top of page
Homepage
Schedule a Consultation

PAS-1 Application: What New Jersey Seniors Must File by November 2, 2026

Writer: Tetiana Voita
Tetiana Voita
Oct 16
10 min read
New Jersey senior couple reviewing the PAS-1 application, property tax bill and SSA-1099 before the November 2, 2026 deadline


If you are a New Jersey homeowner who was 65 or older in 2025, or you receive Social Security disability or Railroad Retirement disability benefits, the state will not file your property tax relief for you this year. You have to submit the PAS-1 application yourself, and the deadline is November 2, 2026. One form covers all three programs: ANCHOR, Senior Freeze, and Stay NJ. Miss it, and you can leave anywhere from $1,500 to well over $6,500 on the table for the 2025 tax year.

This guide walks through who must file, who is already covered automatically, how the state actually calculates your income on the form, what each program pays, and the mistakes we see most often when families file at the last minute.


Who Has to File the PAS-1 Application (and Who Doesn’t)

New Jersey now splits property tax relief applicants into two groups, and the difference matters more than anything else in this article.

You must file PAS-1 yourself if, in 2025, you or your spouse:

  • were age 65 or older, and you own and live in your New Jersey home; or

  • received federal Social Security disability or Railroad Retirement disability benefits (not benefits received on behalf of someone else).

The Division of Taxation states this plainly on the Property Tax Relief Programs page: seniors and disability recipients must complete the combined Form PAS-1 to receive even the ANCHOR portion, and the state will not file on their behalf. That is true even if you only qualify for one of the three programs.

You generally do not need PAS-1 if you are:

  • a homeowner under 65 who does not receive those disability benefits; or

  • a renter of any age.

For these groups, the Division filed ANCHOR applications automatically and mailed an ANCHOR Benefit Confirmation Letter on August 10, 2026. Changes to banking information or property details were due by September 15, 2026. If you never received a confirmation letter and believe you qualify, you can still file an Application for Property Tax Relief on your own by November 2.

A common point of confusion: a homeowner who turned 65 during 2025 and received ANCHOR automatically in prior years is now in the first group. The automatic filing stops once you age into the senior programs, and the only way to get your ANCHOR, Senior Freeze, and Stay NJ money is to file PAS-1.

What the Three Programs Pay for the 2025 Tax Year

Here is what the state has published for the 2025 application, based on the Fiscal Year 2027 budget signed June 30, 2026.

ANCHOR (homeowners and renters). Per the Division’s benefit calculation page, homeowners with 2025 gross income (NJ-1040 line 29) of $150,000 or less receive $1,500; income from $150,001 to $250,000 receives $1,000. Renters with income up to $150,000 receive $450, or $700 if 65 or older. Seniors who did not claim the $50 Property Tax Credit on their NJ-1040 get it added to the ANCHOR payment. You must have owned and occupied (or rented) the home as your principal residence on October 1, 2025.

Senior Freeze (Property Tax Reimbursement). This program does not freeze your bill. It reimburses the difference between the property taxes you pay now and the taxes you paid in your “base year,” the first year you qualified. Under the eligibility rules, you must have been 65 or older on December 31, 2025 (or receiving the disability benefits above), have owned and lived in the home since December 31, 2022 or earlier, and have total income of $168,268 or less for 2024 and $172,475 or less for 2025. There is no dollar cap; a longtime homeowner whose taxes have climbed for years can receive a substantial reimbursement.

Stay NJ. This is the newest and, for many seniors, the largest benefit. It targets 50% of your property taxes, up to a cap that now depends on income. According to the Stay NJ page, the 2027 maximum benefit (for the 2025 tax year application) is $6,500 for income up to $100,000, $5,000 for income between $100,000.01 and $150,000, and $4,000 for income between $150,000.01 and $200,000. Above $200,000, the benefit is zero. You must have been 65 or older during 2025 and have owned and lived in the home for the full 12 months of 2025. Renters and mobile home owners are not eligible.

Two things people miss about Stay NJ. First, it is calculated after ANCHOR and Senior Freeze: the state adds up those two benefits, and Stay NJ fills the gap only up to 50% of your property taxes and the applicable cap. Second, the total of all property tax relief benefits (including the senior and veteran property tax deductions) cannot exceed the property taxes you actually paid for the year.

How Income Is Calculated on the PAS-1 Form

This is where most do-it-yourself applications go wrong, and where an error can cost you an entire benefit or trigger a repayment demand later.

