NEW JERSEY STATE
CONSTITUTION 1947
ARTICLE VIII
TAXATION AND FINANCE
SECTION I
l. (a) Property shall be
assessed for taxation under general laws and by uniform rules. All real
property assessed and taxed locally or by the State for allotment and payment
to taxing districts shall be assessed according to the same standard of value,
except as otherwise permitted herein, and such real property shall be taxed at
the general tax rate of the taxing district in which the property is situated,
for the use of such taxing district.
(b) The Legislature shall enact laws to provide that the value of
land, not less than 5 acres in area, which is determined by the assessing
officer of the taxing jurisdiction to be actively devoted to agricultural or
horticultural use and to have been so devoted for at least the 2 successive
years immediately preceding the tax year in issue, shall, for local tax
purposes, on application of the owner, be that value which such land has for
agricultural or horticultural use.
Any such laws shall provide that
when land which has been valued in this manner for local tax purposes is
applied to a use other than for agriculture or horticulture it shall be subject
to additional taxes in an amount equal to the difference, if any, between the
taxes paid or payable on the basis of the valuation and the assessment
authorized hereunder and the taxes that would have been paid or payable had the
land been valued and assessed as otherwise provided in this Constitution, in
the current year and in such of the tax years immediately preceding, not in
excess of 2 such years in which the land was valued as herein authorized.
Such laws shall also provide for
the equalization of assessments of land valued in accordance with the
provisions hereof and for the assessment and collection of any additional taxes
levied thereupon and shall include such other provisions as shall be necessary
to carry out the provisions of this amendment.
Article VIII, Section I, paragraph
1 amended effective December 5, 1963.
2.
Exemption from taxation may be granted only by general laws. Until
otherwise provided by law all exemptions from taxation validly granted and now
in existence shall be continued. Exemptions from taxation may be altered or
repealed, except those exempting real and personal property used exclusively
for religious, educational, charitable or cemetery purposes, as defined by law,
and owned by any corporation or association organized and conducted exclusively
for one or more of such purposes and not operating for profit.
3. Any citizen and resident of this
State now or hereafter honorably discharged or released under honorable
circumstances from active service, in time of war or other emergency as, from
time to time, defined by the Legislature, in any branch of the Armed Forces of
the United States shall be entitled, annually to a deduction from the amount of
any tax bill for taxes on real and personal property, or both, including taxes
attributable to a residential unit held by a stockholder in a cooperative or
mutual housing corporation, in the sum of $50 or if the amount of any such tax
bill shall be less than $50, to a cancellation thereof, except that the
deduction or cancellation shall be $100 in tax year 2000, $150 in tax year
2001, $200 in tax year 2002 and $250 in each tax year thereafter. The deduction or cancellation shall not be
altered or repealed. Any person
hereinabove described who has been or shall be declared by the United States
Veterans Administration, or its successor, to have a service-connected
disability, shall be entitled to such further deduction from taxation as from
time to time may be provided by law. The surviving spouse of any citizen and
resident of this State who has met or shall meet his or her death on active
duty in time of war or of other emergency as so defined in any such service
shall be entitled, during her widowhood or his widowerhood, as the case may be,
and while a resident of this State, to the deduction or cancellation in this
paragraph provided for honorably discharged veterans and to such further
deduction as from time to time may be provided by law. The surviving spouse of any citizen and
resident of this State who has had or shall hereafter have active service in
time of war or of other emergency as so defined in any branch of the Armed
Forces of the United States and who died or shall die while on active duty in
any branch of the Armed Forces of the United States, or who has been or may
hereafter be honorably discharged or released under honorable circumstances
from active service in time of war or of other emergency as so defined in any
branch of the Armed Forces of the United States shall be entitled, during her
widowhood or his widowerhood, as the case may be, and while a resident of this
State, to the deduction or cancellation in this paragraph provided for
honorably discharged veterans and to such further deductions as from time to
time may be provided by law.
Article VIII, Section I, paragraph
3 amended effective December 2, 1999.
4.
The Legislature may, from time to time, enact laws granting an annual
deduction, from the amount of any tax bill for taxes on the real property, and
from taxes attributable to a residential unit in a cooperative or mutual
housing corporation, of any citizen and resident of this State of the age of 65
or more years, or any citizen and resident of this State less than 65 years of
age who is permanently and totally disabled according to the provisions of the
Federal Social Security Act, residing in a dwelling house owned by him which is
a constituent part of such real property, or residing in a dwelling house owned
by him which is assessed as real property but which is situated on land owned
by another or others, or residing as tenant-shareholder in a cooperative or
mutual housing corporation, but no such deduction shall be in excess of $160.00
with respect to any year prior to 1981, $200.00 per year in 1981, $225.00 per
year in 1982, and $250.00 per year in 1983 and any year thereafter and such
deduction shall be restricted to owners having an income not in excess of
$5,000.00 per year with respect to any year prior to 1981, $8,000.00 per year
in 1981, $9,000.00 per year in 1982, and $10,000.00 per year in 1983 and any
year thereafter, exclusive of benefits under any one of the following:
a.
