OFFICE OF THE COOK COUNTY TREASURER Maria Pappas – INFO

Salesforce and Pappas Team Up

No need to come to the office. Apply online for $79
million in refunds and $44 million in missing Cook
County property tax exemptions

Taxpayers seeking property tax refunds will have new tools on cookcountytreasurer.com
enabling them to file electronically instead of downloading a form and mailing it in, Cook
County Treasurer Maria Pappas said today.
“Filing for refunds just became easier, and for good reason,” Pappas said. “Because of
the pandemic, the new normal may be that people can’t visit government offices to submit
documents or get answers to questions about their tax bill in person. So, we’ll let them
‘visit’ from home.”
Pappas asked consulting firm Applications Software Technology LLC (AST) to integrate
Salesforce customer relationship management (CRM) software with the website to
streamline the process of applying for refunds caused by overpayments and missing
property tax exemptions. Taxpayers can now search for refunds by property address and
select the application button to submit their claim.
The system also allows taxpayers to submit supporting documentation, if necessary.
Eliminating paper applications will shave one week off the time it takes the Office to issue
refunds due to overpayments, reducing processing to three to five weeks, Pappas said.
About 16,000 paper applications are mailed each year.
Pappas also overhauled her CRM system, which the office developed in 2001, so that
information about refund applications and other inquiries about property taxes is
contained in a single database.
“Our CRM system was ahead of its time then,” Pappas said. “Now we go to the next level
of efficiency.”