New Jersey Tax Court

New Jersey’s Tax Court is another limited jurisdiction court for the state that specializes in cases pertaining to tax matters. They hear appeals coming from the County Boards of Taxation, and they hear appeals of verdicts made by the Director of the Division of Taxation.

The types of issues they resolve are tax assessments, sales tax issues, business taxes, state income tax matters, and homestead rebates. Appeals from this court go to the Appellate Division of the Superior Court. Tax Court also hears administrative agency appeals.

Just like Superior Court judges, Tax Court judges are also selected by the Governor of the state and then approved by the Senate. There are 12 Tax Courts judges, and they initially serve a seven-year term and then may be reappointed and apply for tenure to serve until the mandatory retirement age of 70.

New Jersey Tax Courts hear about 15,000 cases per year. Their mission is to:

- “To provide expeditious, convenient, equitable and effective judicial review of state and local tax assessments.

- To create a consistent, uniform body of tax law for the guidance of taxpayers and tax administrators, in order to promote predictability in tax law and its application.

- To make decisions of the court readily available to taxpayers, tax administrators, and tax professionals.

- To promote the development of a qualified and informed state and local tax bar.”

The Tax Court section of the New Jersey Courts website has a lot of information for patrons of the court. They offer notices of changes to Tax Court, information on how to obtain a transcript for a case, forms for filing, details on how to appeal a Tax Court decision, a lot of links for eCourt options and resources along with recent reports and judgments that came out of Tax Court. New Jersey allows a court search for Tax Court cases and opinions.