The form asks for both 2024 and 2025 income (lines 17a–17f and 18a–18f), and the state’s definition of income is broader than what appears on your NJ-1040. Following the official instructions, you combine:

  1. Line 27 of Form NJ-1040 (total income).

  2. Line 16b of Form NJ-1040 (the excludable pension and retirement amount that was not taxed).

  3. Qualified Roth IRA distributions and Roth-to-Roth rollovers, using federal Roth rules to determine earnings. Your previously taxed contributions are not included.

  4. Total and permanent disability pension received before full retirement age.

  5. Social Security benefits from Box 5 of Form SSA-1099, including Medicare Part B premiums deducted from your check.

The FAQ on nj.gov is explicit: you must include all income received, even income that is not taxable in New Jersey, and if the Division later adjusts your income above the limits, you will have to pay the benefits back. Married couples report combined income. A surviving spouse who filed a joint return applies as the sole applicant and reports only their own income.

If you are not required to file an NJ-1040 at all, you still can and should file PAS-1; the instructions include worksheets to compute income from your SSA-1099 and other documents. No proof of income is required with the application, but the state may write to you if it has questions.

If you converted a traditional IRA to a Roth in 2024 or 2025, pay attention to item 3 above. The way that conversion shows up on your 1099-R and NJ-1040 affects this calculation; our guide to 1099-R Box 7 codes and the New Jersey Roth treatment explains why New Jersey handles these differently than the IRS.

Not sure whether a particular item belongs on the form? Send a short description through the TaxesZenPro contact form and we will tell you whether PAS-1 applies to you and what documents to gather.


Filing Online vs. on Paper: ID.me and Payment Timing

Online. The online application at propertytaxreliefapp.nj.gov requires identity verification through ID.me. Have a driver’s license, state ID, passport card, or passport ready; in some cases ID.me asks for two primary documents or one primary and two secondary documents. If you already verified with ID.me for the IRS, you can link that verification instead of starting over. The Division’s staff cannot access or fix your ID.me account, so if the process stalls, ID.me support is the only route. Online filers get the option of direct deposit for some payments.

Paper. If you cannot or prefer not to use ID.me, you can mail the paper PAS-1. The trade-off: paper filers receive every benefit by paper check mailed to the address on the application, with no direct deposit option.

When the money arrives. Per the Division’s timeline, Senior Freeze payments began July 15, 2026 and continue on a schedule depending on when you file. ANCHOR payments start September 15 and roll out on an ongoing basis, usually within 90 days of filing. Stay NJ for the 2025 tax year is paid in quarterly installments scheduled for February and May of 2027. The remaining 2024-year Stay NJ benefit is being paid in August and November 2026, but note that the FY2027 budget split the third-quarter amount in two, so the total received during calendar 2026 is lower than originally planned. Check your status at propertytaxreliefstatus.nj.gov.


A Typical Scenario: One Form, Three Benefits

Consider a married couple in Monmouth County, both 68, who have owned their home since 2008 and paid $13,200 in 2025 property taxes. Their combined PAS-1 income (NJ-1040 line 27 plus excluded pension plus Social Security from Box 5) is $96,000 for both 2024 and 2025. Their Senior Freeze base-year taxes were $9,400.

  • ANCHOR: income under $150,000, so $1,500.

  • Senior Freeze: $13,200 minus $9,400 = $3,800 reimbursement.

  • Stay NJ: 50% of $13,200 is $6,600, capped at $6,500 for their income tier. ANCHOR and Senior Freeze already total $5,300, so Stay NJ pays the gap of $1,200.

Total relief: $6,500 for the year, every dollar of which depends on one PAS-1 filed by November 2. If this couple’s income had been $101,000 instead of $96,000, their Stay NJ cap would drop to $5,000; in this example the gap-fill result would be the same, but for a household with lower ANCHOR and Senior Freeze amounts the income tier can change the outcome by thousands. That is why income lines on the form deserve a careful second look before you submit.

The numbers above are illustrative; your result depends on your base year, exact income, and the state budget.


Common Mistakes That Cost Seniors Their Benefits

  • Assuming the automatic ANCHOR letter covers you. Once you or your spouse hit 65, the automatic filing ends. Seniors must file PAS-1 to get anything.

  • Reporting only taxable income. Leaving out Social Security, Medicare Part B premiums, or the excluded pension amount on line 16b understates income and can lead to a repayment demand with interest.

  • Forgetting the 2024 income column. Senior Freeze requires you to meet the income limit in both 2024 and 2025. If you exceed the limit in one year, you lose that year’s reimbursement, though a one-time exemption lets you keep your base year if you requalify the following year.

