Bill > A1431

Introduced Session

This bill establishes a State pilot program known as the NJ Gross Income Tax EasyFile Program to allow the Division of Taxation in the Department of the Treasury to prepare gross income tax return forms for certain taxpayers. The pilot program will implement a New Jersey gross income tax final return filing system that provides a simplified personal income tax return form that eligible taxpayers may elect to file, that is pre-filled by the division with information the division has available from the taxpayer's employer. The "pre-filled" tax returns will contain all the gross income tax data contained in a taxpayer's W-2 form. Taxpayers who qualify to receive the forms are "wage or salary only" earners, meaning that most of the information they supply on their New Jersey income tax returns comes solely from their employer W-2 forms. They must be "wage only" earners in the previous taxable year. However, for the applicable taxable year, the director may determine other conditions that may be applied to the simplified filing system. To receive the forms, taxpayers must also meet the following criteria for the applicable and previous tax year: are employed in New Jersey, are not self-employed, be a full-time resident all year, earn less than $75,000, have no dependents and use a single or "married, filing separate" filing status on their New Jersey gross income tax returns. The bill lists requirements for information provided on the forms, including notice of voluntary use of the forms by taxpayers and instructions for corrections to the form. The bill also allows taxpayers to submit the pre-filled returns via mail, telephone, or a secure internet website. The NJ Gross Income Tax EasyFile Program will not require the use of any third-party proprietary online filing software. The Director of the Division of Taxation will mail the forms to qualified taxpayers after the division receives New Jersey employee taxpayer withholding information (W-2). The bill aids taxpayers and the State by making filing a State return more convenient for certain taxpayers, and enables them to avoid the cost of private tax preparers, commercial software and the burden of completing complicated forms. Due to the ease of filing, taxpayers will likely return the completed forms back to the State well before the filing deadline and will help ensure the correct tax is paid by taxpayers. If the State receives these correctly completed returns earlier, it may have an earlier indication of final payments of gross income taxes and may better be able to forecast annual income tax revenue collections for budgeting purposes. California has successfully implemented a pilot program of pre-completed tax returns. In addition, other countries, such as Great Britain and Germany, have used similar forms for years. This bill may begin the process of making New Jersey's personal income tax collection process more streamlined and possibly more predictable.

Committee Categories

Robert Karabinchak (D)*,  Verlina Reynolds-Jackson (D),  Chris Tully (D), 

Reported and Referred to Assembly Appropriations Committee (on 06/03/2024)

Official Document