JERSEY CITY -- The city collected 355 percent more in prepaid taxes in the final weeks of 2017 than it did the previous year, as property owners rushed to take advantage of a key tax deduction sharply curtailed by the new federal tax overhaul.

Jersey City taxpayers shelled out $12,454,473 prepaying their 2018 tax bills last year, according to figures provided by the city. In 2016, the city collected just $2,736,880 in prepaid taxes.

Overall the city collected prepaid taxes from over 5,600 accounts in 2017, compared to 2,753 the previous year.

The news is even more dramatic in Hoboken, which says it collected $18,654,284 in prepaid taxes from 6,921 accounts last year, compared to $1,390,851 from 1,047 accounts in 2016.

Most of the prepayments were for the first- and second-quarter tax bills. In Jersey City, just 58 accounts paid $75,336 toward the final two quarters.

More Mile Square City taxpayers were willing to prepay their whole 2018 tax bill. The city says it took in $1,115,742 in taxes for the third and fourth quarters of 2018, compared to $22,671 in 2016. The number of accounts prepaying the full year jumped from 17 in 2016 to 795 last year.

Municipalities across New Jersey and other high-tax, affluent states were flooded with taxpayers seeking to prepay their 2018 tax bills in advance of the tax overhaul that took effect Jan. 1. The bill, signed into law by President Trump on Dec. 22, limits the state and local taxes (SALT) deduction to $10,000.

The IRS issued guidelines in the days following Trump's action that signaled to taxpayers that prepaying taxes could work but in limited circumstances.

Terrence T. McDonald may be reached at tmcdonald@jjournal.com. Follow him on Twitter @terrencemcd. Find The Jersey Journal on Facebook.