Section 35 ILCS 405/13 - Collection by county treasurers; tax collection distribution fund(a) Collection by county treasurers. Each county treasurer shall transmit to the State Treasurer all taxes, interest or penalties paid to the county treasurer under this Act and in the county treasurer's possession as of the last day of the previous month, together with a report under oath identifying the taxpayer for or by whom an amount was paid. Those amounts and the report shall be transmitted to and received by the State Treasurer by the 10th day of each month. At the same time, a copy of the report shall be furnished to the Attorney General. The report shall be in a form and contain the particulars as the State Treasurer may prescribe. The State Treasurer shall give the county treasurer a receipt for the amount transmitted to the State Treasurer. Except as provided in subsection (a-5) of this Section, if any county treasurer fails to pay to the State Treasurer all amounts that may be due and payable under this Act as required by this Section, the county treasurer shall pay to the State Treasurer, as a penalty, a sum of money equal to the interest on the amounts not paid at the rate of 1% per month from the time those amounts are due by the county treasurer until those amounts are paid. The sureties upon the official bond of the county treasurer shall be security for the payment of the penalty. The penalty under this Section may be recovered in a civil action against the county treasurer and his or her sureties, in the name of the People of the State of Illinois, in the circuit court within the county wherein the county treasurer is resident; and the penalty, when recovered, shall be paid into the State treasury. The civil action to recover the penalty shall be brought by the State treasurer within 10 days after the failure of the county treasurer to pay to the State Treasurer any amounts collected by the county treasurer within the time required by this Act. Failure to bring the action within that time shall not prevent the bringing of the action thereafter. It is the duty of the State Treasurer to make necessary and proper investigation to determine what amounts should be paid under this Act.(a-5) The State Treasurer may waive penalties imposed by subsection (a) of this Section on a case-by-case basis if the State Treasurer finds that imposing penalties would be unreasonable or unnecessarily burdensome because the delay in payment was due to an incident caused by the operation of an extraordinary force, including, but not limited to, the occurrence of a natural disaster, that cannot be foreseen, that cannot be avoided by the exercise of due care, and for which no person can be held liable.(c) On and after July 1, 2012, 94% of the amounts collected from the taxes, interest, and penalties collected under this Act shall be deposited into the General Revenue Fund and 6% of those amounts shall be deposited into the Estate Tax Refund Fund, a special fund created in the State treasury. Moneys in the Estate Tax Refund Fund shall be expended exclusively for the purpose of paying refunds resulting from overpayment of tax liability under this Act, except that, whenever the State Treasurer determines that any such moneys in the Fund exceed the amount required for the purpose of paying refunds resulting from overpayment of tax liability under this Act, the State Treasurer may transfer any such excess amounts from the Estate Tax Refund Fund to the General Revenue Fund.
The Treasurer shall order payment of refunds resulting from overpayment of tax liability under this Act from the Estate Tax Refund Fund only to the extent that amounts have been deposited and retained in the Fund.
Public Act 97-732 shall constitute an irrevocable and continuing appropriation from the Estate Tax Refund Fund for the purpose of paying refunds upon the order of the Treasurer in accordance with the provisions of this Act and for the purpose of paying refunds under this Act.
Amended by P.A. 102-0278,§ 35, eff. 8/6/2021.Amended by P.A. 097-0732,§ 5-35, eff. 6/30/2012.Amended by P.A. 096-1162,§ 5, eff. 7/21/2010.