For a voluntary pilot program, the Department of Revenue’s Division of Local Services is seeking 10 to 15 communities interested in setting their property tax rates in November rather than December.

The Taxpayer Assistance Program (TAP) will offer a meeting with DLS field staff to review the overall flow of reviews and approvals preceding the setting of the tax rate, as well as a review of how the process went in a given city or town during the setting of the fiscal 2014 tax rate. The program will allow cities and towns to “tap into DLS expertise and experience” to complete the process sooner, said DLS Deputy Commissioner Robert Nunes.

A thorough and timely review of proposed tax rates benefits local property tax payers by providing assurance that their community’s finances are in good order, Nunes said. It also benefits local officials by reducing their concerns about DLS finding last-minute issues that require resolution just as the holiday season commences.

Nunes said the possibility for error in the issuance of correct property tax bills increases in the rush to print tax bills after down-to-the-wire tax rate approvals before Dec. 31, when the window closes for timely issuance of third-quarter property tax bills in communities that have adopted quarterly billing – a billing system that has been adopted by about 80 percent of the state’s 351 cities and towns and two special taxing districts.

The DLS reports that it certified 219 tax rates for fiscal 2014 in December 2013, nearly double the number of tax rates certified in the previous three months. Over the past three years, the DLS has certified two-thirds of the tax rates set by Dec. 31 in the month of December alone.

Of the 219 communities receiving tax rate approval in December 2013, 42 took at least three weeks after receiving DLS approval of new growth before holding a classification hearing and setting a tax rate. Approval of new growth is the final DLS approval step before a tax rate may be set. Narrowing that time gap alone would help to even the flow of tax rate approvals.

Nunes said the high volume of December tax rate approvals submitted in the first three weeks of the month makes it difficult for his agency to give them the “constructive review … that communities deserve.”

The DLS will use its DLS Alerts email system this summer and fall to remind local officials of the deadlines required to set property tax rates earlier.

“We at DLS want to see if we can assist local officials, local property tax payers, and our own staff in generating a more rational and less last-minute process,” Nunes said.

The decision to participate in TAP extends across finance and assessing departments into local executive offices, since it is boards of selectmen, city and town chief executives and mayors who decide when to schedule town meetings or hold tax classification hearings, Nunes said. In December 2013, communities held 177 tax classification hearings.

The TAP initiative is part of the DLS’s fiscal 2015 strategic plan, and the agency will report on the results in January 2015.

Nunes encourages any city or town interested in participating to contact him at nunesr@dor.state.ma.us or (617) 626-2381.

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