Illinois Tax Season Update

Find Your Refund

The Illinois Office of Comptroller sends out income tax refunds after receiving the payment information from the Illinois Department of Revenue. The Illinois dept of revenue will begin accepting 2021 state individual income tax returns on Monday, January 24th, in parallel with the Internal Revenue Service.

After filing your state income tax with the Illinois Department of Revenue, you can check the status of refund process at the 'Where's My Refund' application available on MyTax Illinois.

Once your return is processed at Illinois Department of Revenue, the information is sent to the Illinois Office of Comptroller. You can check the status of your tax refund payment at Find My Refund. We appreciate your patience during this process.

Comptroller Susana A. Mendoza's statement on Retired Teachers' Health Insurance Funding

I'd like to reassure Illinois retired teachers about the funding available for the Teachers Health Insurance (THIS) Fund that is used to pay doctors and other health care providers under the Teachers Retirement Insurance Program (TRIP). It is essential to clarify that the Illinois Office of Comptroller (IOC) will continue to make whatever funding transfers are required to meet the payment requests from Central Management Services (CMS). Retired teachers should know that there are adequate appropriations for this program so that payment requests for health insurance expenses will be timely paid.

CMS's website (TCHP Claim Payment Delay - Teachers' Retirement Insurance Program (illinois.gov) shows those payments to providers are all made on a timely basis within weeks of being submitted. In fact, as of today (2/25/22), the Fund balance has over $31 million of which the Office is releasing $4.3 million in payments for healthcare services that were billed just earlier this month. As the fund needs additional transfers, more than $345 million has been appropriated by the General Assembly that can be deposited into the fund as needed.

- Illinois Comptroller Susana A. Mendoza

Fiscal Year 2021 Fast Facts

The State began the fiscal year on July 1, 2020 with a General Funds bill backlog of $5.4 billion. At the end of the fiscal year (June 30, 2021), it was $3.2 billion, reflecting a 41% drop since the start of the fiscal year and without using federal stimulus funds.

Illinois' fiscally responsible efforts to pay its obligations, lower the bill backlog and pay down short-term borrowing helped result in the State's first credit rating upgrade since June 2000.

Of the $2 billion borrowed in the fiscal year to address revenue losses caused by the coronavirus pandemic, half was repaid ahead of schedule, with the goal of early repayment to save taxpayers in interest costs.

General Revenue Fund Payment Cycle History

At the end of the day April 30, the oldest General Revenue Fund voucher at the Illinois Office of Comptroller was 11 business days. The chart below shows where this compares to the end of the calendar year and the end of the fiscal year since fiscal year 2018, starting with 191 days at the end of October 2017, about a week before the State received more than $6 billion in General Obligation bond proceeds to help pay down the record $16.7 billion General Funds bill backlog, and including its high point of 210 days at the end of November 2017.

This chart puts a spotlight on the progress made since the 2015-2017 budget impasse in paying the state's bills, and highlights the importance of fully appropriated and responsible State budgets.

*This payment cycle does not apply to interfund transfers, which make up $1.4 billion, or 83%, of the IOC payables as of April 30, 2022.