Official Site of The State of New Jersey

Case Acceptance Guidelines

The Office of the Taxpayer Advocate (OTA is here to help you when you have unsuccessfully tried to resolve your tax problem with the Division of Taxation using all available administrative options and your tax problem creates undue hardship.

“Undue hardship” means that you’re facing a threat of immediate adverse action, or are experiencing or are about to experience undue economic harm resulting from the way in which the tax laws, regulations, or policies are being administered by the Division of Taxation. Personal or economic inconvenience isn’t considered to be “undue hardship” and isn’t sufficient to trigger assistance from our office. Undue hardship is determined on a case-by-case basis.

We follow these guidelines to identify cases eligible for our assistance:

• You face a threat of immediate adverse action for a disputed liability, or you believe that you didn’t receive adequate notification of the Division's actions, or that the Division’s actions are unwarranted, unfair, or illegal.
• You’re experiencing undue hardship or are about to suffer undue hardship.
• You’ve experienced a delay of more than 75 days to resolve a tax account problem or in receiving a response to your inquiry to the Division.

  Generally, the OTA will not assist with inquiries involving the New Jersey Earned Income Tax Credit (NJ EITC) or NJ Income Tax refunds. All inquiries concerning NJ EITC should be referred to the address shown on the notice that was mailed to you, or you can contact the Division’s Customer Service Center at 609-292-6400 for assistance.

  If it has been over 90 days since you mailed in your NJ EITC documents or if it has been at least four months since you’ve filed for your tax refund, and you’ve received no response, we may consider you eligible for assistance.

We will only accept a case when you’ve tried to do everything you were supposed to do. If your tax issue is currently assigned to a caseworker, all relevant documentation and inquiries should be directed to them. If you’ve received a billing notice or a notice from the Division requesting documentation, please respond to the return address on your notice.

General tax inquiries should be made to the appropriate section of the Division of Taxation. See Contact Us for more information on general inquiries.

Inquiries concerning deficiency/delinquency notices should be directed to the email address, phone number, or mailing address on the notice.

Contact the Division at 609-292-6400 for all Business Tax PIN requests.

Inquires or appeals regarding your property tax assessment should be directed to your local municipal tax assessor’s office. Contact the Division’s Local Property Tax Branch at 609-292-7975 if you need additional assistance.

Request Assistance from the OTA

If you meet our case acceptance guidelines, complete Form NJ-OTA-911, Request for Assistance from the Office of the Taxpayer Advocate, and mail or fax it to:
State of New Jersey
Division of Taxation
Office of the Taxpayer Advocate (OTA)
P.O. Box 240
Trenton, NJ 08695-0240

Fax: 609-984-5491

Designate a Representative
You can authorize someone, such as a tax preparer, to work with our office and to receive your confidential tax information and, if you choose, make legally binding decisions on your behalf. See Form NJ-OTA-911, Request for Assistance from the Office of the Taxpayer Advocate.

The OTA is bound by the same confidentiality rules in the State Tax Uniform Procedure Law (N.J.S.A. 54:50-8 and N.J.S.A. 54:50-9); the Internal Revenue Code (U.S.C. 6103, 7213), and the State ethics guidelines and procedures required of all other Taxation employees.

If you are a tax practitioner and wish to represent your client regarding their tax problem, we must have a completed Power of Attorney or Form NJ-OTA-911 on file in order for us to assist you.