Wilmington No Longer Accepting 2018 Property Tax Pre-Payments

WILMINGTON, MA -- The town sent out a notice late Friday afternoon saying it had emptied its mailbox at 4:30 pm and any tax payments submitted over the weekend would not be credited to the next business day on January 2, 2018. That means Wilmington residents who had hoped to prepay 2018 property taxes to avoid a new provision in the recently-signed tax bill have missed their chance, unless they dropped off their payment before 4:30 pm.

The rush -- and the ensuing confusion -- comes with the new Trump administration tax package, which will cap the amount of state and local taxes people can deduct on their federal returns at $10,000. The rationale is that if you pay your 2018 property taxes in 2017, you won't get hit with the cap provision until the second year under the Trump tax bill. In Massachusetts, where property values are soaring, property taxes are by far where taxpayers take the biggest hit on the local level.

The problem for Massachusetts residents is that many communities operate on a fiscal year that starts July 1, meaning they have yet to set their 2018 tax rates and assessments. And Galvin's guidance said people could only prepay taxes that were assessed this year, meaning if your town hasn't assessed yet, you won't benefit from pre-paying.

Galvin's comments essentially echoed the IRS directive: "In general, whether a taxpayer is allowed a deduction for the prepayment of state or local real property taxes in 2017 depends on whether the taxpayer makes the payment in 2017 and the real property taxes are assessed prior to 2018. A prepayment of anticipated real property taxes that have not been assessed prior to 2018 are not deductible in 2017."

In other words, if your town hasn't assessed property taxes for 2018 yet, you're going to have to live with the cap when you file your federal return. And Galvin's advisory also said payments need to be made in person just a day before most town halls closed for the year.

A spokesperson for Galvin's office were not immediately available for comment Friday. An IRS spokesman said people should refer to Wednesday's IRS advisory and did not offer further elaboration.

Other towns were continuing to accept tax payments after the close of business Friday. Brookline, for example, had already told residents that they could prepay taxes by mail as long as their payments were postmarked by December 30, according to Brookline Town Meeting Member John Vanscoyoc. And Tewksbury said Friday it would allow residents to prepay their 2018 property taxes online through December 31 to avoid caps on deductions in the new federal tax laws.

More on this story:

• Should MA Residents Prepay Their 2018 Property Taxes?(12/28/2017)

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Patch file photo.

Dave Copeland can be reached at dave.copeland@patch.com or by calling 617-433-7851. Follow him on Twitter (@CopeWrites) and Facebook (/copewrites).