Bill Proposes Limit on Tax Court Filings, and Reduces Notice Requirements

by: Anthony F. Della Pelle
4 Dec 2009

The Senate Community and Urban Affairs Committee released a statement reporting favorably on S. 2711, and recommended several amendments to the bill as introduced.  The bill is sponsored by Senators Robert W. Singer, Paul A. Sarlo, as Primary Sponsors, and Senator Thomas H. Kean, Jr., as a Co-Sponsor.  The identical Assembly bill, A. 4313, is sponsored by Assemblyman Frederick Scalera.

The amended bill would permit a tax assessor to perform reassessments on a portion of a taxing district without notifying the mayor, municipal governing body, and/or the Director of Taxation, while still requiring the tax assessor to notify the county board of taxation and county tax administrator of the assessor’s reasons for conducting the partial reassessment.  Furthermore, the assessor would only need the county board of taxation’s approval of the assessor’s compliance plan, and not the Division of Taxation.  The amended bill also removes the automatic approval language for the Division of Taxation or county board of taxation’s failure to approve or disapprove the compliance plan within 45 days.

The Committee additionally amended the bill to require a minimum assessed value of at least $1,000,000.00 ($750,000 is the current minimum) for a property tax appeal to be directly filed with the Tax Court.  The statement claims raising the assessed value requirement will reduce the burden on the New Jersey Tax Court by reducing the volume of tax appeals filed there, and correspondingly increasing the volume of appeals with county tax boards.  Whether the county boards could effectively handle increased volumes of petitions, if the bill is signed into law, remains to be seen.

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