New Jersey S 3858: Requires school bus personnel members to call 911 emergency line in potential life-threatening emergencies; requires certain school buses transportating students with disabilities to be equipped with certain safety features; makes appropriation.*

Bill Text

S3858 

SENATE, No. 3858 

STATE OF NEW JERSEY

222nd LEGISLATURE

� 

INTRODUCED MARCH 10, 2026

Sponsored by:

Senator� ROBERT W. SINGER

District 30 (Monmouth and Ocean)

SYNOPSIS

���� Eliminates transfer inheritance tax for 
step-grandchildren. 

CURRENT VERSION OF TEXT 

���� As introduced.

�� 

An Act eliminating the transfer inheritance tax for 
step-grandchildren and amending R.S.54:34-2.1.

���� Be It 
Enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of 
the State of New Jersey:

���� 1.��� R.S.54:34-2.1 is amended 
to read as follows:

���� 54:34-2.1.�� The 
transfer of property passing to any child to whom the decedent for not less 
than ten years prior to such transfer stood in the mutually acknowledged 
relation of a parent, provided such relationship began at or before the child's 
fifteenth birthday and was continuous for ten years thereafter, shall be taxed 
at the same rates and with the same exemptions as the transfer of property 
passing to a child of said decedent born in lawful wedlock.

���� The transfer of property 
passing to a stepchild of a decedent, or the issue of any stepchild of a 
decedent, shall be taxed at the same rates and with the same exemptions as 
the transfer of property passing to a child of said decedent, or the issue 
of any child of said decedent, born in lawful wedlock.

���� This section shall apply to 
the estate of every decedent, whether the said decedent died prior to June 
second, one thousand nine hundred and thirty-seven, or shall die after said 
date, but this section shall not entitle any person to a refund of any tax paid 
prior to said date.

(cf: R.S.54:34-2.1)

���� 2.��� This act shall take 
effect January 1, 2025.

STATEMENT

���� This bill eliminates the 
State�s transfer inheritance tax for the step-grandchildren of a decedent by 
treating step-grandchildren the same as a decedent�s stepchildren and 
grandchildren under the New Jersey Transfer Inheritance Tax Act, R.S.54:33-1 et 
seq. 

���� �Currently, step-grandchildren 
are treated as Class D beneficiaries under subsection d. of R.S.54:34-2 because 
they do not fall within any of the other statutory classes of beneficiaries 
(Classes A and C; subsections a. and c.) set forth in that section of law.� As 
Class D beneficiaries, step-grandchildren of a decedent are subject to a 
transfer inheritance tax of: 15 percent on any property transfer of an amount 
up to $700,000; and 16 percent on any property transfer in excess of that 
amount.

���� By contrast, the grandchildren 
of a decedent, being the �issue of any child or legally adopted child of a 
decedent,� are classified as Class A beneficiaries under subsection a. of 
R.S.54:34-2, and thus are not subject to any transfer inheritance tax pursuant 
to the provisions of that section of law.� Transfers to stepchildren are 
likewise treated as Class A beneficiaries and exempt from any transfer 
inheritance tax under R.S.54:34-2.1.

���� Under the bill, 
step-grandchildren, i.e., the issue of any stepchild of a decedent, would be 
treated like stepchildren and grandchildren with respect to a decedent�s 
property transfer, and thus be considered Class A beneficiaries subject to no 
taxation.