Massachusetts · statute · Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 58 · 38 active provisions
Section 1. The commissioner of revenue in chapters fifty-eight to sixty-five C, inclusive, called the commissioner, shall make, and from time to time revise, such reasonable rules, regulations and guidelines, as may be necessary to establish minimum standards of assessment performance. The specific areas to which such…
Section 1A. The commissioner, in addition to exercising the powers or performing the duties otherwise assigned to him, shall enforce all laws relating to the valuation, classification and assessment of property and shall supervise the administration of such laws by local assessors in accordance with the rules, regulati…
Section 2. The commissioner shall annually, on or before April first of each year, forward to each board of assessors a list of all corporations known to him to be liable on January first of said year to taxation under chapters fifty-nine, sixty A and sixty-three. Such list shall indicate which of said corporations hav…
Section 3. In order to assist the assessors in the performance of their duties, the commissioner shall prepare, issue and periodically revise guides for local assessors. Such guides shall include the rules, regulations, and guidelines of the commissioner relative to the assessment, classification and administration of…
Section 4. Whenever it appears to the commissioner that the property, or any part thereof, in any town is not valued for taxation according to the first paragraph of section thirty-eight of chapter fifty-nine, and that such failure to comply with the law is the result of failure of the city or town to meet the minimum…
Section 4A. If such city or town fails, within a reasonable time, to comply with the notice and requirements of the commissioner and continues to fail to meet the minimum standards provided in section one and to value property for taxation in violation of section thirty-eight of chapter fifty-nine, (a) the commissioner…
Section 4B. A city or town whose mayor or selectmen and assessors have been ordered by the court under section four A to comply with the requirements of the commissioner may request said commissioner to provide engineering, professional or technical services for the installation of such record keeping systems, the prod…
Section 4C. Whenever the commissioner provides any service under the provisions of section four, four A or four B, the costs of such services shall be incurred by the commonwealth; and payment therefor shall be deducted by the state treasurer under the provisions of section twenty A of chapter fifty-eight from any amou…
Section 5. The commissioner may give instructions for preparing the notice and bringing in the lists required by section 29 of chapter 59, and may prescribe forms therefor so arranged that the statement of the person bringing in a list shall include all assessable property held by such person. The commissioner may pres…
Section 6. The commissioner may collect and tabulate information as to the classification, sales price and fair cash value of real estate in the several towns. For this purpose he may require assessors to furnish him with any information in their possession, may consult persons likely to have knowledge as to the classi…
Section 7. The commissioner shall from time to time secure information as to any unpaid taxes in any town, may examine the books, records and papers of collectors and assessors, and of other town officers, and may require them to make reports to him. The commissioner may annually obtain from local officials at the expe…
Section 8. If, at any time after any tax, assessment, rate or other charge has been committed to a collector such tax, assessment, rate or charge, or any interest thereon or costs relative thereto, remains unpaid and the commissioner is of the opinion that such tax, assessment, rate, charge, costs or interest should be…
Section 8B. All reimbursement claims to which a city or town may be entitled on account of exemptions and abatements granted under section five of chapter fifty-nine shall be filed with the commissioner of revenue on or before the end of the fiscal year to which said claims relate.
Section 8C. A city or town may establish, relative to sites or portions of sites that will be used as affordable housing, as defined in section 1 of chapter 60, or affordable housing and commercial, an agreement between the city or town and the developer of the sites or portions of sites, regarding the abatement of up…
Section 9. In the year nineteen hundred and sixty-six and in every second year thereafter, the commissioner shall, on or before June first, determine and establish for each city and town a proposed equalized valuation which shall be the fair cash value of all property in such city or town subject to local taxation as o…
Section 10. In determining the equalized valuations required by section nine, the commissioner shall make and issue such comprehensive assessment ratio studies of the average level of assessment, the degrees of assessment, uniformity, and over-all compliance with assessment and classification requirements for each majo…
Section 10A. On or before June tenth, in each year in which an equalization is to be established, the commissioner shall hold a public hearing on the proposed equalized valuations. He shall send written notice thereof, together with a copy of the proposed equalized valuations, to the assessors of each city and town on…
Section 10B. On or before August tenth next following, a city or town aggrieved by the equalized valuation established by the commissioner under sections nine and ten A may appeal the determination of the commissioner to the appellate tax board. The appellant shall have the burden of proving that the equalized valuatio…
Section 10C. On or before January thirty-first of the year next following the year for which an equalization is to be established, the commissioner shall, on the basis of the equalized valuations determined under sections nine and ten A, as modified by the appellate tax board under section ten B, establish a final equa…
Section 13. As used in this section and sections 14 through 17, inclusive, the following words shall have the following meanings: ''Base year valuation'', for each city and town, the valuation of state-owned land within the city or town as of January 1, 2017 as determined by the commissioner under this section. ''Base…
Section 14. In 2019 and every 2 years thereafter, the commissioner, on or before June 1, shall determine the fair cash valuation of state-owned land located within each city or town under section 13. To assist in making the determination the commissioner may require oral or written information from any officer or agent…
Section 15. Whenever the commonwealth acquires or disposes of land, the commissioner of the division of capital assets management shall notify the commissioner. The commissioner shall determine whether the acquisition or disposition is state-owned land as defined in section 13. Land so determined by March 1 shall be in…
Section 16. The commissioner shall annually deliver, to the state treasurer, a statement of the fair cash valuation reimbursement percentage for each city and town in which state-owned land is located, and of the amount of money to be paid to each such city and town as determined by the following section.
Section 17. The treasurer shall annually, reimburse each city and town in which state-owned land is located, an amount in lieu of taxes upon the reimbursement percentages reported to the treasurer by the commissioner under the preceding section, determined by multiplying the percentages by the amount appropriated for s…
Section 17B. The state treasurer shall annually, not later than November twentieth, upon certification by the commissioner as hereinafter provided, pay to each town in which property has been taken for flood control reservoirs by the commonwealth under any act, or the United States pursuant to consent granted by the co…