26 Sep I’m moving to New Jersey. How can I freeze my property taxes?

Q. We lived in Florida for eight months but it didn’t work out, so we are moving to a 55-and-over community in New Jersey. How can I get a freeze on our property taxes? We live on my husband’s Social Security income.
— Coming home

A. The Senior Freeze does not actually freeze your taxes.

Rather, the program will reimburse you for any property tax increases you have once you are in the program.

Assuming an applicant meets the eligibility requirements, he or she will receive the difference between the base year tax paid – the first year of eligibility in the program – and the property tax increase paid in the current year, said Daniel Pollak, the chair of the real estate tax appeals practice at Brach Eichler in Roseland.

“In order to establish a base year, you must meet the eligibility requirements for the Senior Freeze for two consecutive years,” he said.

In general, to qualify for the Senior Freeze you or your spouse must have been 65 or older as of Dec. 31, 2017, have lived in New Jersey continuously since Dec. 31, 2007 as a homeowner or renter and have owned or lived in your current home since Dec. 31, 2015 or earlier, Pollak said. You also must have paid the property taxes due for 2017 by June 1, 2018 and for 2018 by June 1, 2019, and have total annual income that’s less than $87,269 in 2017 and $89,014 in 2018.

Pollack said the applications, known as PTR-1 if you meet the eligibility requirements for 2017 and 2018 and are filing for the first time or reapplying to the program after being denied in a prior year, or PTR-2 if you filed an application 2017 and met all the eligibility requirements, must be filed by Oct. 31, 2019 to qualify for the 2018 Senior Freeze.

PTR-1 is available on the New Jersey Division of Taxation website and PTR-2 will be mailed to you by the Division of Taxation if you qualified for the Senior Freeze in a prior year. If you qualified for the Senior Freeze in a year prior to 2018 and you did not receive a PTR-2, you may call the Division of Taxation at (800) 882-6597 to obtain a PTR-2 application.

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This story was originally published on Sept. 26, 2019.

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