Is the Illinois general homestead exemption automatic?

In some counties it renews automatically once granted and in others it does not. That is a county-level fact and the county assessment office is the place to confirm it.

What is the senior freeze, and is it the same thing?

No. It is a separate exemption with an income test that freezes the assessed value rather than reducing it, and it has its own form and its own annual requirements.

When is the Illinois homestead exemption deadline?

Illinois's homestead exemption deadline is No single statewide deadline — set locally by each county's Chief County Assessment Office (Cook County: Assessor's Office), according to Illinois Department of Revenue.

Source: Illinois Department of RevenueVerified 2026-08-04

Filing requirements vary by county; some counties require an initial Form PTAX-324, Application for Senior Citizens Homestead Exemption, or a Form PTAX-329, Certificate of Status Form for Senior Citizens Homestead Exemption (annual renewal application) to be filed with the Chief County Assessment Office.
Illinois Department of Revenue — its own words, read 2026-08-04

There is no statewide Illinois deadline to quote

Illinois does not publish one date. The filing window is set locally by each county's assessment office and it moves with that county's assessment calendar, so a page claiming a single Illinois date would be wrong somewhere by construction.

That is a real answer, and it is the one this page exists to give. The useful next step is your county assessment office's own calendar, not a national table.

Illinois has several homestead exemptions, not one

The general exemption is one of a family that includes senior, senior freeze, disabled-persons and veterans variants, each with its own form number. Applying for the wrong one is the failure mode here, and it is why the state page lists the programme name we sourced rather than a generic label.

Why there are no Illinois county pages yet

We measured this before building. Illinois state searches came back an order of magnitude above the county search we tested, which says Illinois homeowners look this up at state level. Building a county matrix into that would be building pages nobody is looking for. Cook County was the one Illinois county that did show county-level demand in our measurements, and it is the candidate for the next batch.

More about Illinois

Is the Illinois general homestead exemption automatic?: In some counties it renews automatically once granted and in others it does not. That is a county-level fact and the county assessment office is the place to confirm it.
What is the senior freeze, and is it the same thing?: No. It is a separate exemption with an income test that freezes the assessed value rather than reducing it, and it has its own form and its own annual requirements.

Counties this site does cover

We hold no Illinois county pages — the reason is on the Illinois page. These are the largest counties we do cover.

What this site is

HomesteadDeadlines is not a government website and is not affiliated with any appraisal district, assessor’s office or county tax office.

Applying for a homestead exemption with your county is free. We do not file it for you, we do not charge you anything, and we never ask you to pay to apply.

Deadlines and eligibility are set by Illinois Department of Revenue and are governed by its current notices. This page was verified on 2026-08-04.