Guidelines, Opinions, Advisories and FAQs

This Bulletin addresses the following subjects: treatment of host agreement funds received from marijuana establishments and medical marijuana treatment centers; treatment of revenues from local option excise on retail sales of marijuana; the addition of short-term rental occupancies to the room occupancy excise and other changes resulting from St. 2018, c. 337; special accounting treatment for FEMA reimbursements; June 30, 2019 balance sheets and revenue recognition; the Community Preservation

This Bulletin explains changes in the reporting and submission of balance sheets to the Bureau of Accounts by cities, towns and districts for free cash certification and regional school districts for excess and deficiency certification. Beginning with the submission of FY 2018 balance sheets, cities, towns, districts and regional school districts seeking free cash or excess and deficiency certification must use the Excel standardized balance sheet template in Gateway online.

This Bulletin provides information about the procedures for implementing the local option excise on retail sales of marijuana for adult use. The Department of Revenue (DOR) collects the local excises in addition to the state taxes on these sales and distributes the collections on a quarterly schedule. The Bulletin explains the procedure for notifying the DOR of a community's acceptance or revocation of the excise and amendment of the excise rate.

This Bulletin provides revised application forms approved by the Commissioner of Revenue under G.L. c. 58, § 3. These forms have been revised to reflect changes in eligibility under two veteran exemptions, Clause 22D and Clause 22E, which are explained in Informational Guideline Releases 17-18 and 17-19. These changes are effective as of July 1, 2017 for Fiscal Year 2018 exemptions. It also explains changes to the taxpayer guide for veteran exemptions. Supersedes Bulletin 2016-06B for personal e

This Bulletin explains changes made by the Municipal Modernization Act in the statutes that govern the imposition and waiver of penalties for dishonored payments made for payment of local taxes, fees and charges that include adding payments made by electronic transfers as well as checks and having appeals for a waiver of a penalty decided by the local official that imposed the penalty, not the Commissioner of Revenue. Supersedes IGR 1980-210, IGR 1990-203 and Inconsistent Prior Written Statement

This Bulletin explains a change in the procedure for transferring to the taxes in litigation account outstanding taxes that are the subject of a recorded statement to continue the lien. This change was made by the Municipal Modernization Act. Supersedes Inconsistent Prior Written Statements.

This Bulletin issues revised forms for use in real estate tax apportionments (State Tax Form 175 Apportionment of Tax on Divided Real Estate and State Tax Form 176 Notice of Divided Real Estate Assessment). The forms have been revised to reflect Municipal Modernization Act changes in the time an owner of a parcel divided by a transfer of title has to appeal an apportionment of a committed tax by the assessors. The owner now has 30 days from the apportionment to appeal.

This Bulletin provides guidance to local officials regarding the authorization of departmental revolving funds for use in Fiscal Year 2018 and future years. It includes a model by-law ordinance and examples of its use. It also advises local officials that DLS is seeking legislation to defer implement of new procedure to authorize the funds by by-law/ordinance until Fiscal Year 2019, but recommends they put community in position to be able to authorize under prior procedure or new one. We will ke

The Department of Revenue (DOR) has created this fact sheet to provide general information about local property tax exemptions for the legally blind.

General Application of the Aircraft (Jet) Fuel Tax