Building Materials Exemption Reporting FAQ's

You must file a report if you were issued a Building Materials Exemption Certificate by the Illinois Department of Revenue (IDOR) to purchase tax exempt building materials for a High Impact/ Reimagining Energy and Vehicles (REV) / Manufacturing Illinois Chips for Real Opportunity (MICRO) business, or for a business located in an Enterprise Zone or River Edge Redevelopment Zone, and your certificate was valid at any time during calendar year 2023. You must file a report even if you did not use the certificate to purchase exempt materials.

All reports for the Building Materials Exemption Certificates that were valid during the previous year are due no later than May 31 of the following year. For valid 2023 certificates, reports are considered timely if filed no later than May 31, 2024.

You must file a single Building Materials Exemption report. Your filing will contain all of your certificates for all projects that were active for 2023, the current reporting year. You must supply information for each certificate under the appropriate certificate and appropriate project on a single report.

You must report the value of all tax exempt building materials purchased between January 1, 2023, and December 31, 2023. The law requires reports to be filed with IDOR on or before May 31 annually. If a due date falls on a weekend or a holiday, a report is due the next business day. Do not use the online reporting system to report tax exempt building materials purchased before January 1, 2023, or after December 31, 2023. If you wish to file a report for a period before January 1, 2023, you must contact IDOR using the email form at the bottom of this page.

You need the identification number you used to register for your Building Materials Exemption Certificate, which is your Federal Employer Identification Number (FEIN), Social Security Number (SSN), or Applicant Identification Number. You need to report the value of the building materials purchased with each of your certificates during calendar year 2023.

Previous year’s figures should not be included on your current year report. Prior year reports are available upon request by emailing the Illinois Department of Revenue at the EZ reporting email below. We will email you a form for the appropriate year to fill out and send back to us. However, current year figures must be filed on the current year report using the electronic system.

Each certificate is good for no more than two years from the date of issuance. Each certificate’s expiration date is identified on the certificate.

If you make a mistake or need to correct a report that you already filed, you must submit an entirely new report for all of your certificates again, even the ones that were correctly filed the first time. Please log into your account and file a new report. This new report will completely replace your earlier submissions.

The reporting application will provide a list of all certificates issued for your identification number that were active at some point during the calendar year of the report. You must report purchases for each project under the certificate number for that project.

This is a warning message that displays when the exempt building material purchase amount is listed as 0.00 for one or more of your certificates in your BMEC report. If the purchased amount of 0.00 is correct, you can choose to proceed and click "next." If the purchased amount is not 0.00, please correct the number to represent the correct purchase amount, and then click "next."

Immediately after you submit your report, a confirmation page will appear. You should print or write down the confirmation number given. You will need this number in order to view your report, if you choose to at a later date. Please note: once the window of time for filing your report ends (soon after May 31, 2024), you no longer will be able to log into the reporting interface to view past reports.

IDOR recommends that you keep your confirmation number at least through the end of the filing deadline in case you wish to view your report again. You should keep your reports with your tax returns and information, and follow the standard time frame for keeping tax records for audit purposes. Please note: once the window of time for filing your report ends (soon after May 31, 2024), you no longer will be able to log into the reporting interface to view past reports.