Two New Jersey congressmen are pushing the head of the Internal Revenue Service to allow all 2018 property taxes paid in 2017 to be deductible from federal income tax returns.
In a meeting today with acting IRS Commissioner David Kautter, Reps. Leonard Lance (R-Clinton) and Josh Gottheimer (D-Wyckoff) asked that previous ruling allowing the deductibility of property taxes pre-paid in 2017 only if the taxes had been assessed in 2017 be reversed to allow all taxes paid in 2017, regardless of the date of assessment.
“Our meeting was productive. Over $300 million dollars in property tax prepayments were made by my constituents in late 2017 and I will continue to make the case that all 2018 property tax prepayments be fully deductible on 2017 tax returns,” Lance said. “These payments were made in good faith and some payments were made before the IRS issued its unfair ruling. I also raised the important issue of comity between federal and state governments. The day the IRS issued its ruling, Governor Christie issued an executive order directing municipalities to accept property tax prepayments for all of 2018. I gave the Commissioner a copy of Governor Christie’s executive order to review.”
Lance, the first congressman to push the prepayment issue, is the sponsor of legislation that would require the IRS to adopt the policy. Gottheimer is a co-sponsor. The two have asked Kautter to expand their initial ruling
“I will continue to seek either a bipartisan legislative solution or an IRS ruling fixing this problem. I thank Commissioner Kautter for his time and interest. I will continue to press the issue in Congress and with the IRS,” Lance said.