BDB Enterprises, LLC v. Brick Township

16 N.J. Tax 22
CourtNew Jersey Tax Court
DecidedSeptember 18, 1996
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 16 N.J. Tax 22 (BDB Enterprises, LLC v. Brick Township) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering New Jersey Tax Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
BDB Enterprises, LLC v. Brick Township, 16 N.J. Tax 22 (N.J. Super. Ct. 1996).

Opinion

RIMM, J.T.C.

This is a local property tax matter involving the payment of taxes to perfect an appeal from an added assessment. The appeal was brought under N.J.S.A. 54:4-63.11, dealing with appeals to the Tax Court from judgments of county boards of taxation on added assessments.

The matter was before me on the motion of the municipality to dismiss the complaint under N.J.S.A. 54:51A-1(b) on the ground that plaintiff had not paid the taxes due as a result of the added assessment and county board judgment at the time that it filed its complaint with the Tax Court. N.J.S.A. 54:51A-1(b) provides that taxes must be paid at the time of the filing of the complaint with the Tax Court appealing a judgment of a county board of taxation.

On the return day of the motion, I ruled that there is no requirement in the law that taxes be paid as a prerequisite to an appeal to the Tax Court of a judgment of a county board of taxation dealing with an added assessment. This opinion now amplifies and expands the decision rendered at the time of the hearing.

I.

Plaintiff owns commercial property at 799 Route 70, designated as Block 673, Lot 18 on the municipal tax map of Brick Township. For the 1995 tax year, the original assessment for the subject property was as follows:

Land $1,161,000
Improvements 150,700
Total $1,311,700.

[24]*24The taxes owed based on the regular assessment for 1995 were not paid until June 1996.

As of July 1, 1995, defendant’s assessor imposed an added assessment in the amount of $516,150 on the property. The added assessment was based on a twelve-month value of $1,032,300, prorated for six months in accordance with N.J.S.A. 54:4-63.3.

Plaintiff filed a petition of appeal with the Ocean County Board of Taxation challenging the assessment. The county board of taxation affirmed the added assessment by a judgment dated December 12, 1995. Thereafter, plaintiff filed a timely complaint with the Tax Court contesting the judgment of the county board of taxation. The municipality then filed the motion to dismiss plaintiffs complaint for nonpayment of taxes. In response to defendant’s motion, plaintiff contended that Inwood Owners v. Little Falls Tp., 216 N.J.Super. 485, 524 A.2d 441 (App.Div.), certif. denied, 108 N.J. 184, 528 A.2d 13 (1987), was dispositive of the issue and precluded dismissal of the complaint. In Inwood Owners, the Appellate Division ruled that taxes were not payable as a prerequisite to filing an appeal from the county board judgment affirming an omitted assessment. Inwood Owners, supra, 216 N.J.Super. at 492, 524 A.2d 441. In addition, the Appellate Division’s decision contained language that taxes were not payable as a prerequisite to filing an appeal from a county board judgment affirming an added assessment. Ibid.

Defendant replied to plaintiffs response seeking to distinguish Inwood Owners from the present case. Defendant argued as follows:

1. Since Inwood Owners actually involved only an omitted assessment, any language in the Appellate Division’s opinion relating to an added assessment was “merely dicta ” and not controlling.

2. Omitted assessments result from the assessor’s determining that he failed to make an assessment on property in the municipality. An added assessment results from the taxpayer’s completing [25]*25construction during the tax year. Thus, an added assessment results from something the taxpayer did while an omitted assessment results from an omission on the part of the assessor.

3. The municipality is required to pay a portion of the taxes from any added assessment it imposes to the county under N.J.S.A. 54:4-63.10. Accordingly, a taxpayer seeking to challenge an added assessment should be required to pay the taxes due as a result of the assessment as a prerequisite to any appeal.

4. The present case is further distinguishable from Inwood Owners because here, unlike the situation in Inwood Owners, the taxpayer had not paid the taxes owed on the regular assessment on its property at the time that it filed its complaint with the Tax Court challenging the added assessment.

II.

In Inwood Ovmers, the tax assessor attempted to increase the real property tax assessment on the taxpayer’s apartment complex by imposing omitted assessments for 1984 and 1985. Inwood Owners, supra, 216 N.J.Super. at 486-87, 524 A.2d 441. The taxpayer challenged the assessments in the county board of taxation and appealed the county board’s affirmance of the omitted assessments to the Tax Court. Id. at 487, 524 A.2d 441. In the Tax Court, the municipality moved to dismiss the complaint because the taxpayer had not paid the taxes due on the omitted assessments. Ibid. The Tax Court held that N.J.S.A. 54:51A-1(b) was not applicable to an appeal from an omitted assessment. Id. at 487-88, 524 A.2d 441. The Appellate Division affirmed the Tax Court’s ruling. Id. at 490-92, 524 A.2d 441. I now hold that N.J.S.A. 54:51A-1(b) is not applicable to an appeal from an added assessment. The applicable statutory provision, N.J.S.A 54:4-63.11, contains no payment of taxes requirement, and there is no jurisdictional requirement that taxes be paid to perfect an appeal from a county board judgment involving an added assessment.

While it is true that Inwood Owners concerned an omitted assessment and any language regarding added assessments in the [26]*26opinion is not controlling, the reasoning advanced by the Appellate Division in support of its conclusion applies with equal force to the issue in this case. In Inwood Owners, the Appellate Division explained that “the requirement for a prepayment of taxes on the original assessment has been based on the municipality’s need to receive timely payments of tax collections and the fact that financial hardship would result if those tax revenues were held in abeyance pending appeals.” Inwood Owners, supra at 490, 524 A.2d 441 (citing Schneider v. East Orange, 196 N.J.Super. 587, 593, 483 A.2d 839 (App.Div.1984), aff'd o.b., 103 N.J. 115, 510 A.2d 1118, cert. denied 479 U.S. 824, 107 S.Ct. 97, 93 L.Ed.2d 48 (1986)).

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Bluebook (online)
16 N.J. Tax 22, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/bdb-enterprises-llc-v-brick-township-njtaxct-1996.