Massachusetts Clause 22 Disabled Veteran Property Tax Exemption (2026)

If the VA has rated you with a service-connected disability and you own a home in Massachusetts, the office that can lower your property tax bill is the one at your city or town hall. The break is written into state law, in the Clause 22 series of Massachusetts General Laws chapter 59, section 5, and only your local board of assessors, acting as the local tax administrator, can decide whether you qualify.1

The Massachusetts disabled veteran property tax exemption is a ladder of eight clauses rather than a single break, and the rung you land on turns on the disability, not on your income. It opens under Clause 22 at a VA service-connected disability rating of 10% or more, where it abates at least $400 rather than wiping the bill out, and it climbs through Clause 22A at $750, Clause 22B at $1,250, Clause 22E at $1,000 and Clause 22C at $1,500 to a full exemption of the domicile at Clause 22F. Clause 22D and Clause 22H carry a full exemption to a surviving spouse and to surviving parents after a service-connected death. Whichever clause fits you, the application runs on an annual cycle: you file with the assessors for each fiscal year, and the deadline moves with your community's tax billing.1

In This Guide

• Key Takeaways
• Who Qualifies for the Massachusetts Disabled Veteran Property Tax Exemption?
• What the Massachusetts Disabled Veteran Property Tax Exemption Is Worth at Each Clause
• Filing With Your Board of Assessors, Every Fiscal Year
• If You Are a Surviving Spouse
• Where This Sits Next to Your Federal VA Benefits
• Frequently Asked Questions
• Learn More

Who Qualifies for the Massachusetts Disabled Veteran Property Tax Exemption?

Eligibility is cumulative, and it asks for more than residency. Under Clause 22 you must be a legal resident of the commonwealth, your last discharge or release from the armed forces must have been under other than dishonorable conditions, you must have been domiciled in Massachusetts for at least six months before entering service or have resided in the commonwealth for two consecutive years before the date you file, and you must occupy the real estate as your domicile. Every one of those has to be true as of July 1 of the tax year. Clause 22 then sets the disability entry point at a service-connected rating of ten per cent or more, so a rating of 10% is enough to get in the door even though the abatement at that level is the smallest on the ladder. The application itself goes to the assessors in the city or town where the property is located.1

Who decides is the part that is easy to get wrong. Massachusetts writes these exemptions into statute, but only your board of assessors, as the local tax administrator, can decide whether you qualify, which is why two veterans with identical ratings in adjoining towns deal with two different offices and two different sets of clerks.1

Scale matters here because the population this touches is large and aging. The VA's National Center for Veterans Analysis and Statistics estimated about 264,411 veterans living in Massachusetts as of 2024, mostly over age 60, and the VA estimates that population will keep declining roughly 3% a year for the next decade.2

Clause 22 relief is keyed to a service-connected disability rating from the VA.1 If you're an older homeowner without a service-connected rating, our guide to senior property tax relief in Massachusetts covers a separate track that may fit you better.

What the Massachusetts Disabled Veteran Property Tax Exemption Is Worth at Each Clause

Clause 22 and Clause 22E each describe the same break two ways over, and you get the better of the two. One way is a flat dollar amount struck off what you owe. The other is a reduction in the assessed taxable valuation, so what it takes off your bill is the tax due on that amount of value. The statute settles which one applies with a single test: whichever would result in an abatement of the greater amount of actual taxes due. The amount turns on the disability, not on your income, and with limited exceptions you may receive only one exemption under chapter 59, section 5 in a fiscal year: if you qualify for more than one, you receive the one that provides the greatest benefit.1 The table below carries the whole ladder.

