Newton Residents Brace For New Federal Tax Law Impacts

NEWTON, MA — Apparently the new Federal Tax law set to take effect Monday is on the minds of a few folks in the city. Newton residents have been calling city hall with the same question: Can we prepay our property taxes now for the 2018 year before they lose the ability to deduct the entire bill on their federal taxes?

The short answer: You can pre-pay about half.

"After careful consideration and consultation with our Law, Assessing, Treasury, and Comptroller’s Offices, as well as the Mass Department of Revenue we have determined that the City of Newton will continue the practice of accepting Real Estate Tax Pre-Payments for bills due through June 30, 2018, but will not accept payments for Property Taxes due in our next fiscal year (beginning July 1, 2018)," announced Newton’s Chief Financial Officer Maureen Lemieux, Wednesday.

Although it was true that Wellesley had been accepting payments for the entire 2018 calendar year, after consultation with the Massachusetts Department of Revenue they suspended that decision. There was also speculation that the City of Boston was accepting payments for the entire year. However, Mayor Warren's office said they looked into what Boston planned to do this year and confirmed that Boston is only accepting payments for the first quarter of 2018. Brookline, meanwhile will be accepting for the first two quarters.

The law was approved last week by Congress and signed on Dec. 22 by President Donald Trump.

The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act caps the amount of state and local taxes residents can deduct on their federal income tax return at at $10,000.

Geoff Beckwith, executive director of the Massachusetts Municipal Association, told the Associated Press that most shouldn't prepay if they expect their state and local tax bill to fall below $10,000.

Massachusetts ranks No.18 in the Nation when it comes to high property taxes. Massachusetts residents pay about 1.21 percent.

Newton city hall photo by Jenna Fisher/Patch