SENATE, No. 54

STATE OF NEW JERSEY

216th LEGISLATURE

 

PRE-FILED FOR INTRODUCTION IN THE 2014 SESSION

 

 

Sponsored by:

Senator  PETER J. BARNES, III

District 18 (Middlesex)

 

 

 

 

SYNOPSIS

     Requires annual notice of assessment on property to contain bolded notice of filing deadline for appeal.

 

CURRENT VERSION OF TEXT

     Introduced Pending Technical Review by Legislative Counsel

  

An Act concerning notice of property tax appeal deadline and amending P.L.1991, c.75.

 

     Be It Enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:

 

     1.    Section 32 of P.L.1991, c.75 (C.54:4-38.1) is amended to read as follows:

     32.  a.  Except as provided in subsection b. of this section, every assessor, prior to February 1, shall notify by mail each taxpayer of the current assessment and preceding year's taxes. Thereafter, the assessor or county board of taxation shall notify each taxpayer by mail within 30 days of any change to the assessment.  This notification of change of assessment shall contain the prior assessment and the current assessment.  The director shall establish the form of notice of assessment and change of assessment. Any notice issued by the assessor or county board of taxation shall contain information instructing taxpayers on how to appeal their assessment along with the deadline to file an appeal, printed in boldface type.

     b.  In the case of a municipality located in a county where the county board of taxation is participating in the demonstration program established in section 4 of P.L.2013, c.15 (C.54:1-104), every assessor, on or before November 15 of the pretax year, shall notify by mail each taxpayer of the preliminary assessment and preceding year's taxes.  Thereafter, the assessor or county board of taxation shall notify each taxpayer by mail within 30 days of any change to the assessment.  This notification of change of assessment shall contain the prior assessment and the current assessment.  The director shall establish the form of notice of assessment and change of assessment. Any notice issued by the assessor or county board of taxation shall contain information instructing taxpayers on how to appeal their assessment.

     c.  The county board of taxation of the demonstration county shall make the preliminary data electronically accessible to the public by posting the data in searchable form on the county's website not later than 15 business days after the submission of the preliminary data.

(cf: P.L.2013, c.15, s.15)

 

     2.    This act shall take effect immediately.

STATEMENT

 

     This bill, amending N.J.S.A.54:4-38.1, would require the statutory notice of annual assessment, usually mailed in late January, to contain the deadline to file an appeal of the assessment in boldface type.  Since the notice of assessment does not require any immediate action by a property taxpayer, such as writing a check to the tax collector, the consequences of the notice of assessment on the amount of subsequent tax bills often passes largely unnoticed until well after the appeal deadline of April 1st.  The bolded notice is intended to remind property taxpayers of the quickly approaching filing deadline for appeals so that they don't loose their opportunity to file an appeal before the property tax appeal deadline.