Cook County Use Tax (Rockford, Elgin: insurance, buyer, live)

[chicagocubs]

Anyone heard of this? My niece got a bill for this...and she lives in Rockford. (not Cook County). She does work in the city, but, takes the Metra in. This tax is supposedly on a car that she wrecked when she hit a deer. It was registered in Rockford. Kind'a weird. Never heard of a use tax there...we have it here (in NC), but it is paid when you first register your car from another state....

[Golden Camel]

Cook County does impose a use tax on vehicles that were purchased from an out-of-county dealer but registered in Cook County. Refer to the following:
http://www.cookcountygov.com/taxonomy/revenue/forms/CC_INDIV_USE_TAX_SYNOPSIS.pdf

You didn't mention what happened to the vehicle. Reading between the lines, I assume that either she sold the vehicle after it was wrecked or the insurance company totaled it and she turned over the title to them.

I assume what must have happened is that the insurance company sold the vehicle to some entity in Cook County. Some record or other has not been updated in the system and Cook County sent the bill to the previous owner (your niece) instead of the new owner. (It could very well be one hand not knowing what the other is doing. One data base says the car has been sold, but the data base that the billing software uses has not been updated with the new owner's information yet.)

I would advise her to send a letter in response to the bill with documentation showing she was the seller, not the buyer and (if an insurance company was involved) make a copy of the letter and send it to the claims adjuster.

By the way, Metra doesn't go to Rockford.

[chicagocubs]

Originally Posted by Golden Camel

Cook County does impose a use tax on vehicles that were purchased from an out-of-county dealer but registered in Cook County. Refer to the following:
http://www.cookcountygov.com/taxonomy/revenue/forms/CC_INDIV_USE_TAX_SYNOPSIS.pdf

You didn't mention what happened to the vehicle. Reading between the lines, I assume that either she sold the vehicle after it was wrecked or the insurance company totaled it and she turned over the title to them.

I assume what must have happened is that the insurance company sold the vehicle to some entity in Cook County. Some record or other has not been updated in the system and Cook County sent the bill to the previous owner (your niece) instead of the new owner. (It could very well be one hand not knowing what the other is doing. One data base says the car has been sold, but the data base that the billing software uses has not been updated with the new owner's information yet.)

I would advise her to send a letter in response to the bill with documentation showing she was the seller, not the buyer and (if an insurance company was involved) make a copy of the letter and send it to the claims adjuster.

By the way, Metra doesn't go to Rockford.

Thanks. That sounds exactly like what happened. The car was totaled, the insurance company "bought" it from her and has apparently sold it as salvage.

I know the Metra doesn't go to Rockford. She drives into Elgin and then takes the Metra from there. She has a 90-mile one way trek to work each day. She couldn't find any work in Rockford for a couple of years, so, she had to look in the city for a job. The things that you do for jobs these days.