§ 5-1006 — Home Rule County Retailers' Occupation Tax Law

Any county that is a home rule unit may impose a tax upon all persons engaged in the business of selling tangible personal property, other than an item of tangible personal property titled or registered with an agency of this State's government, at retail in the county on the gross receipts from such sales made in the course of their business. If imposed, this tax shall only be imposed in 1/4% increments. On and after September 1, 1991, this additional tax may not be imposed on tangible personal property taxed at the 1% rate under the Retailers' Occupation Tax Act (or at the 0% rate imposed under this amendatory Act of the 102nd General Assembly). Beginning December 1, 2019, this tax is not imposed on sales of aviation fuel unless the tax revenue is expended for airport-related purposes. If the county does not have an airport-related purpose to which it dedicates aviation fuel tax revenue, then aviation fuel is excluded from the tax. The county must comply with the certification requirements for airport-related purposes under Section 2-22 of the Retailers' Occupation Tax Act. For purposes of this Section, "airport-related purposes" has the meaning ascribed in Section 6z-20.2 of the State Finance Act. This exclusion for aviation fuel only applies for so long as the revenue use requirements of 49 U.S.C. 47107(b) and 49 U.S.C. 47133 are binding on the county. The changes made to this Section by this amendatory Act of the 101st General Assembly are a denial and limitation of home rule powers and functions under subsection (g) of Section 6 of Article VII of the Illinois Constitution. If, on January 1, 2025, a unit of local government has in effect a tax under this Section, or if, after January 1, 2025, a unit of local government imposes a tax under this Section, then that tax applies to leases of tangible personal property in effect, entered into, or renewed on or after that date in the same manner as the tax under this Section and in accordance with the changes made by this amendatory Act of the 103rd General Assembly. The tax imposed by a home rule county pursuant to this Section and all civil penalties that may be assessed as an incident thereof shall be collected and enforced by the State Department of Revenue. The certificate of registration that is issued by the Department to a retailer under the Retailers' Occupation Tax Act shall permit the retailer to engage in a business that is taxable under any ordinance or resolution enacted pursuant to this Section without registering separately with the Department under such ordinance or resolution or under this Section. The Department shall have full power to administer and enforce this Section; to collect all taxes and penalties due hereunder; to dispose of taxes and penalties so collected in the manner hereinafter provided; and to determine all rights to credit memoranda arising on account of the erroneous payment of tax or penalty hereunder. In the administration of, and compliance with, this Section, the Department and persons who are subject to this Section shall have the same rights, remedies, privileges, immunities, powers and duties, and be subject to the same conditions, restrictions, limitations, penalties and definitions of terms, and employ the same modes of procedure, as are prescribed in Sections 1, 1a, 1a-1, 1d, 1e, 1f, 1i, 1j, 1k, 1m, 1n, 2 through 2-65 (in respect to all provisions therein other than the State rate of tax), 3 (except as to the disposition of taxes and penalties collected, and except that the retailer's discount is not allowed for taxes paid on aviation fuel that are subject to the revenue use requirements of 49 U.S.C. 47107(b) and 49 U.S.C. 47133), 4, 5, 5a, 5b, 5c, 5d, 5e, 5f, 5g, 5h, 5i, 5j, 5k, 5l, 6, 6a, 6b, 6c, 6d, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 and 13 of the Retailers' Occupation Tax Act and Section 3-7 of the Uniform Penalty and Interest Act, as fully as if those provisions were set forth herein. No tax may be imposed by a home rule county pursuant to this Section unless the county also imposes a tax at the same rate pursuant to Section 5-1007. Persons subject to any tax imposed pursuant to the authority granted in this Section may reimburse themselves for their seller's tax liability hereunder by separately stating such tax as an additional charge, which charge may be stated in combination, in a single amount, with State tax which sellers are required to collect under the Use Tax Act, pursuant to such bracket schedules as the Department may prescribe. Whenever the Department determines that a refund should be made under this Section to a claimant instead of issuing a credit memorandum, the Department shall notify the State Comptroller, who shall cause the order to be drawn for the amount specified and to the person named in the notification from the Department. The refund shall be paid by the State Treasurer out of the home rule county retailers' occupation tax fund or the Local Government Aviation Trust Fund, as appropriate. Except as otherwise provided in this paragraph, the Department shall forthwith pay over to the State Treasurer, ex officio, as trustee, all taxes and penalties collected hereunder for deposit into the Home Rule County Retailers' Occupation Tax Fund. Taxes and penalties collected on aviation fuel sold on or after December 1, 2019, shall be immediately paid over by the Department to the State Treasurer, ex officio, as trustee, for deposit into the Local Government Aviation Trust Fund. The Department shall only pay moneys into the Local Government Aviation Trust Fund under this Section for so long as the revenue use requirements of 49 U.S.C. 47107(b) and 49 U.S.C. 47133 are binding on the county. As soon as possible after the first day of each month, beginning January 1, 2011, upon certification of the Department of Revenue, the Comptroller shall order transferred, and the Treasurer shall transfer, to the STAR Bonds Revenue Fund the local sales tax