S 2165 New Jersey Senate · 2026-2027 Regular Session

"Saving Our Diners and Preserving Our Past (SODA POP) Act"; provides sales and use tax exemption and corporation business and gross income tax credits for historic diners and historic restaurants included in online registry.*

This bill provides tax incentives for historic diners and restaurants in New Jersey that meet specific criteria. To qualify, an establishment must have operated continuously for at least 25 years (including pandemic-related closures), qualify as a small business, comply with health/safety rules, and (for restaurants) be family-owned. The bill creates an annual registry managed by the Division of Travel and Tourism, granting approved operators a 12-month sales tax exemption on prepared food/beverages sold for on-site consumption and corporation business/gross income tax credits. These benefits directly support qualifying historic eateries by reducing their tax burden.

Issues: ✓ Budget & Taxes

Bill status in committee 1 of 4 stages cleared

Introduction

Jan 2026

Committee Review

Floor Vote

Governor

Introduced Jan 13, 2026 Last action Feb 12, 2026

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What changed between versions

Introduced → Reprint · 8 edits

MODERATE

The First Reprint of S2165 makes several substantive changes: it renames the bill to the 'SODA POP Act' (changing 'Protecting' to 'Preserving'), shifts certificate-issuing authority from the Division of Travel and Tourism to the Division of Taxation, adds partnership and S corporation allocation rules for the tax credit, clarifies that both diner definition requirements are conjunctive, and changes the registry from an 'annual' registry to a single registry updated annually with initial and renewal applications.

SCOPE

Bill renamed from 'Saving Our Diners and Protecting Our Past Act' to 'Saving Our Diners and Preserving Our Past (SODA POP) Act'

DEFINITION

The definition of 'diner' now explicitly requires BOTH conditions (serving food on-site AND engaging in preparation of a wide variety of menu offerings) by inserting 'and' between them, making the requirements conjunctive rather than potentially disjunctive

REQUIREMENT

Certificate issuance authority shifted: previously the Director of Travel and Tourism issued both the sales tax exemption certificate and the tax credit certificate directly to operators. Now the Director of Travel and Tourism only notifies the Director of Taxation, who then issues both certificates to the operator

The registry is no longer called an 'annual' registry but rather a single registry that the director updates annually. Applications are now for 'initial inclusion, and annual renewal' on the registry

ELIGIBILITY

New provisions added specifying that partnerships classified as such for federal income tax purposes cannot claim the credit directly but must allocate it to partners based on their distributive share of partnership income, and New Jersey S corporations must allocate the credit to shareholders based on their pro rata share

TECHNICAL

Gender-neutral language changes throughout: 'his residence' becomes 'that private homeowner's or lessee's residence,' 'his services' becomes 'that individual's services'

NAICS classification terminology corrected from 'section 311, except subsector 3118' to 'subsector 311, except industry group 3118' to use proper NAICS hierarchy terms

The entire explanatory Statement section at the end of the bill was removed in the reprint version

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Full legislative history

Actions timeline

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Key actions

Committee

Feb 12, 2026

Committee

Referred to Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee

upper

Jan 13, 2026

Introduced

Introduced in the Senate, Referred to Senate Economic Growth Committee

upper

2 primary · 2 co-sponsors