WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. Representatives Leonard Lance (NJ-07) isn’t giving up on finding a way for New Jerseyans to deduct those property tax prepayments that they scrambled to make late last year.
Lance and his Democrat colleague, Josh Gottheimer (NJ-05), met with Acting IRS Commissioner David J. Kautter on Thursday to press their case for a review of current IRS policy on the matter.
The pair is asking for reconsideration; the IRS already ruled that the deductibility of 2018 property taxes paid in 2017 is limited to those taxes actually assessed in 2017. Then-Governor Chris Christie and many local officials urged individuals to make the payments before actually ascertaining whether the IRS would accept them, putting thousands of state property taxpayers in a bind.
“Our meeting was productive. Over $300 million dollars in property tax prepayments were made by my constituents in late 2017 and I will continue to make the case that all 2018 property tax prepayments be fully deductible on 2017 tax returns,” said Lance. ‘These payments were made in good faith and some payments were made before the IRS issued its unfair ruling. I also raised the important issue of comity between federal and state governments. The day the IRS issued its ruling, Governor Christie issued an executive order directing municipalities to accept property tax prepayments for all of 2018. I gave the Commissioner a copy of Governor Christie’s executive order to review.”
Congressman Lance has also urged Governor Phil Murphy to act on the state level to ease property tax pains, specifically by relaxing New Jersey’s own $10,000 property tax deductibility cap which mirrors the new federal ceiling.
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