Amherst Veterans’ Property Tax Exemptions (Clauses 22 to 22F)

The Town of Amherst grants the veterans’ exemptions of G.L. c. 59, s. 5, clauses 22 to 22F, through its board of assessors. The statute sets them as dollars off the tax bill, $400 under clause 22, $750, $1,250 and $1,500 under 22A to 22C and $1,000 under 22E, and exempts the whole domicile under 22D and 22F; a town can add to them only by accepting a local option, clause 22I, clause 22J or section 5C½. Every figure on this entry carries its source and the day it was read. The Board of Assessors’ page names Alexander Niefer the chair (term expires June 30, 2027), Ileana Carrion (June 30, 2028) and Paul Zagaeski (June 30, 2029), three members appointed by the Town Manager, with Kimberly Mew the Principal Assessor and Sandra Gradoia the Administrative Assistant (413-259-3024, fax 413-259-2401) at Town Hall, 4 Boltwood Avenue, and calls the board "an advisory, regulatory, and adjudicatory multiple-member body of the city". The assessors’ Exemptions page posts the town’s own "CLAUSE 22 - VETERAN EXEMPTION - MINIMUM OF $400 OFF TAX BILL" description: $400 under clause 22, $750 under 22A, $1,250 under 22B, $1,500 under 22C, "TOTAL FOR 5 YEARS, $2500.00 THEREAFTER" under 22D and $1,000 under 22E, with paraplegics and surviving spouses at a total exemption, on a residence test the HERO Act superseded - "at least 6 months prior to entering service OR ... 5 consecutive years prior to date of filing" - beside its note 4 that "Per a recent decision at Town Meeting, the amount of the actual benefit received may actually be greater than shown. This figure may be increased up to 100% more, but cannot exceed last year’s net tax increase." The veterans’ application is the Commonwealth’s Form 96-4, revised 7/2017. The town’s own record of the increase is its order: the FY2027 Council Orders page carries an "Order Approving the Acceptance of Optional Tax Exemptions M.G.L. Chapter 59, Section 5C ½", certified "adopted by a vote of ten (10) for, zero (0) against, zero (0) abstaining, and three (3) absent on May 18, 2026", accepting section 5C½ and approving "an additional exemption up to 100 percent of the personal exemption, to be effective for exemptions granted for any fiscal year beginning on or after July 1, 2026" - what doubles the veterans’ clauses to $800 under 22, $1,500 under 22A, $2,500 under 22B, $3,000 under 22C and $2,000 under 22E, full under 22D, within the section’s own limits, no taxable valuation below 10 per cent of full value and no taxpayer paying less than the preceding year’s tax, which the Town Manager’s May 14, 2026 memo describes. The same orders page’s fiscal 2025 order, adopted 13-0 on June 17, 2024, had authorized a maximum additional exemption of up to 100 per cent for clauses 17D, 22, 37A and 41C; and a February 24, 2025 memo proposed accepting clauses 22I and 22J, which the council referred to its Finance Committee on March 10, 2025 with a report due April 28, 2025, but no acceptance order for either appears on the town’s orders pages for fiscal 2025 through 2027, so the entry asks the assessors whether the HERO Act’s clauses have been accepted. The Veterans’ Services page says "Amherst is a member of the Central Hampshire Veteran Services district", whose agents "serve all veterans in Northampton (including those in the VA Medical Center in Leeds), Pelham, Amherst, Granby, Hadley, Hatfield, Williamsburg, Goshen, Chesterfield, Cummington, Worthington, Huntington, Chester and Middlefield" from "an office in the City of Northampton", and names Daniel Nye the Director (413-587-1299) with the town’s own office at the Bangs Community Center, 70 Boltwood Walk (413-259-3028, fax 413-259-2413), hours every Tuesday 9 a.m. to noon - the office and officer the EOVS directory’s September 7, 2026 Amherst row lists at Memorial Hall, 240 Main Street, Room 4, Northampton ([email protected]), the Granby row’s. The page records the town’s 2026 Purple Heart Community designation on a March 2026 Town Council proclamation and links the police department’s Veteran Engagement Team; the town’s Tax Work-Off Plan is the section 5K senior work-off, up to $2,000 at $15.00 an hour for residents 60 and older, so it is not the veterans’ work-off. Chapter 115 benefits, the Commonwealth’s needs-based help with rent, food, fuel and medical costs, are applied for through Amherst Veterans’ Services: Central Hampshire Veterans’ Services, Daniel Nye, Director. Their amounts are set by the Commonwealth and are the same in every city and town; the statewide chapter 115 entry describes them.