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

The City of Peabody 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. The Board of Assessors’ “Fiscal Year 2027 Exemption Criteria” sheet (a scanned page, read as an image) gives clause 22, for a veteran with a service-connected disability of 10 per cent or more, a Purple Heart recipient, a veteran of the Spanish War, the Philippine Insurrection or the China Relief Expedition, a Gold Star parent, or a spouse or surviving spouse, as “an exemption between $400.00 and $800.00 total tax exemption depending on their qualifications”, and a total exemption for a paraplegic veteran. The same sheet prints clause 17D at $175 to $350, clause 37A at $500 to $1,000 and clause 41C at $500 to $1,000, each at its statutory amount and twice it, which is what an additional exemption of 100 per cent gives: section 5C½ adds to every personal exemption and clause 22J to the veterans’ alone. The sheet names neither, no acceptance vote was found in the city’s code of ordinances or its published records, and the sheet gives no amount for clauses 22A to 22E; ask the assessors for the amount on this year’s bill. The sheet still asks that an applicant have lived in Massachusetts for the five years before filing where the statute now asks two consecutive years, and gives the deadline as April 1 of each fiscal year. Chapter 115 benefits, the Commonwealth’s needs-based help with rent, food, fuel and medical costs, are applied for through Peabody Veterans Services. Their amounts are set by the Commonwealth and are the same in every city and town; the statewide chapter 115 entry describes them.