SENATE COMMERCE COMMITTEE

STATEMENT TO

ASSEMBLY, No. 5422

with committee amendments

STATE OF NEW JERSEY

DATED:  NOVEMBER 17, 2025

      The Senate Commerce Committee reports favorably and with committee amendments Assembly Bill No. 5422.

As amended, this bill provides businesses required to comply with any business registration requirement of the Division of Revenue and Enterprise Service in the Department of the Treasury or any successor agency the option to register for a computer-based service administered or made available by the division for the purpose of receiving official and authoritative notifications electronically from State agencies capable of sending the notifications.  The service is to be linked with the division’s online business filing services and is to collect and store electronic mail addresses and other contact information. “Business” is defined in the bill to mean an individual, partnership, association, joint stock company, trust, corporation, non-profit corporation, or other legal business entity or successor thereof that files business registration documents with the Division of Revenue and Enterprise Services in the Department of the Treasury, but does not include a government agency.

     A business that accepts electronic notification under the bill will no longer receive paper versions of official and authoritative notifications from the agencies receiving contact information from the division but is to maintain postal mailing addresses in accordance with other statutory requirements.  Nothing in the bill is to be construed to supersede or modify any statutory requirement that a notice be sent by postal mail or certified mail, where that method is expressly required by law.

     The Division of Revenue and Enterprise Services is to provide the electronic addresses and other contact information to other certain State agencies that send official and authoritative notices to allow for the implementation of the provisions of the bill.  The business is authorized to request to the Division of Revenue and Enterprise Services a cessation of electronic notification.  If that request is made, the division is to notify the other State agencies of the request.

      As amended and reported by the committee, Assembly Bill No. 5422 is identical to Senate Bill No. 4290, which was also amended and reported by the committee on this date.

COMMITTEE AMENDMENTS:

      The committee amended the bill to:

      (1)  update the definition of “business” and add a definition of “official and authoritative notification;”

      (2)  modify how a business will sign-up to receive official and authoritative notifications electronically;

      (3)  stipulate that a business is to maintain a postal mailing address and that nothing in the bill is to be construed as interfering with other laws requiring businesses to maintain a postal mailing address;

      (4)  clarify what agencies the Division of Revenue and Enterprise Services is to share business contact information with to allow all the requisite agencies to send official and authoritative notifications electronically;

      (5)  allow businesses to stop receiving electronic notifications and require notice of this cessation be sent by the Division of Revenue and Enterprise Services to the other State agencies; and

      (6)  require the State Treasurer work in consultation with the Director of the Division of Taxation and the Chief Executive Officer of the New Jersey Economic Development Authority, in addition to the Commissioner of Labor and Workforce Development, to adopt rules and regulations.