Finance Department

No, tax bills are sent to the assessed owner of the property. Most banks and mortgage companies buy a file from the city for their tax clients.

Planning for future increases in education funding requires clear communication among local officials and current information on the Education Reform Act of 1993 (as amended). As such, policy makers, financial officials and school committee members should meet periodically throughout the year. It is important that all officials keep abreast of the financial impacts of this law (e.g., the foundation budget, school enrollment trends, municipal revenue growth factor, and net school spending). With adequate communication and financial planning, a community may be able to forecast the potential impacts of this law on the community’s budget process.

For you real estate and personal property bill, you need to contact the Assessor’s Office. For your water bill you must contact the Water Dept. The Registry of Motor Vehicles needs to be updated with any change of address.

Tax bills can only be disputed once a year. It is when the first actual tax bill is sent out on January 1st, you have till the due date, usually February 1. This can be done by applying for an abatement in the Assessor’s Office. Water bills have to be brought to the Board of Public Works meeting once a month. For excise bills, the value is set by the Registry of Motor Vehicles.

A community may improve its free cash and financial reserves through prudent financial planning and development of sound financial policies. The community could also establish policies to build its free cash balance such as conservatively estimating local receipts and aggressively pursuing the collection of receivables. Since free cash is an available fund that might not be generated in the next fiscal year, it is usually not used to fund recurring operating expenses.

A formal reserve policy will allow the community to establish a practice of appropriating money to legal reserves for future needs. Appropriations to reserves should be considered annually as a part of the budget process and appropriations from reserves should be made for unanticipated or capital costs, not regular operating expenses.

This is done by the Registry of Motor Vehicles, referencing National Automobile Dealers Association (NADA).

To arrive at “full and fair cash value” the Assessors must know what “willing sellers” and “willing buyers” will pay/receive for property. This is done by collecting, recording and analyzing a great deal of information about property and market characteristics in order to estimate the fair market value. This includes knowing the current cost of construction in the area and any changes in zoning, financing and economic conditions that may affect property values. The object is to estimate “full and fair cash value” as of January 1 (known as the “assessment date”) prior to the fiscal year that starts July 1.

For example, the assessment date for Fiscal Year 2016 is January 1, 2015 and Fiscal Year 2016 goes from July 1, 2015 through to June 30, 2016.

Available funds include free cash, stabilization funds, overlay surplus, expendable trust funds and other reserves.

If your opinion of the value of your property differs from the assessed value, go to the Assessor’s Department and collect pertinent data to support your opinion. For information on this, please visit the Abatement page.

Assessors are required by Massachusetts General Laws to value all real and personal property. The valuations are subject to taxation (referred to as Ad Valorem Tax). Ad Valorem tax means that property is taxed according to value. Property in Massachusetts is assessed/valued at 100% fair market value.

It is required by Department of Revenue that the values are submitted to them for certification every 5 years. Everett’s schedule is 2020, 2025 etc. The Assessing Department is also required to do interim adjustments in the 4 off years. This is accomplished by actual sales studies – comparing the assessment of the property to its selling price. This is done so that the property taxpayer pays his or her fair share of the cost of local government, in proportion to the amount of money the property is worth.

The Assessor does not raise or lower taxes. The Assessor does not make the laws which affect property owners. The Massachusetts Constitution requires that direct taxes on persons be proportionately and reasonably imposed. In addition, the Declaration of Rights, Part I, Article 10, requires each individual to bear his fair share of public expenses.

The Assessor’s Department has nothing to do with the total amount of tax collected. The Assessor’s responsibility is to find the fair cash value of your property, so that you may pay only your fair share of the taxes. The tax rate is determined by all the taxing agencies within the City, and is the basis for the budget needed to provide services, such as schools, roads, fire, law enforcement, etc. The tax rates are simply those rates which will provide funds to pay for those services.

If you pay your taxes late, interest will start to accrue the next day at 14%. The credit card cut off for any bill payment date is midnight Eastern Standard Time (EST).

As stated from the Department of Revenue’s Newsletter City/Town July 2013, an exemption is a privilege established by the Legislature that releases or discharges a taxpayer from the obligation to pay all or a portion of a tax.

Property tax exemptions are found in various clauses of Massachusetts General Law Chapter 59 Section 5. Generally, personal exemptions refer to those property tax exemptions available under state law to taxpayers based on their personal circumstances.

