Senior Freeze (Property Tax Reimbursement)
What is Senior Freeze, and who should apply?
The New Jersey Senior Freeze program provides property tax or mobile home site fee reimbursements to eligible seniors and disabled persons for their primary residences. The program qualifications concern home ownership status, property tax increases, total income, and age or disability status. To see the full list of eligibility requirements, visit: https://www.nj.gov/treasury/taxation/ptr/eligibility.shtml
How do Senior Freeze benefits work?
Senior Freeze benefits are calculated based on the amount of property taxes or mobile home site fees an applicant paid during the first year they met all the program requirements. This is considered the “base year.” Each year an applicant’s property taxes increase, they remain qualified for the program and will be reimbursed for any amount they paid more than the base year number. For example, if someone first met the eligibility requirements in 2019 and paid $8,767 in property taxes and they then increased to $9,582 in 2020, their Senior Freeze benefit would reimburse them for the $815 increase. Each year an applicant continues to qualify will be compared to their base year amount and all increases will be reimbursed in the form of a check or direct deposit. If an applicant owns a mobile home 18% of their site fees are considered for the purposes of this benefit and therefore qualify for Senior freeze. This means that 18% of an applicant’s site fees from the current year will be subtracted from 18% of the site fees they paid during their base year and the remaining balance will be reimbursed as a check or direct deposit.
How does the application process work?
Applicants can file for Senior Freeze online or with a paper application. Along with the application forms, applicants need to provide verification of property taxes or mobile home site fees and a Property Tax Reimbursement Income Report. If the property in question is owned by a trust, the applicant must be a beneficiary and enclose a copy of the trust agreement with their application. The first someone files, they will use the PRT-1 form, and each year after that they will receive a personalized PRT-2 form for that year’s application. If the applicant’s property taxes or site fees decrease to below the base year amount, they no longer qualify and must refile as a new applicant the next year they qualify. The 2023 Senior Freeze application deadline is October 31, 2024. The online application can be found at: https://www.njportal.com/taxation/ptr
Can someone apply for Senior Freeze along with other tax benefit programs?
Yes. Applicants can file for the Senior Freeze and the ANCHOR Program in the same year and receive benefits from both programs if they meet the requirements for each program. Starting in 2025, there will be a new program called Stay NJ for seniors. The application for Stay NJ will be a consolidated version of the application for ANCHOR, Stay NJ, and Senior Freeze. The benefits applicants can receive will be a comparison between their calculated Stay NJ benefit and the combination of their calculated ANCHOR and Senior Freeze benefits, and they will receive the higher of the two, not exceeding the $6,500 cap.
Additional information:
For questions or more information about Senior Freeze, please visit
https://www.nj.gov/treasury/taxation/ptr/
Sources:
https://www.nj.gov/treasury/taxation/ptr/index.shtml
https://www.nj.gov/treasury/taxation/ptr/hoamount.shtml
https://www.nj.gov/treasury/taxation/ptr/printform.shtml
