Massachusetts Local Options That Change What a Veteran’s Abatement Is Worth

Massachusetts is the local-option state in this catalog, and nowhere is that clearer than in the property tax. Four provisions can change what a veteran's abatement is worth by a factor of several, and every one of them depends on a vote the veteran's own city or town has to have taken. Clause Twenty-second J, added by section 23 of the 2024 HERO Act, is the most valuable. In a city or town that accepts it and is certified by the Commissioner of Revenue to be assessing all property at full and fair cash valuation, a taxpayer who qualifies under clause Twenty-second, Twenty-second A, Twenty-second B, Twenty-second C, Twenty-second E or Twenty-second F is granted an additional exemption of up to 100 per cent of the exemption they qualify for, in an amount the town's legislative body determines before the fiscal year begins. The additional amount must be uniform across all taxpayers qualifying under those clauses, and once accepted it continues until the town amends it. So a $400 abatement can become $800, and a $1,500 abatement $3,000. Two limits: the property's taxable valuation after all exemptions cannot fall below 10 per cent of its full and fair cash valuation except through clause Eighteenth, and the clause cannot be implemented in a year the town has also accepted section 5C1/2. And the sentence a select board will care about: acceptance shall not increase the amount the town would otherwise have been reimbursed by the commonwealth. The extra is entirely local money. Clause Twenty-second I, added by the same section of the same act, does the quieter thing. In an accepting and fully-assessing town, an abatement under the same list of clauses is increased annually by the increase in the cost of living as determined by the Consumer Price Index, and the Department of Revenue tells each accepting town what the increase is. This is the provision that stops the $400 figure decaying further. Without it, the abatements have no inflation mechanism at all, which is how a benefit set in an earlier era came to be worth what it is now. Clause Twenty-second G solves an ownership problem. In an accepting city or town, real estate that is a person's domicile but is owned by a trustee, conservator or other fiduciary for that person's benefit qualifies under clauses Twenty-second through Twenty-second F as though the person owned it. A veteran whose home sits in a revocable trust for estate planning reasons, or whose affairs are managed by a conservator, would otherwise lose the abatement on a technicality. If the town has not accepted clause Twenty-second G, that is exactly what happens. Section 5N is a different kind of provision and it is worth more than any of the abatements. In an accepting city or town, the municipality may establish a programme allowing veterans as defined in clause Forty-third, or the spouse of a veteran where the veteran is deceased or has a service-connected disability, to volunteer services to the town in exchange for a reduction of their real property tax obligation. The reduction is in addition to any exemption or abatement otherwise available. It is credited at no more than the Massachusetts minimum wage per hour and cannot exceed $1,500 in a tax year. The drafting around section 5N is careful in ways that matter. The reduction is not income, wages or employment for income tax, withholding or workers' compensation purposes. But while volunteering the person is a public employee for the purposes of the Massachusetts Tort Claims Act, and the service is employment for unemployment insurance purposes. The town must keep a record of hours and the total reduction, give a copy to the taxpayer before the actual tax bill issues, and give a copy to the assessor. Nothing in the section permits a reduction in workforce or replacing existing staff. Two adjustments a town may vote for on top of section 5N. It may allow an approved representative to perform the services for a person physically unable to do them, which is what makes the programme usable for a severely disabled veteran. And it may switch the cap from $1,500 to 125 volunteer service hours, which is better than $1,500 whenever the minimum wage exceeds twelve dollars an hour. The practical advice for a Massachusetts veteran is therefore different from the advice in most entries in this catalog. Before working out which clause of section 5 fits, call the assessors and ask which of clauses Twenty-second G, I and J and section 5N the town has accepted. Two identically situated veterans in adjoining communities can be several thousand dollars apart, and the difference is a vote rather than anything about their service.