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

Boston’s Assessing Department publishes the city’s clause 22 amounts each fiscal year. For fiscal 2027 its page gives $423 for a veteran rated 10 percent or more, a spouse or unmarried surviving spouse, a Purple Heart recipient, a parent of a veteran who died in wartime, and the surviving spouse of a World War I veteran, and $793 to $1,586 under clauses 22A to 22E. The statute sets $400 and $750 to $1,500, and Boston’s own fiscal 2026 flyer, posted in June 2025, still printed those. The increase is clause 22I. The City Council passed Docket #1303 on October 23, 2024, in a new draft accepting clause 22I from fiscal 2026, and the Mayor signed it in November 2024. As filed, the order also accepted clause 22J, which would have doubled the exemptions; the Ways and Means committee report says it was struck because the city already grants a similar additional exemption to seniors and veterans. The Department of Revenue’s clause 22I adjustments are 2.9 percent for fiscal 2026 and 2.7 percent for fiscal 2027, and $400 raised by both is $423. Clauses 22D and 22F are full exemptions: the unmarried surviving spouse of a service member who died of an injury in service or is missing in action presumed dead, and a paraplegic or blind veteran and the surviving spouse. The city may also grant additional relief, which the fiscal 2026 flyer puts at up to twice the amount, unless it would make the final bill lower than the year before or bring the taxable value below 10 percent of the assessed value. Applications are due April 1 of the fiscal year, or three months after the third-quarter bills are mailed if later. The veteran must have lived in Massachusetts six months before entering service or one year after discharge before filing. Chapter 115 benefits are applied for through Boston Veterans’ Services; their amounts are the Commonwealth’s and the statewide chapter 115 entry describes them.