Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 59, § 5
The following property shall be exempt from taxation and the date of determination as to age, ownership or other qualifying factors required by any clause shall be July 1 of each year unless another meaning is clearly apparent from the context; provided, however, that any person who receives an exemption pursuant to clause Seventeenth, Seventeenth C, Seventeenth C1/2, Seventeenth D, Twenty-second, Twenty-second A, Twenty-second B, Twenty-second C, Twenty-second D, Twenty-second E, Twenty-second F, Twenty-second G, Thirty-seventh, Thirty-seventh A, Forty-first, Forty-first B, Forty-first C, Forty-first C1/2, Forty-second, Forty-third, Fifty-sixth or Fifty-seventh shall not receive an exemption on the same property pursuant to any other provision of this section, except clause Eighteenth or Forty-fifth.
(e) Real and personal property of an educational institution coming within the foregoing description of a charitable organization which is occupied or used wholly or principally as residences for officers of such institutions and which is not part of or contiguous to real estate which is the principal location of such institution shall not be exempt.
In any city or town which accepts the provisions of this sentence, the provisions of subsection (c) shall not apply to any charitable non-residential mental health facility, organized under chapter one hundred and eighty which provides clinical, therapeutic, diagnostic and counseling services to persons with mental disorders. In any city or town that accepts this sentence, any real estate owned by, or held in trust for, a charitable organization for the purpose of creating community housing, as defined in section 2 of chapter 44B, that was purchased from an entity that acquired the property pursuant to section 14 of chapter 244 shall be exempt until such real estate is leased, rented or otherwise disposed of, but not for more than 7 years after such purchase.
Fourth, That portion of the real estate and buildings of incorporated horticultural societies used for their offices, libraries and buildings.
Fourth A, Real and personal estate of incorporated agricultural societies; provided, that if the whole or any part of any such real estate is used for other than agricultural exhibition purposes and if the society derives any income from such use, such real estate, or part, as the case may be, shall not be exempt; and provided further, that if such society has not held an agricultural exhibition on such land for a period of three years or more, such real estate shall not be exempt.
Fifth, The real and personal estate belonging to or held in trust for the benefit of incorporated organizations of veterans of any war in which the United States has been engaged, to the extent of two hundred thousand dollars, if actually used and occupied by such association, and if the net income from said property is used for charitable purposes; but it shall not be exempt for any year in which such association or the trustees holding for the benefit of such association wilfully omit to bring in to the assessors the list and statement required by section twenty-nine.
Fifth A, The real and personal estate belonging to or held in trust for the benefit of incorporated organizations of veterans of any war in which the United States has been engaged, to the extent of four hundred thousand dollars, if actually used and occupied by such association, and if the net income from said property is used for charitable purposes; but it shall not be exempt for any year in which such association or the trustees holding for the benefit of such association wilfully omit to bring into the assessors the list and statement required by section twenty-nine. This clause shall take effect upon its acceptance by any city or town. In those cities and towns which accept the provisions of this clause, the provisions of clause Fifth shall not be applicable; provided, however, that the state treasurer shall annually reimburse the city or town an amount equal to the reimbursement, if any, granted to such city or town under said clause Fifth for the most recent fiscal year in which it received such reimbursement.
Fifth B, The real and personal estate belonging to or held in trust for the benefit of incorporated organizations of veterans of any war in which the United States has been engaged, to the extent of seven hundred thousand dollars, if used and occupied by such association, and if the net income from said property is used for charitable purposes; provided, however, that such estate shall not be exempt for any year in which such association or the trustees holding for the benefit of such association wilfully omit to file with the assessors the list and statement required by section twenty-nine. This clause shall take effect upon its acceptance by any city or town. In a city or town which accepts the provisions of this clause, the provisions of clause Fifth and Fifth A shall not be applicable.