increment, as defined in the Innovation Development and Economy Act, collected under this Section during the second preceding calendar month for sales within a STAR bond district. After the monthly transfer to the STAR Bonds Revenue Fund, on or before the 25th day of each calendar month, the Department shall prepare and certify to the Comptroller the disbursement of stated sums of money to named counties, the counties to be those from which retailers have paid taxes or penalties hereunder to the Department during the second preceding calendar month. The amount to be paid to each county shall be the amount (not including credit memoranda and not including taxes and penalties collected on aviation fuel sold on or after December 1, 2019) collected hereunder during the second preceding calendar month by the Department plus an amount the Department determines is necessary to offset any amounts that were erroneously paid to a different taxing body, and not including an amount equal to the amount of refunds made during the second preceding calendar month by the Department on behalf of such county, and not including any amount which the Department determines is necessary to offset any amounts which were payable to a different taxing body but were erroneously paid to the county, and not including any amounts that are transferred to the STAR Bonds Revenue Fund, less 1.5% of the remainder, which the Department shall transfer into the Tax Compliance and Administration Fund. The Department, at the time of each monthly disbursement to the counties, shall prepare and certify to the State Comptroller the amount to be transferred into the Tax Compliance and Administration Fund under this Section. Within 10 days after receipt, by the Comptroller, of the disbursement certification to the counties and the Tax Compliance and Administration Fund provided for in this Section to be given to the Comptroller by the Department, the Comptroller shall cause the orders to be drawn for the respective amounts in accordance with the directions contained in the certification. In addition to the disbursement required by the preceding paragraph, an allocation shall be made in March of each year to each county that received more than $500,000 in disbursements under the preceding paragraph in the preceding calendar year. The allocation shall be in an amount equal to the average monthly distribution made to each such county under the preceding paragraph during the preceding calendar year (excluding the 2 months of highest receipts). The distribution made in March of each year subsequent to the year in which an allocation was made pursuant to this paragraph and the preceding paragraph shall be reduced by the amount allocated and disbursed under this paragraph in the preceding calendar year. The Department shall prepare and certify to the Comptroller for disbursement the allocations made in accordance with this paragraph. For the purpose of determining the local governmental unit whose tax is applicable, a retail sale by a producer of coal or other mineral mined in Illinois is a sale at retail at the place where the coal or other mineral mined in Illinois is extracted from the earth. This paragraph does not apply to coal or other mineral when it is delivered or shipped by the seller to the purchaser at a point outside Illinois so that the sale is exempt under the United States Constitution as a sale in interstate or foreign commerce. Nothing in this Section shall be construed to authorize a county to impose a tax upon the privilege of engaging in any business which under the Constitution of the United States may not be made the subject of taxation by this State. An ordinance or resolution imposing or discontinuing a tax hereunder or effecting a change in the rate thereof shall be adopted and a certified copy thereof filed with the Department on or before the first day of June, whereupon the Department shall proceed to administer and enforce this Section as of the first day of September next following such adoption and filing. Beginning January 1, 1992, an ordinance or resolution imposing or discontinuing the tax hereunder or effecting a change in the rate thereof shall be adopted and a certified copy thereof filed with the Department on or before the first day of July, whereupon the Department shall proceed to administer and enforce this Section as of the first day of October next following such adoption and filing. Beginning January 1, 1993, an ordinance or resolution imposing or discontinuing the tax hereunder or effecting a change in the rate thereof shall be adopted and a certified copy thereof filed with the Department on or before the first day of October, whereupon the Department shall proceed to administer and enforce this Section as of the first day of January next following such adoption and filing. Beginning April 1, 1998, an ordinance or resolution imposing or discontinuing the tax hereunder or effecting a change in the rate thereof shall either (i) be adopted and a certified copy thereof filed with the Department on or before the first day of April, whereupon the Department shall proceed to administer and enforce this Section as of the first day of July next following the adoption and filing; or (ii) be adopted and a certified copy thereof filed with the Department on or before the first day of October, whereupon the Department shall proceed to administer and enforce this Section as of the first day of January next following the adoption and filing. When certifying the amount of a monthly disbursement to a county under this Section, the Department shall increase or decrease such amount by an amount necessary to offset any misallocation of previous disbursements. The offset amount shall be the amount erroneously disbursed within the previous 6 months from the time a misallocation is discovered. This Section shall be known and may be cited as the Home Rule County Retailers' Occupation Tax Law.

Legislative History

(Source: P.A. 102-700, eff. 4-19-22; 103-592, eff. 1-1-25 .)