Payment of taxes pending appeal

54:3-27. A taxpayer who shall file an appeal from an assessment against him shall pay to the collector of the taxing district no less than the total of all taxes and municipal charges due, up to and including the first quarter of the taxes and municipal charges assessed against him for the current tax year in the manner prescribed in R.S.54:4-66.

A taxpayer who shall file an appeal from an added or omitted assessment shall, in order to maintain an action contesting the added or omitted assessment, pay to the collector of the taxing district all unpaid prior years' taxes and all of the taxes for the current year as said taxes become due and payable, exclusive of the taxes imposed under the added or omitted assessment.

If an appeal involves Class 3B (Farm Qualified) or Classes 15A, B, C, D, E and F (Exempt Property as defined in R.S.54:4-52) and the subject of the appeal is statutory qualification, the taxpayer shall not be required to meet the payment requirements specified herein.

The collector shall accept such amount, when tendered, give a receipt therefor and credit the taxpayer therewith, and the taxpayer shall have the benefit of the same rate of discount on the amount paid as he would have on the whole amount.

Notwithstanding the foregoing, the county board of taxation may relax the tax payment requirement and fix such terms for payment of the tax as the interests of justice may require. If the county board of taxation refuses to relax the tax payment requirement and that decision is appealed, the Tax Court may hear all issues without remand to the county board of taxation as the interests of justice may require.

The payment of part or all of the taxes upon any property, due for the year for which an appeal from an assessment upon such property has been or shall hereafter be taken, or of taxes for subsequent years, shall in nowise prejudice the status of the appeal or the rights of the appellant to prosecute such appeal, before the county board of taxation, the Tax Court, or in any court to which the judgment arising out of such appeal shall be taken, except as may be provided for in R.S.54:51A-1.

Amended 1938, c.151; 1975, c.361, s.1; 1977, c.357, s.1; 1991, c.75, s.30; 1999, c.208, s.5.