Fifth C, The real and personal estate belonging to or held in trust for the benefit of incorporated organizations of veterans of any war in which the United States has been engaged, to the extent of $1,500,000, if used and occupied by such association, and if the net income from the property is used for charitable purposes, but the estate shall not be exempt for any year in which the association, or the trustees holding for the benefit of the association, willfully fails to file with the assessors the list and statement required by section 29. This clause shall take effect upon its acceptance by any city or town. In a city or town which accepts this clause, clauses Fifth, Fifth A and Fifth B shall not be applicable.
Sixth, Real estate owned by or held in trust for a regiment, corps, company or other organized unit of the volunteer militia and used exclusively for military purposes, and tangible personal property owned by such an organized unit of the volunteer militia and used by it or its members exclusively for military purposes, for any year in which the trustee or a competent officer of the organization owning such property brings in to the assessors the list and statement required by section twenty-nine.
Seventh, Personal property of a fraternal society, order or association, operating under the lodge system or for the exclusive benefit of the members of a fraternity itself operating under the lodge system, and providing life, sick, accident or other benefits for the members of such society, order or association, or their dependents.
Eighth, Personal property of any retirement association exempted by section nineteen of chapter thirty-two.
Ninth, Property of any annuity, pension or endowment association exempted by section forty-one of said chapter.
Tenth, Personal property owned by or held in trust within the commonwealth for religious organizations, whether or not incorporated, if the principal or income is used or appropriated for religious, benevolent or charitable purposes.
Eleventh, Notwithstanding the provisions of any other general or special law to the contrary, houses of religious worship owned by, or held in trust for the use of, any religious organization, and the pews and furniture and each parsonage so owned, or held in irrevocable trust, for the exclusive benefit of the religious organizations, and including the official residences occupied by district superintendents of the United Methodist Church and the Christian and Missionary Alliance and of the Church of the Nazarene, and by district executives of the Southern New England District of the Assemblies of God, Inc., Unitarian–Universalist Churches and the Baptist General Conference of New England, and the official residence occupied by the president of the New England Synod of the Lutheran Church in America, Inc., and the official residence occupied by a person who has been designated by the congregation of a Hebrew Synagogue or Temple as the rabbi thereof, but such exemption shall not, except as herein provided, extend to any portion of any such house of religious worship appropriated for purposes other than religious worship or instruction. The occasional or incidental use of such property by an organization exempt from taxation under the provisions of 26 USC Sec. 501(c)(3) of the Federal Internal Revenue Code shall not be deemed to be an appropriation for purposes other than religious worship or instruction.
Twelfth, Cemeteries, tombs and rights of burial, so long as dedicated to the burial of the dead, and buildings owned by religious nonprofit corporations and used exclusively in the administration of such cemeteries, tombs and rights of burial.
Thirteenth, Personal property held by cities, towns, religious societies and cemeteries, whether incorporated or unincorporated, or by the commonwealth or by any corporation, for the perpetual care of graves, cemetery lots and cemeteries, for the placing of flowers upon graves, for the care or renewal of gravestones, monuments or tombs, and for the care and maintenance of burial chapels; but this exemption shall not apply to any such personal property held by a cemetery corporation which distributes any of the income or profits of its business among its stockholders or members, nor shall such property be exempt for any year in which the holder thereof, other than the state treasurer, omits to bring in to the assessors the list and statement required by section twenty-nine.
Fourteenth, Any real or personal property of a water company whose charter exempts such property from taxation, but not of any other water company unless exempted by clause sixteenth.
Fifteenth, Property other than real estate owned by a credit union incorporated under chapter one hundred and seventy-one; also the capital stock thereof.
Sixteenth, (1) In the case of: (i) a financial institution as defined in section 1 of chapter 63; (ii) a business corporation subject to taxation under chapter 63 other than a corporation mentioned in either paragraph (2) or (3); (iii) a telephone corporation subject to chapter 166; or (iv) a business corporation subject to taxation under section 20, 23 or 58 of said chapter 63, all property owned by such financial institution or corporation except real estate, poles, underground conduits, wires, pipes and machinery used in manufacture or in supplying or distributing water; provided, however, that in the case of a business corporation subject to taxation under said sections 20 or 23, the laws of the state of incorporation or, in the case of a business corporation of another nation, the laws of the state where it has elected to establish its principal office in the United States, grant similar exemption from taxation of tangible property owned by like corporations organized under or created by the laws of the commonwealth.
