Massachusetts Statutes

Section 81B. Whenever a city or town shall have purchased or taken land for nonpayment of taxes under section 43 or 53, and the treasurer of the city or town certifies that the redemption amount as determined pursuant to section 62 exceeds the assessed value of the parcel, the tr…

Section 82. If a collector has reasonable cause to believe that the title to land sold for non-payment of taxes or of assessments, a lien for which is enforceable by a sale of land, is invalid by reason of an error, omission or informality in the assessment or sale, he may, withi…

Section 83. If, within thirty days after such notice, such holder of the tax title does not comply therewith, the collector shall cause a copy thereof, with an affidavit by himself or by a disinterested person of the service thereof and of the facts in the case, to be recorded in…

Section 84. If the collector has reasonable cause to believe that a tax title, held by a town under a sale or taking for non-payment of a tax, is invalid by reason of any error, omission or informality in the assessment, sale or taking, he may disclaim and release such title by a…

Section 84A. If a tax title is for any reason adjudged invalid by a court of competent jurisdiction, the clerk, upon request, shall issue a certificate to that effect. The treasurer of the city or town where the land affected by such a tax title is situated, upon receipt of a rel…

Section 85. A tenant in common or joint tenant, who pays the entire tax assessed upon land held jointly or in common, shall have a lien upon the interest of each of his co-tenants, to secure the payment to him of the proportion of such tax payable by each of said co-tenants respe…

Section 86. Such lien may be enforced in the manner provided in chapter two hundred and fifty-four for enforcing liens on buildings and land under written contracts for the erection, alteration, repair or removal of buildings or structures; but shall be dissolved, unless the pers…

Section 87. A city or town may, by ordinance or by-law, respectively, direct whether its collector shall exercise the power of sale or the power of taking to enforce the lien for taxes; and in default of such ordinance or by-law the collector may exercise either power at his disc…

Section 88. When the tax list and warrant of the assessors is committed to the sheriff or his deputy, he shall forthwith post, in some public place in the town, an attested copy of said list and warrant; and shall make no distress for a tax within thirty days thereafter.

Section 89. If a person pays his tax within said thirty days, the officer shall receive from him for his fees five per cent on the sum assessed; but if a tax remains unpaid after said thirty days, he shall collect it by distress or imprisonment, or by sale of land as a collector …

Section 90. If a city or town appoints its treasurer as collector of taxes, he may issue his warrants to collect to a deputy collector, returnable in sixty days, requiring him to collect any and all taxes due. Such warrants shall be substantially in the same form and shall confer…

Section 91. When any foreign corporation or non-resident person, doing business in the commonwealth, shall for sixty days neglect, refuse or omit to pay a tax lawfully assessed and payable, any court having jurisdiction in equity may on petition of the collector of taxes of the t…

Section 92. Any officer authorized to collect taxes may appoint and remove such deputies as such officer deems expedient. Each deputy so appointed shall keep a cash book, in which such deputy shall enter all sums so collected, specifying the total amount of each tax collected, al…

Section 93. The treasurer or other disbursing officer of any town may, and if so requested by the collector shall, withhold payment of any money payable to any person from whom there are then due taxes, assessments, rates or other charges committed to such collector, which are wh…

Section 94. The aldermen or selectmen may require the collector once in two months to exhibit to them a true account of all money received on the taxes committed to him, and to produce the treasurer's receipts for all money paid into the treasury by him.

Section 95. The collector shall be credited with all sums abated; with all sums committed and thereafter apportioned under section thirteen of chapter eighty; with the amount of all assessments not apportioned to subsequent years which have been committed under section four of ch…

Section 96. If a collector becomes incapacitated by reason of mental illness, absconds or removes from the town or in the judgment of the aldermen or selectmen is about to so remove or is otherwise unable to discharge his duty, or if he refuses on demand to exhibit to the alderme…

Section 97. If a collector ceases to hold the office of collector for any reason, all his accounts, records and papers, including his warrant, which relate to the assessment and collection of taxes in his town shall, forthwith after an audit thereof has been made by a competent a…

Section 98. No action to recover back a tax shall be maintained, except as provided in sections sixty and eighty-five, unless commenced within three months after payment of the tax nor unless such tax is paid either after an arrest of the person paying it, a levy on his goods, a …

Section 99. A collector who neglects or refuses to exhibit accounts or to produce receipts, as required under section ninety-four, shall forfeit to the town two and one half per cent of the sums committed to him for collection.

Section 1. Except as hereinafter provided, there shall be assessed and levied in each calendar year on every motor vehicle and trailer registered under chapter ninety, for the privilege of such registration, an excise measured by the value thereof, as hereinafter defined and dete…

Section 2. Except as otherwise provided in section one, if the owner of the motor vehicle or trailer registered is an individual inhabitant of the commonwealth, or a partnership, voluntary association or corporation having a principal place of business in the commonwealth or if t…

Section 2A. If an excise assessed under this chapter remains unpaid for fourteen days after a demand therefor made more than one day after such excise becomes due and payable, and if the local tax collector or commissioner of revenue elects to utilize the services of a deputy col…

Section 3. In the collection of this excise, the collectors of taxes shall have all the remedies provided by chapter sixty.

