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

The City of Medford 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 city 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. www.medford-ma.gov answers a Cloudflare challenge that does not clear and its apex serves a Bluehost coming-soon placeholder (issue #165), but the city serves its own site from medfordma.org, which answers curl. Its Statutory Tax Exemptions and Explanations for Veterans page, in the Veterans Services department, prints for clauses 22 to 22E "Variable Amounts $800 to 100% of Tax" and says the amounts in the state document "are half of what Medford gives in abatements to Veterans and Survivors". The page records the option behind the doubled amounts: "The Medford City Council recently approved our City’s local option to double the tax abatement to assist disabled veterans", a vote that "passed unanimously through the council on MAY 21st, 2019", with the recording linked. Its parenthetical names clause 41C, the blind clause, in error; under the current statute the doubled amounts are what clause 22J at 100 per cent, or section 5C½ at 100 per cent, produces. The page predates the HERO Act and still prints the five-year residence test, six months before enrollment in service or five years before application, so the entry asks the assessors to confirm the current amounts and the acceptance. The assessors’ own page lists "Veteran, clause 22" among the fiscal 2027 exemptions with no amount of its own and takes applications at the Assessing Department (781-393-2435), which administers the statutory exemptions. The Veterans Services page names Veronica Shaw the Director at City Hall, Room 100 (781-393-2505), where the EOVS directory lists the same officer at 85 George P. Hassett Drive, Room 100. The city’s veterans’ service organizations page lists the Massachusetts state offices of the American Legion, AMVETS, the Disabled American Veterans and the rest. Chapter 115 benefits, the Commonwealth’s needs-based help with rent, food, fuel and medical costs, are applied for through Medford Department of Veterans Services: Veronica Shaw, Director. Their amounts are set by the Commonwealth and are the same in every city and town; the statewide chapter 115 entry describes them.