Bill Text: NJ A1315 | 2016-2017 | Regular Session | Introduced
Bill Title: Exempts military personnel receiving combat zone pay from the gross income tax.
Spectrum: Moderate Partisan Bill (Republican 11-3)
Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2016-01-27 - Introduced, Referred to Assembly Military and Veterans' Affairs Committee [A1315 Detail]
Download: New_Jersey-2016-A1315-Introduced.html
STATE OF NEW JERSEY
217th LEGISLATURE
PRE-FILED FOR INTRODUCTION IN THE 2016 SESSION
Sponsored by:
Assemblyman DAVID P. RIBLE
District 30 (Monmouth and Ocean)
Assemblyman JON M. BRAMNICK
District 21 (Morris, Somerset and Union)
Assemblyman JAY WEBBER
District 26 (Essex, Morris and Passaic)
Co-Sponsored by:
Assemblyman Diegnan, Assemblywoman N.Munoz and Assemblyman C.A.Brown
SYNOPSIS
Exempts military personnel receiving combat zone pay from the gross income tax.
CURRENT VERSION OF TEXT
Introduced Pending Technical Review by Legislative Counsel.
An Act exempting certain military personnel serving in combat zones from the gross income tax, supplementing chapter 2 of Title 54A of the New Jersey Statutes.
Be It Enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:
1. If in a taxable year a taxpayer receives "compensation" for active service as a member of the Armed Forces of the United States, in a combat zone as those terms are defined pursuant to section 112 of the federal Internal Revenue Code of 1986, 26 U.S.C. s.112, then the taxpayer shall not be subject to the "New Jersey Gross Income Tax Act", N.J.S.54A:1-1 et seq., for that taxable year and if that taxpayer files a joint return for federal tax purposes then the joint income of the married taxpayers shall not be subject to tax for that taxable year.
2. This act shall take effect immediately and apply to taxable years beginning on or after January 1, 2004.
STATEMENT
This bill exempts all income of a taxpayer from taxation under the gross income tax (single, married filing jointly, married filing separate, head of household, or surviving spouse) if any part of the income received in the taxable year was compensation for active service as a member of the Armed Forces of the United States in a combat zone. A combat zone is designated by Executive Order of the President as an area in which the United States Armed Forces are engaging or have engaged in combat. There are currently three such combat zones including the airspace above each.
There are also qualified hazardous duty areas which are treated as combat zones.
Many New Jersey residents as reservists are going through an extraordinary sacrifice of being called to active duty in a combat zone, leaving at home a spouse and family. The spouse is left to get by on less money, yet some of the family income may be taxable. Under this bill, if any amount of total income is combat zone compensation, then all of the income of the taxpayer (and spouse, if filing jointly) will not be subject to New Jersey gross income tax for the taxable year.
