USA Can I prepay property tax - NJ resident

[bklynboy]

With the new tax rules now agreed to, I would like to prepay 2018 property taxes in 2017 to get credit on my itemized return. I live in NJ so it makes sense to do so since I will be limited to 10K next year for the SALT deduction. My question is does anyone know if NJ permits prepaying property taxes and is there a limit to how much I can prepay (I would like to pay the full year 2018 if possible). Still working through the AMT to make sure I get credit for it.

 

[Lucretia]

With the new tax rules now agreed to, I would like to prepay 2018 property taxes in 2017 to get credit on my itemized return. I live in NJ so it makes sense to do so since I will be limited to 10K next year for the SALT deduction. My question is does anyone know if NJ permits prepaying property taxes and is there a limit to how much I can prepay (I would like to pay the full year 2018 if possible). Still working through the AMT to make sure I get credit for it.

You may pay as much of 2018 as appears on your tax bill for credit on your federal tax return.
If you pay more it will appear as a credit on your tax bill but you may not get credit on your tax return for the full amount of pre payment and state of NJ does not allow credit for prepayments on the state return. The tax assessor of the city or township in NJ should be able to give you this information which you may wish to confirm.