SENATE, No. 138

STATE OF NEW JERSEY

Introduced Pending Technical Review by Legislative Counsel

PRE-FILED FOR INTRODUCTION IN THE 1996 SESSION

By Senator LYNCH

An Act concerning the income from certain property to be reported to the tax assessor and amending R.S.54:4-34.

    Be It Enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:

    1. R.S.54:4-34 is amended to read as follows:

    54:4-34. Every owner of real property of the taxing district shall, on written request of the assessor, made by certified mail, render a full and true account of his name and real property and the income therefrom, in the case of income-producing property, and in the case of an apartment property, render a full and true account of the net income therefrom, after subtracting from that income all expenses attributable to the property, except that maintenance code violation fines shall not be considered an expense for the purposes of this section, and every owner shall produce his title papers, and he may be examined on oath by the assessor, and if he shall fail or refuse to respond to the written request of the assessor within 45 days of such request, or to testify on oath when required, or shall render a false or fraudulent account, the assessor shall value his property at such amount as he may, from any information in his possession or available to him, reasonably determine to be the full and fair value thereof. No appeal shall be heard from the assessor's valuation and assessment with respect to income-producing property where the owner has failed or refused to respond to such written request for information within 45 days of such request or to testify on oath when required, or shall have rendered a false or fraudulent account. The county board of taxation may impose such terms and conditions for furnishing the requested information where it appears that the owner, for good cause shown, could not furnish the information within the required period of time.

In making such written request for information pursuant to this section the assessor shall enclose therewith a copy of this section.

(cf: P.L.1979, c.91, s.1)

    2. This act shall take effect immediately.

STATEMENT

    This bill would require every owner of income producing apartment property to provide an accounting of the net income from the property to the tax assessor upon the assessor's written request. The bill specifies that in establishing "net income" under the bill, the property owner would subtract out all expenses attributable to the property other than maintenance code violations.

Excludes maintenance code violation fines from expenses in calculating income from certain property to be reported to tax assessor.