Important Note About the Tax Return Intercept Program

The State of Illinois oversees a program that intercepts tax refunds, lottery winnings and state employee income to offset monies owed to Illinois judicial and governmental entities (15 ILCS 405/10.05-10.05D).  The Will County Circuit Clerk’s Office is a payee of this program.  It has come to our attention that the State Comptroller’s Office is, on occasion, incorrectly seizing individual tax return monies and sending portions of these refunds to various payees, including our office.  While we DO NOT have any control over these errors, we have implemented the following procedure for individuals who believe their tax return refunds, lottery winnings or state payroll check monies were incorrectly seized and sent to our office:

 1)      Contact us at circuit_clerk@willcountyillinois.com or fax us at (815) 740-8074 Attn: Comptroller.  YOU MUST PROVIDE THE FOLLOWING INFORMATION:

a.       a copy of the letter received from the State of Illinois stating that the payment has been intercepted;

b.      a clear copy of an official photo ID;

c.       contact information, including the customer’s telephone number and e-mail address.

2)      Our office generally takes 1 business day to review a customer’s request.  If our office determines that the customer’s tax refund, lottery payment or payroll check withholding was incorrectly sent to our office, we will make a refund request to the State and a refund will be processed between 5-10 business days.  The refund will be issued by the State in the way it was originally processed.  For example, if the customer was originally to receive their tax refund via direct deposit, the refund from our office will be sent via direct deposit.

3)      If our office determines that the customer’s tax refund, lottery payment or payroll withholding was intercepted as intended, the customer has sixty (60) days to file a protest with the State of Illinois, as described in the payment intercept letter sent by the State.

If a customer’s payment offset satisfies a balance on a case and the customer’s driver’s license is currently suspended by the Secretary of State, the customer can type a Waiver of Protest form (available on our web site under Forms) which will waive the right to protest the offset and allow our office to notify the State Comptroller’s Office and Secretary of State immediately.  This form must be typed.  Failure to file the Waiver will delay the customer from being able to request a reinstatement for sixty (60) days, as the State Comptroller does not release the funds to our office until that time as elapsed.

We hope this information provides clarity to those affected by the Tax Intercept program as we strive to provide excellent customer service to court participants.