Navigating DLS Motor Vehicle Excise Resources

This article serves as an overview of the motor vehicle excise process and provides helpful resources and tools for local officials, particularly local assessors.

Author: Springfield Bureau of Local Assessment Field Advisors

This is the time of year when local assessors process the largest motor vehicle excise commitments. Assessors usually receive more calls on questions regarding excise bills than they do for real estate and personal property tax bills combined. Therefore, we’d like to highlight some useful resources that can assist in answering a variety of motor vehicle excise questions.

First, it's important to know where the responsibility and authority lies regarding issuing motor vehicle excise. Municipal assessors, collectors and others work with the Registry of Motor Vehicles to prepare motor vehicle excise bills.

The DLS Bureau of Local Assessment has developed an informative Tuning Your Motor Vehicle Excise Skills webinar. In addition, the DOR Guide to Motor Vehicle Excise offers Motor Vehicle Excise from the taxpayer’s perspective. This Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ): Motor Vehicle Excise addresses a variety of common inquiries and plain language responses. Finally, the RMV Online Service Center is a great resource for taxpayers and should be bookmarked for easy reference.

An assessing office’s administration of Motor Vehicle Excise serves a critical function in the broader municipal finance well-being of the community. For most municipalities motor vehicle excise receipts are among the largest local revenue sources, second only to real and personal property tax. In FY23, municipalities received over $957 million dollars in motor vehicle excise receipts. There are an estimated 5.6 million registered motor vehicles in Massachusetts. Each year thousands of taxpayers apply for excise abatements due to canceling registrations for a variety of reasons including moving out of state and transfer of ownership. As a result, it’s vital to understand the abatement process. For more guidance on Motor Vehicle Excise, please visit DLS Motor Vehicle Excise Training and Resources webpage.

We hope you find this information useful. If there is a topic or area of assessing, you would like to see featured in the future please email us at [e-mail].

Helpful Resources

Municipal Finance Training and Resource Center  City & Town Data Visualizations & Reports  Subscribe to DLS Alerts 

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Editor: Dan Bertrand

Editorial Board: Marcia Bohinc, Linda Bradley, Sean Cronin, Emily Izzo, Lisa Krzywicki and Tony Rassias

Date published:	February 15, 2023