Property owners who were unable to pay their tax bills in full by the Aug. 1 due date need not worry about losing their home – at least not right away.

As a homeowner you have time to pay off your late taxes, though you will be charged additional interest costs. Now you also have access to a free online financial planning tool to make smaller payments over time.

We call it the Payment Plan Calculator and it’s available at cookcountytreasurer.com. The calculator lets you:

• Set up a schedule to pay off a tax bill in smaller increments instead of all at once
• Choose between making payments once a month or twice monthly
• Create a personalized plan for catching up on delinquent taxes if you owe more than $100

I hope the calculator eases taxpayers’ concerns about losing their homes, businesses or other property because of unpaid taxes. If you were unable to pay in full by the due date, you have about 13 months to pay off your bill before your unpaid tax debt is offered for auction at the Annual Tax Sale.

Remember: The goal is to avoid the Annual Tax Sale – period!

During those 13 months you will be charged interest of 9% a year, or 0.75% per month. That’s a modest annual cost of $90 for every $1,000 in delinquent taxes you owe. The annual interest rate was 18% before this year, but I won legislative reforms that slashed the rate by half.

If your unpaid residential taxes are purchased by a tax buyer at the Annual Tax Sale, you have about two and a half years to redeem your taxes. That means paying your unpaid taxes plus interest in full, in one lump sum. The vast majority of delinquent taxes are redeemed because people want to keep their homes and other property.

In a few instances, tax buyers can take possession of property — but not until about four years after the initial due date. That’s how the system works. Those delays are designed to give property owners every opportunity to pay their taxes and keep their property.

The new Payment Plan Calculator is our latest effort to help people stay in their homes. Other initiatives, such as promoting refunds and exemptions through Black and Latino Houses Matter, also aim to give people the opportunity to build generational wealth through their most important financial asset – home sweet home.