Finance

City of St. Charles Tax Facts

Real Estate Tax Information

• The City's Portion of Property Taxes:  Approximately 10% of the total property tax bill

  • For example, in 2017, a resident in a $300K home paid $846.00 for a full year of city services.  The property tax bill for a property is calculated by taking the property's Equalized Assessed Valuation (EAV) multiplied by the property's total property tax rate. EAV approximates 1/3 of a property's market value.

• City Property Tax Rate: $0.846310 (Approximately 10% of the total property tax rate for a property).

• City of St. Charles Equalized Assessed Value (EAV): $1,442,990,359

• Value is as of December of 2017 and represents the taxable value of all of the property within the City of St. Charles.

City Strategies to Manage Property Tax Levels: The City uses multiple tactics to reduce its reliance on property taxes to keep its share of your property tax bill manageable.  For example:

- The City's Tax Abatement Strategy Saves Residents Millions: Tax Abatement is the lessening of a portion of the tax levy.  Historically, the City has chosen to abate tax levies for repaying its General Obligation Bonds that are issued to pay for large capital projects.  Simply put, when bonds are issued to pay for projects, such as the new police station, the City historically does not use property taxes to pay those back. Instead, the City pays for those projects with revenue from sales, liquor, and hotel/motel taxes, and other general revenues. In 2017, the City's tax abatement efforts reduced the entire levy by 40% -- or $7.3 million total in property tax savings!

- Finding, Applying for and Utilizing Grants: The City always works to manage its resources as efficiently and cost-effectively as possible. One way we do that is by taking advantage of grants that are available to us for certain projects. In 2017, the city was awarded $300,000 in grants for projects ranging from the 7th Avenue Creek flood mitigation to our urban forestry inventory project.

Other tax information:

*The City of St. Charles does not require a real estate transfer tax.

*The City of St. Charles imposes an additional tax of 2% of the sales price of alcoholic beverages sold in the City (for immediate consumption and package sales)

Sales Tax Information

• Sales Tax Rate 8%

  • 5% - State

  • 1% - City

  • 1% - Home Rule Sales Tax

  • .25% - County

  • .75% - RTA

Alcohol Tax Rate - currently at 2%; increasing to 3% effective September 1, 2018

Hotel/Motel Tax Rate - currently 5% of 94% of the gross rental revenues; increasing to 6% of 94% of the gross rental revenues, effective September 1, 2018

Local Fuel Tax Rate - $.02 per gallon of fuel sold within the City, effective November 1, 2018

Licensing Information

• ​The City of St. Charles does not require:

  • Vehicle Stickers

  • General Business Licenses

  • Annual Dog and Cat Licenses*

*Visit Kane County Animal Control website for information about required fees from the county. 

• For information about required City permits and licenses, visit our Forms, Permits and Records webpage.