Terms of Service

Effective date: July 2, 2026 (version 2026-07-02). This version replaces all earlier versions.

These Terms of Service ("Terms") are an agreement between you and the operator of this site ("we," "us," or "the Operator"), an individual based in Illinois. They govern each use of AppealMyTax.com (the "Site"), including its property-tax estimate calculator. The Disclaimer, the Affiliate Disclosure, and the State Supplement in Section 17 are part of these Terms.

By using the Site — including by clicking "See my estimate," "Look up," or otherwise requesting an estimate — you agree to these Terms. If you do not agree, please do not use the Site.

1. Some definitions

• "Property" means the real-estate parcel you identify by address or parcel number (PIN), in any state.
• "Applicable Jurisdiction" means the state — and, where relevant, the county — where the Property is located.
• "Estimate" means any figure the Site produces, including an estimated tax bill, an estimated over-assessment amount, or an estimated potential savings amount.

2. What this Site does — and does not do

The Site provides a free, automated, self-serve calculator. It estimates a Property's tax bill and compares publicly available assessed-value data against a computed estimate, based solely on information you enter or that is retrieved from public county records.

The Site does NOT:

• prepare, complete, sign, or file any assessment appeal, complaint, protest, rendition, exemption application, or any other document with any assessor, board of review, appraisal district, the Illinois Property Tax Appeal Board, or any other government body;
• appear before, advocate to, negotiate with, or represent you (or anyone) in front of any government body, tribunal, or agency;
• act as your agent, attorney-in-fact, or representative for any purpose;
• give individualized advice or a recommendation about whether you should appeal or protest, or how. The Estimate — including any figure labeled as potential savings — is a computed output of the same formulas applied to every parcel, and the appearance of a referral link alongside your results is not advice or a recommendation that you appeal or that you hire any particular service.

The Site calculates and displays figures. Every decision — including whether to appeal — is yours alone.

Current coverage. The Site currently produces Estimates only for parcels located in Cook County, Illinois. If you enter a Property located anywhere else — including elsewhere in Illinois — the Site's formulas do not apply to it, any output is unsupported, and you should disregard it. The State Supplement in Section 17 lists supported jurisdictions as they are added.

3. The Estimate is an estimate — not a determination and not an appraisal

The figures shown are a computer-generated estimate based on publicly available government property records and tax-rate data, run through published formulas. They are:

• not a determination by the Cook County Assessor, Board of Review, Clerk, or Treasurer, or by any other government agency — your actual assessed value and tax bill are set exclusively by the applicable government agencies and may differ from the Estimate;
• not an appraisal, appraisal review, or appraisal consulting report as those terms are used under the Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice (USPAP) or any state appraiser-licensing law (including the Illinois Real Estate Appraiser Licensing Act, 225 ILCS 458, and analogous licensing acts in other states), and not prepared, reviewed, or certified by a licensed appraiser;
• produced without any physical inspection of the Property and without verification of individual parcel records.

The Estimate is provided for general informational and educational purposes only. It is not offered for the guidance of your business, financial, legal, or property-tax-appeal decisions, and it is not the kind of verified, professional-grade information on which such decisions should be based (see Sections 5 and 7).

Your agreement about how the Estimate may be used: You agree not to represent to any third party (including any assessor, board of review, court, or lender) that the Estimate is an appraisal or professional valuation, and not to use the Estimate in place of an appraisal in any situation where the law requires an appraisal.

4. Known accuracy limitations — please read this

The Estimate is based on unverified, automatically retrieved county data and simplified assumptions. It has not been checked against your official assessment or tax bill.

TIF districts and Senior Freeze parcels. Parcels located in a Tax Increment Financing (TIF) district, or receiving the Senior Citizens Assessment Freeze Homestead Exemption, involve additional variables — overlapping taxing-body rates, incremental value capture, and frozen equalized assessed values — that this tool does not fully model. For these parcel types, the Estimate can differ from the actual tax bill by a wide margin, in some cases by roughly ten times (10x) or more. We attempt to identify TIF-district and Senior-Freeze parcels from county data and to flag them in your results, but our detection can fail — county records may not show, or may incorrectly show, your Property's TIF or exemption status, and an unflagged result is not a representation that your Property is unaffected. Whether or not the Site flags your Property, confirm its TIF and exemption status directly with your township assessor or the county clerk's tax-code records before relying on the Estimate.

In addition, the Estimate may be wrong because county data omits or misstates your exemptions (including homeowner, senior, senior-freeze, or disabled-veteran exemptions), reflects a stale or mid-reassessment value, maps your parcel to the wrong tax code or taxing-agency rates, or does not yet reflect a granted appeal or certificate of error.

How the Estimate is calculated. A plain-language description of our data sources, calculation method, and measured typical error for standard (non-TIF, non-frozen) parcels is available on our methodology page, as updated from time to time; error figures reflect backtesting as of the date stated on that page. County data can be delayed, incomplete, or wrong in ways we cannot detect.

