IL Lawmakers – IL Parking Excise Tax Needs Review

By Benjamin Cox on December 2, 2019 at 8:49am

Illinois lawmakers are having to take an extra look at a parking space tax going into effect on January 1st. The tax raises annual parking space rental by 9% and 6% for spaces rented hourly, daily or weekly. According to the State Journal Register, the scope of the tax is so broad even people near the Illinois State Fairgrounds who park cars for a fee during the fair may have to collect the tax and pay it to the state. According to the new tax, they’ll have to collect it if they let more than three cars park on their property.

Springfield Republican State Representative Tim Butler says that collection of the tax will be hard to enforce for private land ownership, especially when it comes to the State Fair and other events around the state. The Illinois Department of Revenue has filed 23 pages of proposed rules for the tax that include many examples of who is affected and how the tax must be collected. The rules are pending before a bi-partisan panel of lawmakers. That panel will not be able to act on them before January 1st, when the parking excise tax goes into effect. However, courts have ruled that the tax can go into effect even before the rules are formally adopted.

According to the SJR, the state estimates it will collect about $60 million a year. Money from the tax will be dedicated to paying for non-transportation public works projects that are dubbed “vertical” projects by lawmakers. An information bulletin that explains some of the nuances of the tax can be found on the Department of Revenue website: tax.illinois.gov.