Nearly 25% of people over 65 years of age still need to file their 2019 income taxes, which are due on Wednesday, July 15.

While most Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) and AARP Tax-Aide programs, which provided free basic income tax return assistance, have suspended service due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Illinois Department on Aging wants seniors to know that the following options are available at no charge to assist them with their 2019 tax returns:

COVID-19
All Regions of Illinois Move to Phase 4 on June 26. All four Restore Illinois health regions have met the IDPH health benchmarks to advance into Phase 4. Metrics include reductions of positivity rate and hospital admissions and availability of hospital surge capacity.

On a statewide level, Illinois flattened the curve, passed the peak and saw a sustained decline in key metrics since the coronavirus pandemic began. Looking at 7-day rolling averages - which smooth out daily fluctuations and allow trends to emerge - Illinois is seeing marked declines in cases, deaths, case positivity and Covid-related hospitalizations.

The application for Business Interruption Grants (BIG) is currently available for review by businesses seeking assistance. Applications will be accepted between June 26 through July 7, 2020.

In the first round of grants, the state has allocated $60 million for businesses experiencing extreme hardship as a result of COVID-19 related closures. Up to $20,000 per business will be awarded for eligible applicants.

It might not come as a surprise to learn that a phrase which has been around American politics for a century; a phrase which has come to symbolize secret, backroom political deals; has its origin here in Illinois.

This year millions of Americans went to the polls during the late winter and spring to choose their party’s Presidential nominees. Just as they did four years ago and every four years going back for as long as most of us can remember.

But it wasn’t always that way.

COVID-19
Push for “Phase 4” reopening. Under Phase 4 of the Restore Illinois plan, restaurants, bars and taverns will be allowed to reopen their indoor facilities under conditions of social distancing. Schools and universities will be allowed to make plans for reopening in fall 2020. Health and fitness clubs, gyms and swimming pools will be allowed to reopen under strict guidelines. Many Illinois residents have been laid off from jobs that are associated with these workplaces, and the Illinois unemployment rate has spiked to more than 15 percent. The move to Phase 4 is currently scheduled to begin on Friday, June 26.

It had taken three years for the news to travel from Washington to Texas, but it had finally arrived.

President Abraham Lincoln had called his Cabinet together in July 1862 and informed them that he intended to issue an Emancipation Proclamation, declaring all then-enslaved persons in the Confederate states to be “thenceforward and forever free.” The Proclamation was issued in September just after the Union victory at the battle of Antietam, and took effect to much fanfare in the north on January 1, 1863.

But in those areas of the south still controlled by Confederate forces, the news did not spread so quickly. As Union armies marched through the south, they carried copies of the Proclamation with them, announcing the joyous news at every stop, months or sometimes years after its issue by the President. With Grant’s victory at Appomattox, and the cascading effect of surrenders of other rebel armies throughout the south, Union forces began arriving to restore United States authority in many parts of the seceded states.

The Illinois Department of Revenue (IDOR) is reminding taxpayers that state individual income tax returns and payments are due July 15, the same date set by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) for federal returns. Taxpayers who have yet to file their 2019 state individual income tax returns must act by July 15 to avoid penalties and interest. The Governor extended the tax filing season three months from the normal due date of April 15 to help Illinois taxpayers experiencing difficulties due to the COVID-19 pandemic.