The Federal Social Security Act and all amendments and supplements thereto;
b. Any other program of the federal government or pursuant to any
other federal law which provides benefits in whole or in part in lieu of benefits referred to in, or for persons
excluded from coverage under, a. hereof
including but not limited to the Federal Railroad Retirement Act and federal
pension, disability and retirement programs; or
c. Pension, disability or retirement programs of any state or its
political subdivisions, or agencies thereof, for persons not covered under a.
hereof; provided, however, that the total amount of benefits to be allowed
exclusion by any owner under b. or c. hereof shall not be in excess of the
maximum amount of benefits payable to, and allowable for exclusion by, an owner
in similar circumstances under a. hereof.
The surviving spouse of a deceased
citizen and resident of the State who during his or her life received a deduction
pursuant to this paragraph shall be entitled, so long as he or she shall remain
unmarried and a resident of the same dwelling house situated on the same land
with respect to which said deduction was granted, to the same deduction, upon
the same conditions, with respect to the same real property or with respect to
the same dwelling house which is situated on land owned by another or others,
or with respect to the same cooperative or mutual housing corporation,
notwithstanding that said surviving spouse is under the age of 65 and is not
permanently and totally disabled, provided that said surviving spouse is 55
years of age or older.
Any such deduction when so granted
by law shall be granted so that it will not be in addition to any other deduction
or exemption, except a deduction granted under authority of paragraph 3 of this
section, to which the said citizen and resident may be entitled, but said
citizen and resident may receive in addition any homestead rebate or credit
provided by law. The State shall annually reimburse each taxing district in an
amount equal to one-half of the tax loss to the district resulting from the
allowance of tax deductions pursuant to this paragraph.
Article VIII, Section I, paragraph
4 amended effective December 8, 1988.
5.
The Legislature may adopt a homestead statute which entitles homeowners,
residential tenants and net lease residential tenants to a rebate or a credit
of a sum of money related to property taxes paid by or allocable to them at
such rates and subject to such limits as may be provided by law. Such rebates
or credits may include a differential rebate or credit to citizens and
residents who are of the age of 65 or more years, or less than 65 years of age
who are permanently and totally disabled according to the provisions of the
Federal Social Security Act, or are 55 years of age or more and the surviving
spouse of a deceased citizen or resident of this State who during his lifetime
received, or who, upon the adoption of this amendment and the enactment of
implementing legislation, would have been entitled to receive a rebate or
credit related to property taxes.
Article VIII, Section I, paragraph
5 amended effective December 2, 1976.
6.
The Legislature may enact general laws under which municipalities may
adopt ordinances granting exemptions or abatements from taxation on buildings
and structures in areas declared in need of rehabilitation in accordance with
statutory criteria, within such municipalities and to the land comprising the
premises upon which such buildings or structures are erected and which is
necessary for the fair enjoyment thereof. Such exemptions shall be for limited
periods of time as specified by law, but not in excess of 5 years.
Article VIII, Section I, paragraph
6 added effective December 4, 1975.
7.
a. No tax shall be levied on personal incomes of individuals, estates and
trusts of this State unless the entire net receipts therefrom shall be received
into the treasury, placed in a perpetual fund designated the Property Tax
Relief Fund and be annually appropriated, pursuant to formulas established from
time to time by the Legislature, to the several counties, municipalities and
school districts of this State exclusively for the purpose of reducing or
offsetting property taxes. In no event, however, shall a tax so levied on
personal incomes be levied on payments received under the federal Social
Security Act, the federal Railroad Retirement Act, or any federal law which
substantially reenacts the provisions of either of those laws.
b. There shall be annually credited from the General Fund
and placed in a special account in the perpetual Property Tax Relief Fund
established pursuant to this paragraph, which account shall be designated the
Property Tax Reform Account, an amount equal to the annual revenue derived from
a tax rate of 0.5% imposed under the "Sales and Use Tax Act,"
P.L.1966, c.30 (C.54:32B-1 et seq.), as amended and supplemented, or any other
subsequent law of similar effect, which amount shall be appropriated annually
by the Legislature exclusively for the purpose of property tax reform.
Article VIII, Section I,
paragraph 7 added effective December 2, 1976; amended effective December 6,
1984; amended effective December 7, 2006.