5. Verify independently before you act

It is not reasonable to rely on the Estimate without independently confirming the underlying assessed value, exemptions, and tax rate with the assessing authorities in the Applicable Jurisdiction (for Cook County: the Assessor's Office, Board of Review, Clerk, or Treasurer) before taking any action — including deciding whether to pursue an appeal or hire any service. You are never required to act on the Estimate.

6. No guaranteed outcome

A result indicating you may be over-assessed is an estimate only. It is not a guarantee that you are over-assessed, that any appeal or protest will succeed, or that you will realize any savings. Appeal and protest outcomes are decided solely by the responsible government bodies (in Cook County: the Assessor's Office and Board of Review, and where applicable the Illinois Property Tax Appeal Board or the courts), applying evidence and standards this tool does not evaluate.

7. Not legal, tax, financial, or appraisal advice; no professional relationship

This Site is not a law firm, attorney, certified public accountant, enrolled agent, tax preparer, appraiser, financial adviser, or licensed or registered property-tax consultant, and it is not a substitute for any of these. This Site cannot and does not substitute for the advice of a licensed attorney or a qualified tax professional.

Nothing on this Site is legal, tax, financial, appraisal, or other professional advice. We cannot and do not advise you on the legal or factual merits of any specific appeal, the likelihood you will prevail, or what to say to any government body. No attorney-client, accountant-client, fiduciary, or other professional relationship is created by using this Site, and nothing you enter into the Site is protected by attorney-client privilege or any similar privilege. For any decision about whether or how to appeal, consult a licensed attorney in the Applicable Jurisdiction or a qualified tax professional.

8. Not affiliated with any government agency

This Site is an independent, privately operated tool. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, sponsored by, or operated by Cook County, the State of Illinois, or any government agency, department, or official in any jurisdiction.

9. Third-party referrals and how we are paid

We are paid for referrals. The Operator participates in an affiliate program and receives compensation — currently a flat referral fee, paid through the FlexOffers affiliate network — when a user clicks through and submits their information to, or engages, Ownwell, Inc. ("Ownwell") or another referred appeal service. This is a material connection disclosed under the FTC's Endorsement Guides (16 C.F.R. Part 255). A disclosure also appears before each referral link on the Site.

The fee does not depend on your outcome or on our Estimate being right. Our compensation is a flat fee for the introduction. It is not contingent on, calculated from, or tied to any tax savings, refund, or appeal outcome, and, so far as we are aware and under our affiliate agreement, it does not change the price you pay the referred service. The over-assessment determination is produced by a calculation whose inputs and thresholds do not include, and are not adjusted for, the referral relationship; the same calculation is applied to every parcel.

Referred services are independent of us. Any decision to use a referred service, and any resulting contract or fee arrangement, is solely between you and that service, governed by its own terms and privacy policy — we are not a party to it. We do not select, supervise, employ, warrant, endorse, or take responsibility for any referred service's quality, pricing, outcomes, attorneys, representatives, licensing, registration, or compliance with any law governing representation in tax proceedings (including laws on the unauthorized practice of law and any state or county consultant-registration regime). Before engaging any service, confirm directly with that service that it is licensed, registered, or otherwise authorized to represent you in your specific proceeding.

10. Data sources; no warranty beyond the source

Estimates are derived from publicly available government data (for Cook County: Assessor, Clerk, and Treasurer records and open-data feeds) and published simulation methodologies (identified on our methodology page). Those sources are themselves provided by their originating agencies without any warranty of accuracy, completeness, or timeliness, and we cannot and do not warrant that data or methodology to a higher standard than its source provides. County systems and data feeds may be unavailable, rate-limited, delayed, changed, or discontinued at any time without notice, and features that depend on them (including PIN auto-fill) may fail or return stale information as a result.

11. Acceptable use

You agree not to:

• use robots, spiders, scrapers, or other automated means to access the Site, its calculator, or its underlying data connections at high volume, or to extract Site content in bulk for commercial purposes without our prior written permission;
• perform automated or bulk PIN lookups beyond ordinary individual, non-commercial use — the lookup feature relays queries to third-party government systems, and abusive volume can violate those systems' own terms;
• systematically extract or replicate the Site's data pipeline or bulk outputs to build a competing commercial product;
• use the Site in any way that could disable, overburden, or impair it or the government systems it depends on, or for any unlawful purpose.

We may rate-limit, block, or terminate access at any time, with or without notice. Continued use of the Site constitutes acceptance of these Terms, including this section.

