the dates page. The Treasurer’s site is the place to see the amount owed on each bill, by property.
A Cook County owner on a fixed income who cannot clear a Tax Year 2023 balance before the Dec. 15 sale needs to know which property-tax breaks are still unclaimed. The Senior Property Tax & Home-Cost Relief Kit includes the 5 kinds of property-tax relief and an application log and renewal calendar.
Paying online, by mail or in person
The Treasurer’s home page lists the ways to pay. An owner can pay online from a bank account with no fee, or by credit card. Single or multiple ACH payments and multiple wire payments are listed. Payments can also be made by mail or in person, and the page lists Chase Bank and local community banks as places to pay.
Because the office is closed on Oct. 12, anyone who planned a walk-in visit that day will find the door shut. The online route stays open.
The 13-month payment plan
For owners who cannot pay in full, the Treasurer runs a payment plan. When it introduced the calculator last December, ABC7 Chicago reported that delinquent taxes could be paid off over about 13 months, in monthly or twice-monthly payments. The plan is for people who owe more than $100. If the debt is not resolved in that time, the report says, it is offered at the annual tax sale.
The steps, as ABC7 listed them, are to go to the Treasurer’s website, enter the 14-digit Property Index Number or the address, click the red Payment Plan Calculator button under the bills, choose monthly or twice-monthly payments and print the schedule. The Treasurer also offers free email or text reminders. Pappas said at the time, “If you are unable to pay in full by the due date, you now have about 13 months to pay off your bill.”
The Treasurer’s home page still links to a Payment Plan Calculator. How the plan applies to a Tax Year 2023 balance this close to the sale is a question for the office.
Senior exemptions on the Treasurer’s site
The Treasurer’s home page also links to the Senior Citizen Homestead Exemption and the Senior Citizen Assessment Freeze Exemption. Those two are exemptions that lower the amount of a bill rather than ways to pay it, and the page gives no detail on either. A home that already has them will show lower bills.
An owner who is 65 or older and has never applied should find out which exemptions are already on the bill. A missed exemption can push a bill up for years, and the savings do not erase a balance already past due.
Clearing a 2023 balance before Dec. 15
The first step is a search. The Treasurer’s site lets an owner look up a property by PIN or address and see whether any delinquent taxes show. Print the page. Then call (312) 443-5100 for the payoff figure that includes everything owed, and ask what the cutoff is before the sale.
If the money is there, pay online from a bank account, which the Treasurer says carries no fee, and keep the confirmation. If it is not, run the payment plan calculator and ask whether a plan can be started on the 2023 balance. In both cases the Oct. 1 installment on the 2025 bill should be checked, since it sits on a different bill.
Everything above comes from the Treasurer’s own pages, at cookcountytreasurer.com. Owners who got a notice by mail should keep it with the payment record.
One date, Dec. 15, for unpaid 2023 taxes
An owner who pays the old balance but never claims the breaks a home qualifies for keeps overpaying every year. The Senior Property Tax & Home-Cost Relief Kit covers the 5 kinds of property-tax relief, the circuit-breaker credit that includes renters, and an application log and renewal calendar, in 64 pages.
Track Cook County relief applications with the Senior Property Tax & Home-Cost Relief Kit →
This article was produced with AI assistance and edited for accuracy against the sources linked above.