Section 4. The provisions of this chapter, other than those contained in section two A thereof, shall not be construed to alter or amend the provisions of law with respect to the registration of motor vehicles or trailers.

Section 6. The excise locally assessable under this chapter shall be laid and collected at the residential address of the owner, if an individual, or at the principal place of business in this commonwealth, if a partnership, voluntary association or corporation, as determined by …

Section 7. If a collector is satisfied that an excise that has been committed to him or to any of his predecessors in office for collection, is uncollectible by reason of the death, absence, poverty, insolvency, bankruptcy, or other inability of the person assessed to pay, he sha…

Section 8. Notwithstanding the failure of the owner of a motor vehicle on which an excise was assessed under this chapter to apply for an abatement within the time set forth in section 2, the board of assessors may abate the whole, or any part of any such excise, or any interest …

Section 9. In any city or town accepting the provisions of this section and notwithstanding any other provision of this chapter to the contrary, any excise due under this chapter by a member of the Massachusetts National Guard or reservist or a dependent of a member of the Massac…

Section 1. As used in this chapter, the following words shall, unless the context clearly requires otherwise, have the following meanings: ''Vessel'', every watercraft, including documented boats and ships, used or capable of being used as a means of transportation on water, and …

Section 2. (a) Except as hereinafter provided there shall be assessed and levied by each city and town in each fiscal year on every vessel, and its equipment, for the privilege of using the waterways of the commonwealth, an excise measured by the value thereof, as hereinafter def…

Section 3. The excise imposed by this chapter shall not apply to vessels described in section eight of chapter fifty-nine and in section sixty-seven of chapter sixty-three; to vessels owned by the commonwealth or any political subdivision thereof; to law enforcement vessels; to v…

Section 4. The board of assessors, upon assessing the excise imposed by this chapter, shall commit the same to the collector of taxes with their warrant for the collection thereof. The collector of taxes shall seasonably notify the owner of the excise assessed and the due date, b…

Section 5. The provisions of law relative to the collection, payment, abatement, verification and administration of the motor vehicle excise imposed under chapter sixty A shall so far as pertinent apply to the excise imposed under this chapter.

Section 6. The commissioner of corporations and taxation shall annually transmit to the director of marine and recreational vehicles a list of all ships or vessels documented as of July first under the laws of the United States whose owners reside in Massachusetts. The boat list …

Section 1. For purposes of this chapter, unless the context otherwise requires, the following words shall have the following meanings:— ''Cut'', sever or taken from the soil. ''Forest land'', land devoted to the growth of forest products. Upon application, the state forester may …

Section 2. Except as otherwise herein provided, all forest land, parcels of not less than 10 contiguous acres in area, used for forest production shall be classified by the assessors as forest land upon written application sufficient for identification and certification by the st…

Section 2A. In a city or town that accepts this section, the rate of tax applicable to certified forest land shall be the rate determined to be applicable to class two, open space.

Section 3. For general property tax purposes, the value of land that is actively devoted to forest production use during the tax year in issue and has not been used for purposes incompatible with forest production in the 2 immediately preceding tax years, shall, upon application …

Section 4. All buildings located on land which is valued, assessed and taxed on the basis of its forest production use in accordance with this chapter and all land occupied by a dwelling or regularly used for family living shall be valued, assessed and taxed by the same standards…

Section 5. Land qualifying for valuation, assessment and taxation under this chapter shall be subject to special assessments or betterment assessments to the pro rata extent that the service or facility financed by the assessment is used for improving the forest production use ca…

Section 6. Any land in forest production use which is valued, assessed and taxed under this chapter, if sold for other use within a period of 10 years after the date of its acquisition or after the earliest date of its uninterrupted use by the current owner in forest production, …

Section 7. Whenever land which is valued, assessed and taxed under this chapter no longer meets the definition of forest land, it shall be subject to additional taxes, in this section called roll-back taxes, in the tax year in which it is disqualified and in each of the 4 immedia…

Section 8. Land taxed under this chapter shall not be sold for, or converted to, residential, industrial or commercial use while so taxed or within 1 year after that time unless the city or town in which the land is located has been notified of the intent to sell for, or to conve…

Section 1. Land shall be deemed to be in agricultural use when primarily and directly used in raising animals, including, but not limited to, dairy cattle, beef cattle, poultry, sheep, swine, horses, ponies, mules, goats, bees and fur-bearing animals, for the purpose of selling s…

Section 10. The board of assessors of a city or town, in valuing land with respect to which timely application has been made and approved as provided in this chapter, shall consider only those indicia of value which such land has for agricultural, horticultural or agricultural an…