12. Warranty disclaimer

THE SITE, THE ESTIMATE, AND ALL CONTENT ARE PROVIDED "AS IS" AND "AS AVAILABLE," WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION ANY WARRANTY OF ACCURACY, COMPLETENESS, TIMELINESS, MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, OR NON-INFRINGEMENT. WE DO NOT WARRANT THAT THE ESTIMATE MATCHES YOUR ACTUAL TAX BILL, ASSESSED VALUE, EXEMPTION STATUS, OR ANY APPEAL OUTCOME; THAT THE UNDERLYING COUNTY DATA IS CORRECT OR CURRENT; OR THAT THE SITE WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED OR ERROR-FREE. ESTIMATES FOR PARCELS IN A TIF DISTRICT OR WITH A SENIOR FREEZE EXEMPTION MAY BE OFF BY AS MUCH AS 10X OR MORE, AS DESCRIBED IN SECTION 4. THE SAME APPLIES TO THE OTHER ERROR SOURCES DESCRIBED IN SECTION 4, INCLUDING EXEMPTION, TAX-CODE, AND STALE-DATA ERRORS. THIS SECTION IS SUBJECT TO SECTION 13 (YOUR STATUTORY RIGHTS ARE NOT WAIVED).

13. Your statutory rights are not waived

Nothing in these Terms waives, limits, or modifies any right or remedy that the law of the Applicable Jurisdiction (or the law of your residence, where it applies) makes non-waivable by agreement, including — without limitation — rights and remedies under the Illinois Consumer Fraud and Deceptive Business Practices Act (815 ILCS 505/1 et seq.), the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices–Consumer Protection Act (Tex. Bus. & Com. Code § 17.41 et seq.), New York General Business Law §§ 349–350, and the New Jersey Consumer Fraud Act (N.J.S.A. 56:8-1 et seq.). If any provision of these Terms conflicts with such a non-waivable right, that provision applies only to the maximum extent permitted, and the rest of these Terms remains in effect.

14. Limitation of liability and disputes

14.1 Limitation of liability

TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, THE OPERATOR'S TOTAL AGGREGATE LIABILITY FOR ANY AND ALL CLAIMS ARISING FROM OR RELATING TO YOUR USE OF THE SITE SHALL NOT EXCEED THE GREATER OF (A) THE AMOUNTS YOU PAID THE OPERATOR IN THE TWELVE (12) MONTHS BEFORE THE CLAIM AROSE (CURRENTLY $0 — THE SITE IS FREE), OR (B) ONE HUNDRED DOLLARS ($100). TO THE SAME EXTENT, THE OPERATOR IS NOT LIABLE FOR INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, SPECIAL, OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES.

THIS LIMITATION DOES NOT APPLY TO, AND NOTHING IN THESE TERMS WAIVES OR LIMITS, (1) LIABILITY FOR FRAUD, WILLFUL MISCONDUCT, OR GROSS NEGLIGENCE, OR (2) ANY RIGHT OR REMEDY THAT CANNOT BE WAIVED OR LIMITED UNDER THE ILLINOIS CONSUMER FRAUD AND DECEPTIVE BUSINESS PRACTICES ACT, 815 ILCS 505/1 ET SEQ. (INCLUDING ITS REMEDIES UNDER 815 ILCS 505/10a), OR OTHER APPLICABLE LAW, AS STATED IN SECTION 13.

14.2 Individual claims only — no class actions

YOU AND THE OPERATOR EACH AGREE THAT ANY CLAIM WILL BE BROUGHT ONLY IN AN INDIVIDUAL CAPACITY, AND NOT AS A PLAINTIFF OR CLASS MEMBER IN ANY CLASS, COLLECTIVE, CONSOLIDATED, OR REPRESENTATIVE ACTION. YOU ARE GIVING UP THE RIGHT TO PARTICIPATE IN A CLASS ACTION. THIS WAIVER APPLIES TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW. IT DOES NOT WAIVE ANY REMEDY AVAILABLE TO YOU IN AN INDIVIDUAL ACTION UNDER A NON-WAIVABLE STATUTE DESCRIBED IN SECTION 13 — INCLUDING ACTUAL DAMAGES, PUNITIVE DAMAGES, AND ATTORNEY'S FEES UNDER 815 ILCS 505/10a — AND IT DOES NOT LIMIT YOUR RIGHT TO PROCEED IN SMALL CLAIMS COURT UNDER SECTION 14.3. IF A COURT DETERMINES THAT, FOR A PARTICULAR CLAIM, THE RIGHT TO PROCEED ON A CLASS OR REPRESENTATIVE BASIS CANNOT LAWFULLY BE WAIVED, THIS WAIVER DOES NOT APPLY TO THAT CLAIM ONLY, AND THE REMAINDER OF THESE TERMS IS UNAFFECTED.

