Makes total property tax exemption for 100% disabled veterans retroactive to effective date of determination of total disability; requires State to reimburse municipalities for reimbursement of property taxes paid to veteran.

A1488

ASSEMBLY, No. 1488

STATE OF NEW JERSEY

222nd LEGISLATURE

�

PRE-FILED FOR INTRODUCTION IN THE 2026 SESSION

Sponsored by:

Assemblyman ROY FREIMAN

District 16 (Hunterdon, Mercer, Middlesex and Somerset)

Assemblyman CHRIS TULLY

District 38 (Bergen)

Co-Sponsored by:

Assemblyman Sauickie, Assemblywoman Fantasia, Assemblymen
Rodriguez, Inganamort, Miller, Assemblywoman Flynn, Assemblymen Rumpf,
Scharfenberger, Assemblywomen Drulis and Katz

SYNOPSIS

���� Makes total property tax exemption for 100% disabled
veterans retroactive to effective date of determination of total disability;
requires State to reimburse municipalities for reimbursement of property taxes
paid to veteran.

CURRENT VERSION OF TEXT

���� Introduced Pending Technical Review by Legislative
Counsel.

��

An Act

concerning eligibility to receive the property tax exemption granted to
permanently and totally disabled veterans and amending P.L.1948, c.259.

����
Be It Enacted

by the Senate and General Assembly of
the State of New Jersey:

���� 1.��� Section 1 of P.L.1948,
c.259 (C.54:4-3.30) is amended to read as follows:

���� 1.��� a.���� The dwelling
house and the lot or curtilage whereon the same is erected, of any citizen and
resident of this State, now or hereafter honorably discharged or released under
honorable circumstances, from active service in any branch of the Armed Forces
of the United States, who has been or shall be declared by the United States
Department of Veterans� Affairs or its successor to have a service-connected
disability from paraplegia, sarcoidosis, osteochondritis resulting in permanent
loss of the use of both legs, or permanent paralysis of both legs and lower
parts of the body, or from hemiplegia and has permanent paralysis of one leg
and one arm or either side of the body, resulting from injury to the spinal
cord, skeletal structure, or brain or from disease of the spinal cord not
resulting from any form of syphilis; or from total blindness; or from
amputation of both arms or both legs, or both hands or both feet, or the
combination of a hand and a foot; or from other service-connected disability
declared by the United States Veterans Administration or its successor to be a
total or 100 percent permanent disability, and not so evaluated solely because
of hospitalization or surgery and recuperation, sustained through enemy action,
or accident, or resulting from disease contracted while in such active service,
shall be exempt from taxation
retroactive to the effective date of the
determination of total disability by the United States Department of Veterans�
Affairs
, on proper claim made therefor and such exemption shall be in
addition to any other exemption of such person's real and personal property
which now is or hereafter shall be prescribed or allowed by the Constitution or
by law but no taxpayer shall be allowed more than one exemption under
[
this act
]

P.L.1948,
c.259 (C.54:4-3.30 et seq.)
.

���� b.��� (1)�� The surviving
spouse of any such citizen and resident of this State, who at the time of death
was entitled to the exemption provided under
[
this
act
]

P.L.1948,
c.259 (C.54:4-3.30 et seq.)
shall be entitled, on proper claim made
therefor, to the same exemption as the deceased had, during the surviving
spouse's widowhood or widowerhood, as the case may be, and while a resident of
this State, for the time that the surviving spouse is the legal owner thereof
and actually occupies the said dwelling house or any other dwelling house
thereafter acquired.

���� (2)�� The surviving spouse of
any citizen and resident of this State who was honorably discharged and, after
the citizen and resident's death, is declared to have suffered a
service-connected disability as provided in subsection a. of this section,
shall be entitled, on proper claim made therefor, to the same exemption the
deceased would have become eligible for.� The exemption shall continue during
the surviving spouse's widowhood or widowerhood, as the case may be, and while
a resident of this State, for the time that the surviving spouse is the legal
owner thereof and actually occupies the dwelling house or any other dwelling
house thereafter acquired.

���� c.���� The surviving spouse of
any citizen and resident of this State, who died in active service in any
branch of the Armed Forces of the United States, shall be entitled, on proper
claim made therefor, to an exemption from taxation on the dwelling house and lot
or curtilage whereon the same is erected, during the surviving spouse's
widowhood or widowerhood, as the case may be, and while a resident of this
State, for the time that the surviving spouse is the legal owner thereof and
actually occupies the said dwelling or any other dwelling house thereafter
acquired.

