Failure to Receive Bill by Mail

Please take note that in accordance to New Jersey Law, failure to receive a tax bill does not excuse you from paying taxes on time or the interest due on delinquent taxes. If you do not receive your bill, there are multiple ways to search or inquire about amounts due, and the due dates are always the same. Your interest will not be waived because you didn’t get a bill. We prepare and send all tax and sewer bills as required by state statutes, and unfortunately delayed mailing times or failure to receive the mail is out of our control.

Tax

Due Dates: Property taxes are due February 1^st, May 1^st, August 1^st, and November 1^st. These dates never change.

The Township has the state maximum allowed grace period of 10 days, meaning the grace period for each quarter ends on the 10th of the month. If the 10^th falls on a weekend or holiday, you have until the next business day. If your payment is received after 4:30 pm on 10^th, interest will begin to accrue and is always calculated back to the due date of the 1^st.

Sewer

Due Dates: Sewer taxes are billed in early to mid-May and due on the last Friday in June (your bill will have the exact date). Although they are billed in the middle of the year, the charges cover the full calendar year of Jan-Dec.

Sewer taxes are paid only once per year and are NOT included in your property tax bill, this is a separate charge. Sewer bills are paid by the property owner, they are not paid by your mortgage company as part of the property tax. Sewer taxes are billed based on units (1 family home = 1 unit, 2 family home = 2 units).
The price per unit as of 2024 is $301.00
A 2 unit (2 family) property would be $602.00 and so on.

Physical Payments (in person or via mail)

Visit the tax office Monday-Friday 9a-4:30p to make payments via cash or check only. We do not have a card processing machine and therefore cannot take any forms of payments like debit, credit, ApplePay, etc.

Make all checks payable to “Township of Maplewood."
Please be aware that the Tax Collection Office is not able to make change on cash payments at this time.  Any cash payment greater than the amount due will be applied as a credit to the next billing due.

State Statutes do not permit post office postmark dates as proof of payment. All payments must physically be in the Tax Office at the close of operations at 4:30 pm in order to be credited for that day.

You may also drop off payments in any one of our locked drop boxes located outside of all three of the Town Hall entrances. Please enclose your personal check, certified check, or money order in an envelope with your name, property location, and contact information. Payments placed in the drop box after 4:00 PM will be processed the next business day.  Do not leave cash in the drop boxes.

If for some reason you need a physical receipt, you must include a self-addressed envelope for return mail, otherwise, your cancelled check is your receipt. We cannot email receipts.

Online Payments

Please go to Online Payments

*The township is currently working on a system to set up automatic payments. We will update this page and send notification to residents when this feature becomes available.*
There is a $1.95 transaction fee for paying with an “e-check” (bank account and routing number). There is a 2.95% transaction fee charged by the credit/debit card processor.

If paying for property taxes:
Use the first box labeled “Tax Account Information”. Enter either your block/lot, tax account ID, property address, or homeowner last name—you do not need to fill in all of the boxes, it simply is giving you multiple ways to search for your property. Once you have selected your property, click on the “make a payment button in red font, and follow the prompts to complete your payment.
If paying for sewer taxes:
Use the second/lower box labeled “Utility Account Information”. Enter either your property address, homeowner last name, or sewer account ID (not the same as your tax ID!)—you do not need to fill in all of the boxes, it simply is giving you multiple ways to search for your property. Once you have selected your property, click on the “make a payment button in red font, and follow the prompts to complete your payment.

For any online payment:
Once you have selected your property, click on the “make a payment button in red font, and follow the prompts to complete your payment. Please be sure to hit Submit on the last page that says “Payment Confirmation” or your payment will not go through. On the last page, you will receive a reference number as well as an automated email with your confirmation.

Interests and Penalties

NJ STATE STATUTES DO NOT ALLOW US TO WAIVE INTEREST FOR ANY REASON
As a statutory officer of the State of New Jersey, the Tax Collector is obliged to follow all State Statutes and laws regarding property tax collection, including billing, due dates, interest on delinquent tax payments, reporting and tax sale procedures.
The Tax Collector does not have statutory authority to reduce a tax bill or waive interest charges.

If payment is not received in our office by/before the grace period, it is considered unpaid and interest will automatically be applied and continue to accrue until the balance is paid in full.

As set forth by state statute and resolution, the interest rate on tax and sewer bills is 8% on the first $1,500.00 of the balance, and 18% on the remaining balance

Postdated Checks

Please do not postdate your check: The bank will not accept postdated checks, and therefore we will return any to your billing address unprocessed. We cannot hold postdated checks as we are required to deposit any payments within 48 hours.

Estimated Property Tax Bills

This type of bill is issued when by mid June the tax rate has not yet been certified to any of the taxing entities, namely the County of Essex, the South Orange-Maplewood Board of Education, and the Township municipal government. Rates are certified or set by the County Board of Taxation after receiving the budgets of all municipalities and school districts, which must be certified by the State of New Jersey Division of Local Government.

By law, The Township is responsible for collecting taxes on behalf of the three taxing entities aforementioned. Payments are forwarded quarterly to both the County of Essex and the Board of Education. The issuance of estimated bills is important for the municipal government, in order to prevent cash liquidity issues, which might affect normal operations and continual provision of services.

As customary, the taxes paid for the first and second installments of this year were based on the prior year tax rate. The third installment represents one-half of the estimated increase in taxes for the first two quarters had the current year tax rate been in place at the beginning of the year. Whenever estimated bills are issued, early in the Fall you will receive a final or reconciled fourth quarter bill, along with the preliminary bills for the first and second quarters of the next year.