Clause 22F works on a different principle from the tiers beneath it. It exempts the domicile itself instead of naming a dollar figure, so what it's worth tracks the home's own tax bill.1

Read every dollar figure above as a floor, not a ceiling. Two local options sit on top of them: a city or town that accepts Clause 22J may grant an additional exemption of up to 100 per cent of the amount you qualify for, and one that accepts Clause 22I increases the abatement every year by the Consumer Price Index. Those are acceptances each community votes on rather than statewide rules, so the only way to learn what your clause is worth on your own bill this year is to ask your board of assessors. Read the statute itself alongside the Massachusetts Department of Revenue, Division of Local Services guide for qualifying veterans.1

Filing With Your Board of Assessors, Every Fiscal Year

The exemption reaches you through an application you file with your assessors, and that filing repeats for each fiscal year.1

If the paperwork or the rating documentation is the obstacle, Massachusetts puts a local office within reach of every household. Veterans' Service Officers are in every city and town in the state by law, and their work includes taking applications for state veterans' benefits, educating veterans about the benefits and services available to them, and making referrals for veterans and their dependents. You can find the one serving your community through the state's Find Your Local Veterans Service Officer tool, searchable by city, town, or ZIP code.3 For this exemption, though, the application itself goes to the assessors in the city or town where your property is located, by the deadline above.1

If you can't reach your local officer, the Massachusetts Executive Office of Veterans Services, which became a cabinet-level secretariat in March 2023, can be reached at (617) 210-5480. It also administers Chapter 115 benefits and runs the Massachusetts Veterans' Homes in Holyoke and Chelsea.4

If You Are a Surviving Spouse

The statute carries the exemption past the veteran's death in defined circumstances, and which clause you fall under decides what it is worth.1

The default is not Clause 22. A spouse who owns the domicile, and a surviving spouse who has never remarried, qualify under the same clause as the veteran who was entitled to the exemption, so the amount tracks the veteran's own clause rather than dropping to Clause 22's $400. Under Clause 22F the statute is more protective still: the exemption continues unchanged for the benefit of the surviving spouse after the veteran's death, for as long as that spouse remains an owner and occupant of the domicile subject to the exemption.1

A different clause applies when the death itself was service-connected. A surviving spouse who has never remarried, of a service member or veteran who died as a proximate result of an injury or illness sustained during active duty service, or who is missing in action with a presumptive finding of death, is covered by Clause 22D, and Clause 22D is a full exemption of the property's taxable valuation rather than a few hundred dollars off the bill. Clause 22H gives that same full exemption to the surviving parents or guardians of that service member or veteran. If either describes your household, name the clause when you file: it is the difference between an abatement and no taxable valuation at all.1

Hold onto the two conditions in that 22F language, because both are easy to break without meaning to. Ownership has to stay with you, and you have to keep living in the home. A move to assisted living, or a transfer of the deed into a trust or to an adult child, can put one or both in question. If either is on the table, raise it with the assessors before the paperwork is signed rather than after, and ask that same office what a surviving spouse needs to file, and when.1

Where This Sits Next to Your Federal VA Benefits

This is a benefit created under state law and administered by your city or town, a separate program from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and its disability compensation and pension benefits.1 What it changes is the property tax your municipality bills you.

That distinction matters most if you're also looking at Aid and Attendance, the needs-based pension add-on for veterans who require help with daily activities. For the year running December 1, 2025 through November 30, 2026, the maximum annual pension with Aid and Attendance is $29,093 for a veteran with no dependents and $34,488 for a veteran with one dependent, paid as monthly twelfths.5 Aid and Attendance carries its own tests, including a net worth limit of $163,699 for the year running December 1, 2025 through November 30, 2026, and a need for help with activities such as bathing, dressing, or feeding.6

The two programs run on different criteria. Clause 22 is keyed to your Massachusetts residency, your service-connected rating, and the assessors' decision on your application.1 VA pension, including the Aid and Attendance add-on, is needs-based, and the VA's net worth calculation counts your and your dependents' assets and income for VA purposes.5 If you receive or are applying for pension, ask the VA or a Veterans' Service Officer how a state or local benefit is treated in your own case before you count on a particular outcome.3 Our Massachusetts Aid and Attendance guide covers the federal side in full, and VA benefits for senior care in Massachusetts shows how the pieces fit together with VA health care and the state's veterans homes. If you're comparing what different states give, the national disabled veteran property tax exemption by state directory lines them up.

Learn More

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The information on Brevy.com is for educational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional legal, financial, or medical advice. Rules vary by state and program and change frequently. Always verify with the relevant agency or a qualified professional. Brevy is not a law firm, financial advisor, or healthcare provider.