Appeals to Trenton Tax Court

Updated Information as of 3/23/2007

Appeals to the State Tax Board in Trenton must be filed within 45 days of the results of your hearing with the County.  You can contact the New Jersey Tax Court Management Office in Trenton at 609-292-5082 or 609-292-6989 to get details about how to file your appeal in Trenton.  Explain to them that you are in Cape May County and want to file and appeal about the results of your hearing with the County.  You can also write to them at:

Tax Court Management Office

PO Box 972, 25 Market St, Trenton, NJ, 08265-0972

For those of you who can go online, follow these instructions to get what you need to appeal to Trenton.  If you have any questions at all, call the Trenton Tax Office above.  They are very helpful.

1.     Go to http://www.njcourtsonline.com

2.     Click on Tax Court on the left column

3.     Go to Forms and Interrogatories on the bottom right side

4.     Click on DCM Local Property Forms

5.     Click on DCM Complaint Packet and print this out. This will give you the forms you need to file your appeal in Trenton.

6.     Go back to the previous page

7.     Under Handbooks and Rules, click on DCM Small Claims Handbook.  Print this.  This booklet will give you all the details about what you need to file your Trenton appeal.

8.     Click on Interrogatories on the right.  Then click on Standard Interrogatories to be served on Municipalities.  Print this out.  You must write to Judge Joseph C Small in Trenton and ask him to allow you to serve these Interrogatories to Kaufmann, the North Wildwood City Solicitor.  You can also add 10 additional Subinterrogatories.  You must also write to the Judge and ask him to allow you to serve Kaufmann with any Subinterrogatories.

9.     Once you have filed your appeal with Trenton, you should receive a letter from the Trenton Tax Management Office with a docket number and date for your appeal hearing.

10.  You should also receive a letter from City Solicitor Kaufmann asking you to fill out Standard Interrogatories Served on Taxpayers.  Fill that out and send it back to him as soon as possible.  You may also receive a Counter Claim from Kaufmann asking the Trenton Tax Court for dismissal of your appeal.  Write to Judge Joseph C Small in Trenton asking him to dismiss the City’s Counter Claim.  His address is the same as the Trenton Tax Management’s Office.

11.   Also write to Judge Small and ask him to permit you to send the Standard Interrogatories Served on Municipalities to Solicitor Kaufmann (see Item 8 above).  If the City can ask us questions, we should be able to ask the City questions.  Also, the City is obligated to give you any comparable sales they’ll be using at the Trenton hearing at least 20 days before your appeal hearing date.  Make sure you write to Kaufmann in North Wildwood and ask him for those comparable sales.  You must also give him the comparable sales or any appraisal you’ll be using at least 20 days before the appeal hearing in Trenton.  All of this is documented in the Small Claims Handbook referenced in Item 7 above.  Important!!!  You should use comparable sales just before October 1, 2006. You can also use completely different comparable sales for Trenton than you used for the County.

Again, if you have any questions about how to handle the Trenton appeal, especially the deadline when you need to give Kaufmann your comparable sales and/or appraisal,  please call 609-292-5082 or 609-292-6989.