Senior Freeze applications are coming. Here’s how to get your N.J. property tax relief.

New Jersey residents waiting for their chance to apply for the 2023 Senior Freeze won’t have to wait much longer.

Senior Freeze applications are scheduled to start mailing the week of Feb. 12, the state Treasury Department said.

If you don’t want to wait for the application to arrive, you can file online on the Treasury’s website.

“We will begin issuing 2023 payments to qualified applicants in July,” the agency said.

The property tax benefit, which reimburses eligible senior citizens and disabled persons for property tax increases, will see some changes for this benefit year.

The income limit to qualify is going up, so more people will be eligible for the 2023 tax break. To qualify, 2022 income must be $150,000 or less and 2023 income must be $163,050 or less, it said.

There is no longer a requirement that you be a New Jersey resident for 10 years in a row to qualify, further upping the pool of eligible residents.

To be eligible, you — or your spouse or civil union partner — must have been 65 or older on or before Dec. 31, 2022, or receiving federal Social Security disability benefit payments (not benefits received on behalf of someone else) on or before Dec. 31, 2022, the Treasury Department said.

Homeowners must have owned and lived in their home since Dec. 31, 2019, or earlier, and still owned and lived in the home on Dec. 31, 2023, it said. Also for homeowners, 2022 property taxes must have been paid by June 1, 2023, and the 2023 property taxes must be paid by June 1, 2024, the agency said.

Mobile home owners must have leased a site in a mobile home park where they placed a manufactured or mobile home that they owned since Dec. 31, 2019, or earlier, and they must have lived in the home and leased the site on Dec, 31, 2023, it said. Site fees must have been paid by Dec. 31 of 2022 and 2023.

“If you moved from one New Jersey property to another and received a reimbursement for your previous residence for the last full year you lived there, you may qualify for an exception to re-applying to the Senior Freeze Program,” it said. You can get more information on the Senior Freeze website.

Vacation homes, second homes and rental properties are not eligible for the benefit. Neither are homes that have more than four units or have more than one commercial unit.

Those who are completely exempt from paying property taxes or who make P.I.L.O.T. (payments-in-lieu-of-tax) payments to are not eligible.

Give it a few weeks to receive your application.

“Though we try to mail applications to those who may be eligible for the program, it may be necessary to contact the Senior Freeze Information Line at (800) 882-6597 to request an application or print a copy of Form PTR-1 from our website,” the state said.

The application deadline is Oct. 31, 2024.

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Karin Price Mueller may be reached at KPriceMueller@NJAdvanceMedia.com. Follow her on X at @KPMueller.