By Erin Delmore
Correspondent
Montclair resident Jeffrey Dimmerman says he was owed a $1,000 tax credit from 2012, but didn’t see the cash until 2015.
Under a program known as the Homestead Benefit, the state government reimburses seniors and homeowners with disabilities who make under $150,000 annually and New Jersey homeowners who make under $75,000 annually, to offset rising property taxes.
He asked NJTV News about the payout delay by entering his question, “Why does it take so long to receive our Homestead Property Tax rebates?”
“We received our application for 2012 Homestead Rebate Benefit in the fall of 2013, and we didn’t get the credit for it until May of 2015,” Dimmerman said, adding that the application comes with most of his personal information filled in.
Representatives from the state Treasury Department declined an interview, but Deputy Director of Communications Christopher J. Santarelli said in a statement, “The 2012 Homestead Benefit filing deadline was Jan. 31, 2014. The benefit was credited to tax bills last May. The benefit is based on home ownership during a previous calendar year. This was the existing practice when the administration came into office.”
“Well, maybe it’s time to rethink that practice and get a little quicker with it,” Dimmerman said. “Especially with the computerization they have now. It just seems so antiquated. Besides the fact, why should we even have to wait for it to be credited to our taxes later on? Why isn’t it just deducted from our taxes to begin with so we pay a lower amount?”
Homeowners used to get a rebate check from the state, but Gov. Chris Christie changed that to a credit when he took office six years ago. Since then, his administration’s been weighing property tax relief against the state budget shortfall.
“When you’re running out of money, you’ve got to manage your cash carefully,” Christie said in May 2014. “I assume all of you, at one time or another, have had to do that yourselves. You’ve got a certain pile of bills in front of you that amount to more than what you have in your checking account, so you then prioritize your bills.”
The Treasury Department told NJTV News that the Homestead Benefit paid more than $369 million to more than 750,000 New Jersey homeowners in 2012. The average benefit totaled nearly $470. That’s less than half of what Dimmerman received. Meanwhile, “Property taxes went up at least $2,000 or $3,000,” Dimmerman said.
New Jerseyans already pay the highest property taxes in the country at more than $8,000 on average, according to 2014 statistics. Dimmerman said he reached out to county government officials to see if tax relief was coming his way.
“When I was asking about the new one for 2013, for most of the year they couldn’t tell if or when it was going to happen. I had kind of given up on it for 2013 until suddenly the application arrived in the mail,” he said.
That credit is expected this year, but here’s the twist: it’s tied to the property, not the homeowner. So if Dimmerman decides to move, the person who bought his house would see a lower tax bill this year, thanks to the 2013 credit owed to him. Real estate attorneys say sellers can protect themselves by writing it into their contract at the point of sale.