They include, for example, exemptions available to persons who are legally blind, disabled veterans, surviving spouses, minors with a deceased parent or senior citizens. Some eligibility requirements are common to all personal exemptions, for example, taxpayers must own and occupy the property as their domicile to qualify. Other requirements apply to particular exemptions. Some exemptions or qualifications apply only in communities that adopt them.

A community’s free cash is the amount of unrestricted funds available from the previous fiscal year’s general fund operations that can be appropriated upon certification by the Director of Accounts. Free cash is certified based upon the June 30 balance sheet submitted by the town accountant/city auditor. The treasurer must also submit the Quarterly Reconciliation of Treasurer’s cash report, which reconciles with the balance of the accountant, for free cash to be certified.
Free cash is generated when the actual operations of the fiscal year compare favorably with the budget. Simply put, it results when revenue collections are greater than estimated receipts, and expenditures and encumbrances (committed funds not yet expended) are less than appropriations. It is reduced by illegal deficits, overdrawn grant accounts and deficits in other funds.

An override is a voted increase in the levy limit. An override cannot increase a community’s levy limit above the community’s levy ceiling. The levy ceiling is equal to 21Ž2 percent of the full and fair cash value of all taxable property in the community. When an override is passed the levy limit for the year is calculated by including the amount of the override. The override results in a permanent increase in the levy limit of the community. Overrides require a majority vote of approval by the electorate. A community can also assess taxes in excess of its levy limit or levy ceiling for the payment of certain capital projects and for the payment of specified debt service costs called exclusions. An exclusion for the purpose of raising funds for debt service costs is referred to as a debt exclusion, and an exclusion for the purpose of raising funds for capital project costs is referred to as a capital outlay expenditure exclusion. Both exclusions require voter approval with very limited exceptions. Unlike overrides, exclusions do not become part of the base upon which the levy limit is calculated for future years.

The levy limit is the maximum amount a community can raise through property taxes in any given year. The levy limit is based on the previous year’s limit plus allowable increases. These allowable increases include the annual 21Ž2 percent increase, new growth and overrides. The levy limit will always be below or at most equal to, the levy ceiling of 21Ž2 percent of the total full and fair cash value of the community’s taxable real and personal property. A community may also levy above the levy limit or ceiling through an exclusion.

A capital improvement plan (CIP) should include a multi-year capital plan and annual capital budget for all community departments. These documents should: (1) prioritize the various proposed capital projects; (2) estimate project costs; and (3) list the proposed method of payment (current revenue, debt or debt excluded from the limits of Proposition 21Ž2) for each project. Regardless of funding ability, annual presentation of a capital budget to the legislative body has merit. It serves to inform citizens of the community’s capital needs and makes them aware of essential projects that may be deferred due to financial constraints.

Cash, check, money orders, and credit cards are accepted payment methods.

Expenditures that may be made without an appropriation by town meeting or city council include debt service payments, final court judgments, snow and ice removal deficits, overlay allowance for abatements and exemptions, prior years’ overlay deficits, Cherry Sheet offset items and state and county charges. These expenditures are listed on page two of the tax recap under “Amounts to be Raised.”

Free cash must be certified by the Director of Accounts as of July 1 of each fiscal year upon submission of a community’s balance sheet, and cannot be appropriated until certified. Once free cash is certified, it is available for appropriation by the town meeting or city council. It may be used for any legal purpose. However, depleting free cash to balance annual operating budgets may lead to tighter financial times. Free cash provides communities with a certain flexibility in that it is the major source of funding for any supplemental appropriations after the annual budget has been adopted and the tax rate has been set.

Tax bills come out four times a year starting July 1 of that year. The first 2 bills are estimated. The first actual bill goes out in January of that year and that will have the tax rate and values of the property which will affect the total tax paid. Water bills are determined by the usage of the property. Excise bills go by the value of the car which is determined by the Registry of Motor Vehicles.

Enterprise accounting enables a community to operate a self-supported service and demonstrate to the public the true cost of providing a utility, health care, recreational or transportation services the service. Enterprise accounting allows a community to recover all direct (salaries, expenses, debt and capital) and indirect (insurance, fringe benefits, and support of other departments) costs. Enterprise accounting will also enable the community to legally retain a fund balance surplus from year to year, the use of which will be restricted to current operating or future capital/debt costs of the service.

A community may choose to adopt an enterprise fund for two main reasons. One reason is that the community wants to demonstrate to the public which portion of the total costs of a service is recovered through user charges versus the tax levy.