Massachusetts Tax Board Finds Assessors Overvalued Taxpayers’ Waterfront Property, Grants Property Tax Abatement

The Massachusetts Appellate Tax Board Oct. 13 found Taxpayers’ waterfront property was eligible for a property tax abatement. The Board of Assessors of the Town of Kingston assessed Taxpayers’ property. Taxpayers paid the assessment and filed an abatement application, which was denied. Taxpayers appealed, presenting four comparable sales near the subject property. The appeals board noted that Taxpayers didn’t establish that the property’s location in a non-preferred flood zone with yearly flood insurance premiums, a right of way used regularly by the owners of a nearby parcel, vehicular traffic, noise from low-level helicopter flight patterns, and a nearby commuter rail ...