14.3 Small claims court — always available

You may bring any individual claim within the court's jurisdictional limit (currently $10,000 in Illinois) as a small claims case in the Circuit Court of Cook County, Illinois, or in the small-claims court where you reside if the law of the Applicable Jurisdiction gives you that right. No lawyer is required in small claims court. There is no arbitration requirement in these Terms — we do not require you to arbitrate anything.

14.4 Waiver of jury trial

FOR ANY DISPUTE HEARD IN COURT (OTHER THAN SMALL CLAIMS COURT), YOU AND THE OPERATOR EACH KNOWINGLY AND VOLUNTARILY WAIVE THE RIGHT TO A TRIAL BY JURY, AND AGREE THE DISPUTE WILL BE DECIDED BY A JUDGE, TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW; IF THIS WAIVER IS HELD UNENFORCEABLE FOR A CLAIM, IT IS SEVERED FOR THAT CLAIM ONLY.

14.5 Venue

Any dispute not brought in small claims court must be brought exclusively in the state or federal courts located in Cook County, Illinois, and each party consents to personal jurisdiction and venue there — except where a non-waivable law of the Applicable Jurisdiction gives you the right to sue elsewhere.

15. Email reminder list (when active)

If we offer an optional email deadline-reminder list:

• Opt-in only. You join only by your own affirmative action. We will send property-tax deadline reminders and related Site updates; messages may include references or links to third-party services we are compensated to refer (see Section 9), and any such message will carry the same disclosure.
• Unsubscribe anytime. Every email will include a working, no-login, no-fee unsubscribe link, honored within 10 business days, plus our mailing address and accurate sender information, as required by the CAN-SPAM Act (15 U.S.C. § 7704), and the unsubscribe mechanism will remain functional for at least 30 days after each message is sent.
• Never sold. We do not sell, rent, or share the list with anyone for their own marketing. Nothing is transmitted to any referral partner unless you yourself click through.
• Changes affecting subscribers. We may modify, pause, or end the list at any time. If you are a subscriber, we will notify you by email of any material change to these Terms, or to how we use your information, before it takes effect for your subscription.

16. Privacy

The Site uses cookieless, aggregate analytics and is designed so that calculator use does not require you to identify yourself: we do not ask for your name or contact information to produce an Estimate, we do not build profiles of individual users, and the parcel data you enter is used to compute your results and for the record-keeping described below (a log of which disclosure text was shown with each estimate), not to identify you. Standard, short-lived server and security logs (such as IP addresses) are processed as part of operating any website. Regardless of whether any particular privacy law applies to us, you may email contact@appealmytax.com at any time to ask that we delete your email address from our list or tell you what information we hold about you, and we will honor reasonable requests. The Site and its email list are intended for adult users located in the United States; they are not directed to children under 13 and not directed to or marketed toward residents of the European Union or United Kingdom. See also our Privacy Policy.

17. State Supplement

These Terms include this State Supplement, which sets out additional or different terms that apply based on the Applicable Jurisdiction of the Property you enter. It is part of these Terms; if it conflicts with the sections above, this Supplement controls, solely for Properties in that state. We add subsections as the Site adds coverage for new states.

17.A Illinois (active)

Illinois maintains no licensing or registration regime for property-tax consultants. The Operator is not licensed as, and does not hold itself out as, a property-tax consultant or attorney, and does not perform the filing or representation activities disclaimed in Section 2. Representation of a taxpayer before the Cook County Board of Review or the Illinois Property Tax Appeal Board generally requires a licensed attorney (individual owners may represent themselves); confirm any representative's standing before engaging them.

17.B Texas — reserved

Activates when the Site covers Texas Properties.

17.C New York — reserved

Activates when the Site covers New York Properties.

17.D New Jersey — reserved

Activates when the Site covers New Jersey Properties.

18. Changes to these Terms

We may revise these Terms (including the State Supplement) at any time. For ordinary use of the calculator, the version of these Terms posted and linked at the time of your visit governs that use — each visit is a separate use governed by the then-current Terms. For email-list subscribers, material changes are handled as described in Section 15 (advance notice by email).

19. Governing law

These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of Illinois, without regard to conflict-of-laws principles — except that this choice of law does not deprive you of the protection of any mandatory consumer-protection statute of the Applicable Jurisdiction (or of your residence, where it applies) that cannot be varied by contract, as stated in Section 13.

20. General

Severability. If any provision of these Terms is held unenforceable, it will be enforced to the maximum extent permitted, and the remaining provisions stay in full effect. Entire agreement. These Terms (with the documents they incorporate) are the entire agreement between you and the Operator about the Site. No waiver. Our not enforcing a provision is not a waiver of it. Assignment. You may not assign these Terms; we may assign them to a successor operator of the Site (including any entity the Operator later forms), and will post notice of any such assignment. No third-party beneficiaries. These Terms create no rights in any third party, including any referred service.

21. Contact

Questions about these Terms: contact@appealmytax.com. A mailing address will be posted here before the email reminder list activates.