Selectmen Look to Find Tax Exemption for Small Businesses

A years-old proposal to give Mansfield small business a break on their taxes will likely remain that in the near future.

During the Aug. 20 meeting of the Mansfield selectmen, Board of Accessor chair Greg Matoian and assistant assessor Nancy Hinote discussed the possibility of giving small businesses with less than 10 full-time employees on parcels worth less than $1 million a 10 percent commercial tax exemption,

While this year’s assessing info is not yet complete, Hinote said last year’s data shows a total value of $12.461 million for eligible businesses. A 10 percent exemption would be equal to just under $1.25 million. According to Hinote, the difference would get shifted to the commercial-industrial rate, which would go up by four cents.

A roadblock in the proposal appears to be the difficulty in making sure the benefits of the exemption get to the owners of the businesses. The owners of the eligible business must own the land if they are to receive the exemption.

“What concerns me is that you have a small business on the list and the business rents their building, then the benefit goes to the property owner,” Hinote said.

The lack of a mechanism to make sure the businesses get the benefit of the exemption worried selectman Jess Aptowitz.

“We’ve talked about for years a third rate for businesses. It came up again in this past year’s election and I get the feeling that a lot of the small businesses don’t own the building so that’s only going to help the landlords,” Apowitz said.

Matoian also recommended looking at an exemption though the personal property tax rate. Currently, the exemption is for business with personal property accounts with an evaluation under $2,000. A special town meeting would be needed to raise the value to the $5,000 discussed at the meeting.

Hinote said she expects to have an updated list of businesses that would eligible for the proposed exemption by the end of August.