At our Christmas Eve and Christmas Day gatherings, I brought up the opportunity of pre-paying 2018 property tax, and explained the savings opportunity to evryone.
It turned into a "teachable moment" for me to address to my own kids later. Two of my three kids are homeowners, they are all financially responsible, and they "got it" when I explained it to them. They said they had heard about it in general, and after my explanation are definitely going to do it.
And my non-LBYM-not-so-financially responsible BIL/SIL (near our ages) snarls "Sure that's great if we had $10,000 laying around, it's no help if you have to borrow the money". I said, well, at 25% back by April, and the tax bills due about mid year anyhow, it actually probably would be worth borrowing the money (but I know they won't/can't).
Later, I reinforced to my kids how having some savings can really help, because you can take advantage of deals like this when they come up. The old "it takes money to make money" approach. W/o naming names (BIL/SIL), I'm pointing out that the people w/o $10,000 of liquidity are the ones that could really benefit from a $2,500 savings in April (or before), and yet, they will be another $2,500 behind, for lack of that liquidity. Just digging deeper in the hole.
I'l make the trip to the county seat tomorrow. This is really far more than a 25% annualized savings, as paying in DEC provides the return just a few months later. And you'd be paying the property tax ~ mid year (varies by county) anyhow. We will also get a deduction on IL state taxes (@ 5%) this year, though that's washed out the following year.
-ERD50