Bill > A4067

Introduced Session

This bill establishes the New Jersey First-Time Home Buyer Savings Account Program to encourage first-time home owners to accumulate savings necessary for first-time home ownership within this State. The bill provides for the program to be placed under the direction and control of the New Jersey Housing and Mortgage Finance Agency, and to be administered by the executive director of the agency and any clerical, technical, and other professional staff as may be designated by the executive director from among the personnel appointed and employed by the agency. To effectuate the purposes of the program, the bill directs the agency to: make and enter into agreements with financial institutions capable of establishing and maintaining first-time home buyer savings accounts; certify first-time home buyers eligible to participate in the program; and administer and enforce program reporting and compliance requirements. The bill provides an exclusion from New Jersey gross income for earnings on assets maintained in a first-time home buyer savings account. Under the bill, gross income shall not include earnings on a first-time home buyer savings account until the earnings are distributed from the account, at which time the earnings shall be included in the gross income of the distributee unless the withdrawal or distribution is a qualified distribution from the account to: pay eligible expenses incurred by a certified first-time home buyer for a qualified home purchase; make transfers of assets to another first-time home buyer savings account or to another similar account maintained through a comparable program in another state or jurisdiction; or pay fees charged to the certified first-time home buyer by the financial institution for the establishment or maintenance of the first-time home buyer savings account. The bill takes effect immediately, but provides for sections of the bill that establish and implement the program to remain inoperative until the first day of the seventh month next following the date of enactment and for the section establishing the gross income tax exclusion to apply to taxable years beginning on or after the date the sections establishing and implementing the program are operative.

AI Summary

Committee Categories

Daniel Benson (D)*,  JoAnn Downey (D)*,  Jamel Holley (D)*,  Pam Lampitt (D)*,  Troy Singleton (D)*,  Benjie Wimberly (D)*,  John DiMaio (R),  Timothy Eustace (D), 

Assembly Floor Amendment Passed (Vainieri Huttle) (on 06/22/2017)