14 Mar What is the current tax year for the ANCHOR benefit?

Q. If I apply for the ANCHOR property rebate this tax year of 2024, what year would it be covering?
— Homeowner

A. The benefit year for ANCHOR has been confusing over time.

Changes with the new Stay NJ property tax relief program means to put the ANCHOR benefit year in line with the state’s other benefits.

Last year’s ANCHOR was for 2021, but the one for this year is for 2024.

The delayed benefit year — which again, is changed for this year, goes back to Gov. Chris Christie and the Homestead Rebate, which was the property tax relief plan that ANCHOR replaced.

Christie delayed the Homestead Rebate twice because of budget issues, but rather than cancel those benefit years, he delayed them. That’s why the benefit year runs behind the calendar.

ANCHOR, when it replaced the Homestead Rebate, kept the same benefit year, so it was still behind.

But the new Stay NJ law mandated that the benefit years for ANCHOR, Senior Freeze and Stay NJ itself be streamlined.

So there will never be a payout for 2022 and 2023. Those who support the change say it’s only a name change and you’re not losing anything, and you will still get an annual payment. But there is no guarantee the benefit will be paid each year because it’s funded in the annual state budget.

The change of benefit year means some, including estates of people who died, will indeed lose out on a year of benefits.

It’s worth repeating something we wrote in a piece for The Star-Ledger: “To qualify for the 2021 ANCHOR, which was paid in 2024, you had to be a resident as of Oct. 1, 2021. But the new application says to receive the 2024 ANCHOR benefit — skipping over the 2022 and 2023 tax years — you need to be a resident as of Oct. 1, 2024.”

That means some estates, which can apply on behalf of someone who died, that would have been eligible under the older benefit year qualification for 2022 or 2023 will no longer be qualified.

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This story was originally published in March 2025.

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