  • Applying for a PILOT property under the wrong program. Payments in lieu of taxes disqualify you from Senior Freeze and from the homeowner ANCHOR benefit, but homeowners in a PILOT arrangement can still receive Stay NJ. The programs treat the same situation differently.

  • Skipping the trust paperwork. If your home is held in a trust, you remain eligible as a beneficiary or life-estate holder, but you must submit a copy of the trust agreement. Applications without it get held up.

  • Not filing for a deceased spouse or parent. An application can be filed on behalf of someone who passed away, as long as they occupied the home and met the requirements for 2025. Surviving spouses should include a copy of the death certificate.

  • Responding to a text or email “from the state.” The Division warns that it does not send unsolicited links. Property tax relief scams spike in October. Only use nj.gov or the hotline at 1-888-238-1233.

Here is how we put it to clients at TaxesZenPro: treat the PAS-1 income section like a mini tax return. Pull the actual NJ-1040 and SSA-1099 for both years, write each figure next to the form line it feeds, and only then sign. Guessing from memory is how a $5,000 benefit turns into a $0 benefit plus a repayment letter.


Frequently Asked Questions


Do I have to file PAS-1 if I received ANCHOR automatically last year?If you or your spouse were 65 or older in 2025, or you receive Social Security or Railroad Retirement disability benefits, yes. The automatic filing only applies to homeowners under 65 without those benefits and to renters. For seniors, PAS-1 is the only way to receive ANCHOR, Senior Freeze, and Stay NJ for the 2025 tax year.


What if I miss the November 2, 2026 deadline?The Division lists November 2, 2026 as the deadline for the 2025 application and has not published a late-filing procedure for PAS-1. If you cannot finish online, mail the paper form before the deadline rather than skipping the year. For Senior Freeze specifically, missing a year can affect your base year; contact the Division to discuss your options.


Does Social Security count as income on the PAS-1 form?Yes. You report the total benefits from Box 5 of your SSA-1099, including Medicare Part B premiums, even though New Jersey does not tax Social Security. VA disability and military disability pension amounts are not included.


My spouse is under 65 and the deed is only in their name. Can we apply?Yes. A married couple filing jointly is treated as one applicant. If one spouse meets the age or disability requirement and the other is the only name on the deed, you can file, reporting combined income.


Will my Stay NJ check be $6,500?Only if your income is $100,000 or less, your property taxes are at least $13,000, and your ANCHOR and Senior Freeze benefits leave enough of a gap to reach the cap. The benefit is 50% of property taxes, reduced by the other two programs, and capped at $6,500, $5,000, or $4,000 depending on your income tier. Above $200,000 the benefit is zero.


Are property tax relief payments taxable?New Jersey does not treat them as taxable income for state purposes. Federal treatment can depend on whether you itemized and deducted the related property taxes; that is a question to raise when you prepare your 2026 federal return, not a reason to skip the application.


Before November 2: Your Short Checklist

  1. Confirm which group you are in: senior/disability (file PAS-1) or under-65 homeowner/renter (check for the August letter).

  2. Gather your 2024 and 2025 NJ-1040s, both years’ SSA-1099s, your 2024 and 2025 property tax bills, and any 1099-R for Roth distributions.

  3. Compute income for both years using all five components, not just taxable income.

  4. Decide online (ID.me, direct deposit option) or paper (checks only).

  5. If the home is in a trust or a spouse passed away, attach the trust agreement or death certificate.

  6. Submit, save the confirmation, and check your status in a few weeks.


Property tax relief is the one place where New Jersey’s tax system gives money back to seniors, and the state has made the process more generous and more complicated at the same time. If you would rather not work through the income worksheets alone, ask TaxesZenPro to review your PAS-1 numbers and file the application before the November 2 deadline. Our New Jersey tax preparation service already has the NJ-1040 data most clients need, which makes the PAS-1 income calculation a short job rather than a weekend project.

For a broader overview of how the three programs fit together, see our earlier guide to NJ property tax relief for homeowners and seniors, and if you are 65 or older, make sure you are also claiming the new federal $6,000 senior deduction on your federal return.


This article is for general information only and is not individual tax or legal advice. Eligibility, income limits, and benefit amounts for all New Jersey property tax relief programs are subject to appropriation in the state budget and may change; the 2027 Stay NJ figures assume no changes in the Fiscal Year 2028 budget. Your situation may differ, so verify details against nj.gov or with a tax professional before filing.


Official Sources

Comments

bottom of page