ANCHOR Tax Rebate: Eligibility, Amounts, and Filing Deadline

The New Jersey ANCHOR tax rebate (Affordable New Jersey Communities for Homeowners and Renters) sends direct property tax relief payments of up to $1,750 to eligible homeowners and up to $700 to eligible renters for the 2025 tax year. Many residents under 65 will be filed automatically by the state. Seniors, disability benefit recipients, and anyone not auto-filed must submit their own application by November 2, 2026.¹

Who Qualifies for the 2025 Benefit

You must have been a New Jersey resident who owned or rented your primary home on October 1, 2025. Homeowners need to have paid property taxes on that home. Renters qualify if their name was on a lease for a unit that was their primary residence and the building was subject to property taxes.¹

Buildings that make payments in lieu of taxes (PILOT payments) instead of paying property taxes don’t count, and neither does fully tax-exempt housing. Renters in those buildings are not eligible.

Income caps depend on housing status. Homeowners qualify with New Jersey gross income of $250,000 or less. Renters qualify with $150,000 or less. The state uses Line 29 of your 2025 NJ-1040. If you weren’t required to file a state return, use what your Line 29 figure would have been.²

How Much You Can Receive

Your payment depends on whether you own or rent, your income tier, and your age. Residents who were 65 or older by December 31, 2025, or who receive Social Security or Railroad Retirement disability benefits at any age, get an extra $250.²

Homeowners

Income of $150,000 or less, under 65: $1,500
Income of $150,000 or less, 65 or older: $1,750
Income of $150,001 to $250,000, under 65: $1,000
Income of $150,001 to $250,000, 65 or older: $1,250

Renters

Income of $150,000 or less, under 65: $450
Income of $150,000 or less, 65 or older: $700

These amounts are set by the state legislature and can change from year to year based on budget allocations.

Do You Even Need to File?

Most eligible residents under 65 who do not collect Social Security or Railroad Retirement disability benefits will have their Form ANC-1 filed automatically by the Division of Taxation. Those residents should receive an ANCHOR Benefit Confirmation Letter in the mail around August 2026.¹

Watch for that letter. If it doesn’t arrive, you weren’t auto-filed and need to submit an application yourself.

Seniors 65 and older and residents receiving Social Security or Railroad Retirement disability benefits are never auto-filed. They must complete the combined Application for Property Tax Relief, Form PAS-1, online or on paper.¹

How to File If You Need To

You can file online through the Division of Taxation’s portal or mail a paper form. Online is faster and gives you an immediate confirmation number. Under-65 residents who weren’t auto-filed use Form ANC-1; seniors and disability recipients use Form PAS-1.

Before starting, gather:

Social Security Number or ITIN for yourself and any spouse or co-owner
Your New Jersey gross income from Line 29 of your NJ-1040
Your county/municipality code, block number, lot number, and qualifier from your property tax bill
The amount of property tax paid, from that same bill
Bank routing and account numbers if you want direct deposit
Full rental address including unit number, if you rent

You no longer need an ID and PIN to file. If a filing packet arrived with those numbers, ignore them; your Social Security Number and property details do the matching.³

Payment arrives as either a paper check or a direct deposit, depending on what you choose on the application.

The November 2, 2026 Deadline

The filing deadline for the 2025 ANCHOR benefit is November 2, 2026.¹ Miss it and your application will be rejected. You can appeal a rejection, but you’ll need to show a legitimate reason for the delay, such as a medical emergency. Forgetting is not enough.

Co-Owners and Married Couples

Each owner of a home files a separate ANCHOR application, and how the benefit is divided depends on the relationship.⁴

Married couples and civil union partners can file one application together for a single payment, or file separately and each receive half. When filing separately, both spouses still report the combined gross income, because the state uses that combined figure to determine the benefit tier.

Non-spouse co-owners must file paper applications, each showing their proportionate share of ownership; the benefit is split accordingly. Divorced homeowners who both lived in the home on October 1, 2025 file separately with a 50/50 split, unless the deed or divorce decree specifies otherwise.⁴

Is the Payment Taxable Federally?

The New Jersey Division of Taxation classifies ANCHOR payments as “recoveries” and points residents to the federal Form 1040 instructions and IRS Publication 525 to determine federal tax treatment.⁵

Whether you owe federal tax depends on whether you itemized deductions and claimed state property taxes on a prior federal return. If you took the standard deduction, the payment generally won’t create a federal tax liability. If you itemized and got a tax benefit from your property tax deduction, some or all of the ANCHOR payment may be taxable. Governments that issue these payments report them to the IRS on Form 1099-G.⁶

Checking on Your Payment

The Division of Taxation runs an online status tool for ANCHOR. Auto-filed residents should watch for the confirmation letter around August 2026. If you filed on your own, the status tool will show whether your application has been received, is being processed, or has been approved for payment.¹

1
New Jersey Division of Taxation. Affordable New Jersey Communities for Homeowners and Renters
2
New Jersey Division of Taxation. ANCHOR Program – How ANCHOR Benefits Are Calculated
3
NJ Division of Taxation. ANCHOR Filing Information
4
New Jersey Division of Taxation. ANCHOR Program Homeowners Frequently Asked Questions
5
New Jersey Division of Taxation. Treatment of New Jersey Property Tax Relief Payments
6
Internal Revenue Service. About Form 1099-G, Certain Government Payments