Stay NJ Income Limit 2026: $200,000 Cap Replaces $500,000 Rule

Stay NJ now has two different income limits in force at the same time, because two benefit years are in flight. Check which year you are asking about before you compare your income to anything.

The 2025 tiers set the ceiling on your benefit. The benefit itself is still built from your property taxes — see how Stay NJ is calculated.

The FY2027 Appropriations Act, signed June 30, 2026, replaced the $500,000 Stay NJ income limit with a $200,000 cap and introduced the tiered maximum benefits, effective for the 2025 benefit year.

That timing matters. The 2025 application opened on February 4, 2026 and the deadline is November 2, 2026 — so the rule changed in the middle of the filing season, after several months of applications had already been submitted under the old limit.

We track confirmed changes to the program in Stay NJ program changes, and the payment calendar for both benefit years in the Stay NJ payment schedule.

2024 benefit year — a single cliff. Income of $500,000 or less qualifies; above it, nothing. There is no sliding scale, and your income does not affect the size of the benefit — the maximum is $6,500 for every eligible applicant, and what you actually receive is driven by your property taxes.

2025 benefit year — a cap plus tiers. Income above $200,000 disqualifies you entirely. Below it, your income also sets the ceiling on your benefit: $6,500 up to $100,000, $5,000 from $100,000.01 to $150,000, and $4,000 from $150,000.01 to $200,000. So for 2025, income does two jobs — it decides whether you qualify, and it caps what you can receive.

Income is what you report in the PAS-1’s income section for the benefit year. In practice that reporting follows New Jersey’s income tax concepts, so retirement-heavy households often measure lower than they expect — but if you are anywhere near a threshold, treat the PAS-1 instructions worksheet as authoritative rather than estimating.

The ordering flipped. Stay NJ used to have the highest income ceiling of any New Jersey relief program by a wide margin. For the 2025 benefit year its $200,000 cap sits belowANCHOR’s $250,000 homeowner limit.

Take a 70-year-old homeowner with $300,000 of income. Under the 2024 rules they received no ANCHOR and no Senior Freeze, but up to the full $6,500 from Stay NJ — with no other benefits to subtract, Stay NJ paid the entire 50% target. Under the 2025 rules the same person gets $0 from all three. Same household, same income, different benefit year.

• There are now four lines, not one. For 2025, $100,000, $150,000 and $200,000 each change your outcome, and $200,000 ends eligibility. For 2024 only the $500,000 line mattered.
• One-time events count in their year.Selling a business, large capital gains, an estate distribution, or a big Roth conversion can push a single year over a threshold — costing or shrinking that year’s benefit only.
• Only the benefit year is tested. Over the line in 2025 but under it in 2026? You are back in for 2026 — unlike the Senior Freeze, no base year or prior-year chain is damaged.
• File anyway if you are plausibly close. The PAS-1 costs nothing, covers all three programs, and lets the Division of Taxation make the determination instead of your estimate.

The Division of Taxation cross-checks PAS-1 income entries against New Jersey tax records. Mismatches produce an information-request letter, or an adjusted benefit with an explanation letter, rather than an automatic denial — respond with your NJ-1040 and supporting 1099s. Deliberate under-reporting risks recovery of benefits with penalties, like any state tax matter.

Estimate where you stand across all three programs with the eligibility checker — it runs locally in your browser and stores nothing.