ICYMI: Kassner Bill Would Allow More Seniors to Claim Income-Tax Credit
H-W News
By Emma Fringuelli | H-W News Staff
Hamilton State Rep. Kristin Kassner has filed legislation intended to expand some seniors’ eligibility for state tax credits.
The legislation, House Bill 5298, aims to eliminate a loophole that has prevented seniors who make use of one state tax-relief program from qualifying for additional savings under another. It would do so by modifying the Senior Circuit Breaker Tax Credit, a refundable state income-tax credit designed to help seniors offset property-tax and rent costs.
Currently, the Circuit Breaker program is only available to seniors based on the actual real estate taxes or rent they pay. That means it is not open to seniors who use a second tax-relief program established under Mass. General Law 59, section 5(41A). This second program—known as Clause 41A—allows residents who are 65 or older and whose income falls within a certain range to defer paying property taxes until their home is sold.
Kassner’s bill would make the Circuit Breaker credit available to seniors in the Clause 41A program by including deferred real-estate payments among those that qualify for the state income-tax relief. Specifically, her legislation would define real-estate tax payment as “the real estate tax levied pursuant to chapter 59 on the taxpayer's residence and actually paid OR DEFERRED by the taxpayer during the taxable year…”
This two-word addition would ensure that seniors making use of the state’s senior property-tax deferral can also qualify for the Circuit Breaker credit, which allowed income-tax savings of up to $2,820 in fiscal 2025. They should be allowed to do so, backers of the bill say, because the property taxes they owe will eventually be paid when their home is sold.
"Seniors on a fixed income are struggling to pay for food, electricity, gas—and property taxes, which are also increasing across the Commonwealth,” Kassner told the Beacon Hill Roll Call. “This bill would allow income-qualifying seniors to defer property taxes [with the property taxes eventually paid in full, with interest, on the sale of their home] and still qualify for the Senior Circuit Breaker. It was crafted in consultation with the [Department of ] Revenue, the House Committee on Revenue, and House Counsel."
This bill, which is headed to the Joint Committee on Revenue, has garnered support from seniors and local officials in the North Shore.
Starting May 5, the joint committee began taking written testimony on the bill. One piece of testimony was a letter of support written by Hamilton resident Jay Burnham, who was previously involved in a group promoting tax legislation to help seniors.
“Today, seniors who use the Property Tax Deferral Program—a program specifically designed to help them remain in their homes— are disqualified from the Senior Circuit
Breaker Tax Credit because the application for that credit asks whether they have ‘paid’ their property taxes,” he wrote. “If they have deferred those taxes, they must answer ‘no.’ And because of that technicality alone, they lose the available tax credit.”
Burnham’s letter was co-signed by 40 people in Hamilton and Wenham, including Hamilton Select Board members, Hamilton Town Manager Joe Domelowicz and Wenham Council on Aging Director Jim Reynolds.
“H.5298 restores fairness. It ensures that two programs intended to provide relief to seniors do not work against each other,” the letter reads. “This is a practical fix, a reasonable fix, and most importantly, a just fix. I respectfully urge favorable action.”