���� d.��� The surviving spouse of
any citizen and resident of this State who died prior to January 10, 1972, that
being the effective date of P.L.1971, c.398, and whose circumstances were such
that, had said law become effective during the deceased's lifetime, the
deceased would have become eligible for the exemption granted under this
section as amended by said law, shall be entitled, on proper claim made
therefor, to the same exemption as the deceased would have become eligible for
upon the dwelling house and lot or curtilage occupied by the deceased at the
time of death, during the surviving spouse's widowhood or widowerhood, as the
case may be, and while a resident of this State, for the time that the
surviving spouse is the legal owner thereof and actually occupies the said
dwelling house on the premises to be exempted.

���� e.���� Nothing in this act
shall be intended to include paraplegia or hemiplegia resulting from locomotor
ataxia or other forms of syphilis of the central nervous system, or from
chronic alcohol use disorder, or to include other forms of disease resulting
from the veteran's own misconduct which may produce signs and symptoms similar
to those resulting from paraplegia, osteochondritis, or hemiplegia.

(cf:� P.L.2023, c.177, s.150)

���� 2.��� Section 2 of P.L.1948,
c.259 (C.54:4-3.31) is amended to read as follows:

���� 2.��� All exemptions from
taxation under this act shall be allowed by the assessor upon the filing with
him of a claim in writing under oath, made by or on behalf of the person
claiming the same, showing the right to the exemption, briefly describing the
property for which exemption is claimed and having annexed thereto a
certificate of the claimant's honorable discharge or release under honorable
circumstances, from active service in any branch of� the Armed Forces of the
United States and a certificate from the United States Department of Veterans� Affairs
or its successor, certifying to a service-connected disability of such claimant
of the character described in section 1 of P.L.1948, c.259 (C.54:4-3.30). �
Any
application for an exemption from taxation under this section shall be
retroactive to the effective date of the determination of total disability by
the United States Department of Veterans� Affairs.
� In the case of a claim
by a surviving spouse of such veteran, the claimant shall establish in writing
under oath that the claimant is the owner of the legal title to the premises on
which exemption is claimed; that the claimant occupies the dwelling house on
said premises as the claimant's legal residence in this State; that the veteran
shall have been declared, either during the veteran�s lifetime or after the
veteran�s death, by the United States Department of Veterans� Affairs to have
or to have had a service-connected disability of a character described in P.L.1948,
c.259 (C.54:4-3.30 et seq.), or, in the case of a claim for an exemption under
subsection c. of section 1 of� P.L.1948, c.259 (C.54:4-3.30), that the veteran
shall have been declared to have died in active service that the veteran was
entitled to an exemption provided for in this act, except for an exemption
under paragraph (2) of subsection b. and subsection c. of section 1 hereof, at
the time of death; and that the claimant is a resident of this State and has
not remarried.� Such exemptions shall be allowed and prorated by the assessor
for the remainder of any taxable year from the date the claimant shall have
acquired title to the real property intended to be exempt by P.L.1948, c.259
(C.54:4-3.30 et seq.).� Where a portion of a multiple-family building or
structure occupied by the claimant is the subject of such exemption, the
assessor shall aggregate the assessment on the lot or curtilage and building or
structure and allow an exemption of that percentage of the aggregate assessment
as the value of the portion of the building or structure occupied by the
claimant bears to the value of the entire building or structure.

(cf: P.L.2019, c.413, s.2)

���� 3.��� Section 3 of P.L.1948,
c.259 (C.54:4-3.32) is amended to read as follows:

���� 3.��� The governing body of
each municipality, by appropriate resolution,
[
may
]

shall
return all taxes collected on property
which would have been exempt had proper claim in writing been made therefor in
the manner provided by
[
this
act.� The governing body of each municipality, by appropriate resolution, may
also return to the veteran or the veteran�s surviving spouse all property tax
payments made since the time of the veteran�s actual disability or since the
time of the veteran�s death.� No refunds shall be made under this section for
any year or portion thereof prior to the effective date of P.L.1948, c.259
(C.54:4-3.30 et seq.)
]

P.L.1948, c.259
(C.54:4-3.30 et seq.), as of the effective date of the determination of total
disability by the United States Department of Veterans� Affairs.� The tax
assessor of the municipality shall annually notify the Director of the Division
of Taxation in the Department of the Treasury of any amounts reimbursed during
a tax year pursuant to this section.� The State shall reimburse each
municipality an amount equal to 102 percent of the amount of any veterans'
property tax reimbursement granted in that municipality and reported by the tax
assessor
.

(cf: P.L.2007, c.317, s.3)

���� 4.��� This act shall take
effect immediately.

STATEMENT

����� This bill provides that the total property tax
exemption extended to totally disabled veterans is to be retroactive to the
effective date of the determination of the veteran's total disability by the
United States Department of Veterans� Affairs.� The bill also requires that the
governing body of each municipality return all taxes collected on the veteran's
property after the effective date of the determination of total disability by
the United States Department of Veterans� Affairs, and requires the State to
reimburse municipalities for the amount of such property taxes returned to a
totally disabled veteran pursuant to the requirements of the bill.