(3) In the case of (i) a manufacturing corporation or a research and development corporation, as defined in section 42B of chapter 63, or (ii) a limited liability company that;
(5) The classification by the commissioner or the appellate tax board of a corporation as a business corporation, manufacturing corporation or research and development corporation, as respectively defined as aforesaid, shall be followed in the assessment under this chapter of machinery used in the conduct of the business.
Seventeenth, Real estate, to the taxable valuation of two thousand dollars or the sum of one hundred and seventy-five dollars, whichever would result in an abatement of the greater amount of actual taxes due, of a surviving spouse or of any minor whose parent is deceased, occupied by such spouse, or minor as her or his domicile, or a person or persons over the age of seventy who has owned and occupied it as a domicile for not less than ten years; provided, that the whole estate, real and personal, of such spouse, person or minor does not exceed in value the sum of twenty thousand dollars, exclusive of property otherwise exempt under clauses Twelfth, Twentieth and Twenty-first and exclusive of the value of the mortgage interest held by persons other than the person or persons to be exempted in such mortgaged real estate as may be included in such whole estate. No real estate shall be so exempt which the assessors shall adjudge has been conveyed to such spouse, person or minor to evade taxation. A spouse, person or minor aggrieved by any such judgment may appeal to the county commissioners or to the appellate tax board within the time and in such manner allowed by section sixty-four or sixty-five, as the case may be. Where the whole estate, real and personal, of such spouse, person or minor exceeds in value the sum of eight thousand dollars, exclusive of property otherwise exempt as aforesaid and exclusive of the value of the mortgage interest as aforesaid, this exemption shall be borne by the commonwealth, and the state treasurer shall annually reimburse the city or town for the amount of the tax which otherwise would have been collected. Any exemption under this clause, to the taxable valuation of two thousand dollars or the sum of one hundred and seventy-five dollars, whichever would result in an abatement of the greater amount of actual taxes due may be apportioned among the persons whose title to the real estate was acquired under the provisions of section three of chapter one hundred and ninety and who qualify for an exemption under this clause.
[There is no clause Seventeenth A or Seventeenth B.]
First, Property owned by the United States so far as the taxation of such property is constitutionally prohibited, excepting property which the Congress of the United States has permitted to be subject to local taxation.
Second, Property of the commonwealth, except real estate of which the commonwealth is in possession under a mortgage for condition broken, lands in Boston known as the commonwealth flats, if leased for business purposes, lands and flats lying below high water mark in Provincetown harbor, belonging to the commonwealth and occupied by private persons by license of the department of environmental protection together with all wharves, piers and other structures which have been built thereon subsequent to the twenty-second day of May, nineteen hundred and twenty, and those which may hereafter be built on said lands and flats, in conformity with permits or licenses, buildings erected by lessees under section twenty-six of chapter seventy-five, structures erected on land in state forests, parks and reservations by persons occupying such land under authority conferred by the commissioner of environmental management, property taxable under chapter five hundred and seventy-five of the acts of nineteen hundred and twenty, and real estate taxable under section three A.
Third, Personal property of a charitable organization, which term, as used in this clause, shall mean (1) a literary, benevolent, charitable or scientific institution or temperance society incorporated in the commonwealth, and (2) a trust for literary, benevolent, charitable, scientific or temperance purposes if it is established by a declaration of trust executed in the commonwealth or all its trustees are appointed by a court or courts in the commonwealth and if its principal literary, benevolent, charitable, scientific or temperance purposes are solely carried out within the commonwealth or its literary, benevolent, charitable, scientific or temperance purposes are principally and usually carried out within the commonwealth; and real estate owned by or held in trust for a charitable organization and occupied by it or its officers for the purposes for which it is organized or by another charitable organization or organizations or its or their officers for the purposes of such other charitable organization or organizations; and real estate purchased by a charitable organization with the purpose of removal thereto, until such removal, but not for more than two years after such purchase; provided, however, that:—