The Hunterdon Scoop / Tools

Your farmland tax paperwork is due August 1

More than 120,000 acres in Hunterdon run under the state's Farmland Assessment program, taxed at what the land actually earns instead of full market value. Miss the deadline on Form FA-1 and your assessor bills you at full rate, no grace period. Answer a few questions below to see where you likely stand, then estimate what a rollback tax would cost if the land ever changes use.

Aug 1 Filing deadline

Does your land likely qualify?

Three tests decide it: acreage, time in use, and income. Answer these and get a read on where you stand. This is a guide, not a ruling, your municipal assessor makes the actual call.

Don't count your house, lawn, pool, driveway, or flower beds toward the acreage, only land actually producing or under an approved forestry plan counts. On income: if you rent to a farmer instead of working the land yourself, your rent check doesn't count. What counts is the value of what your tenant actually sold off the land.

What would a rollback tax cost?

Stop farming the land, or convert it to something else, even by letting it sit idle, and the township can levy a rollback tax: the gap between what you paid at the farmland rate and what you'd have paid at full assessment, for the year of the change plus the two years before it. This estimates that gap using your town's real 2025 general tax rate. It is an estimate, not a bill, your assessor calculates the real number.

The farmland-assessed value is the number on your tax bill right now, under "Assessed Value," while the land carries farmland status. The full-market figure is harder to find yourself: ask your municipal assessor for the parcel's full assessed value if farmland status were removed. It's a real number they keep on file, not a guess you have to make.

What changed under the new law, and what didn't

  1. Governor Murphy signed a law on January 14, 2026 rewriting parts of the Farmland Assessment Act (A6278/S3446).
  2. This year's income thresholds aren't changing: still $1,000 for the first 5 acres of active farmland, the same figure in place since 2013.
  3. Townships can no longer charge the $25 fee they used to bill for the required on-site inspection.
  4. Filing stays free. An earlier draft of the bill would have added a $100-per-parcel application fee; it got stripped out before signing.
  5. A new online filing portal is coming from the Division of Taxation, but it stays optional at first, not mandatory until the second year after it's live.
  6. Intentionally misrepresenting facts on the application now carries real penalties: up to $5,000 for a first offense, $15,000 for a second, $20,000 for a third or later.
  7. Form FA-1 (plus the FA-1 G.S. gross-sales form, and WD-1 if any of the land is under a woodland plan) files with your municipal tax assessor, not the county, on or before August 1. The only extension runs to September 1, and only for the owner's own certified illness or a death in the immediate family.

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