Tax Collector/Treasurer's 
Office

Contact Information          

Office Hours:  8:30 a.m. - 4:30 p.m., Monday -Friday
Postal Address:  1625 Massachusetts Avenue, Lexington, MA 02420 
Location:  Town Hall, 1625 Massachusetts Avenue, First Floor 
Telephone:  (781) 862-0500 - for general questions and requests for tax information please call the main office extension 265.
Fax:  (781) 860-7003
e-mail address: taxoffice@ci.lexington.ma.us

The Treasurer/Collector is appointed by the Town Manager and supervised by the Assistant Town Manager for Finance.  The Tax Collector and staff:

• Issue over 100,000 bills each fiscal year, including real estate and personal property taxes (quarterly), motor vehicle excise tax (annually) and water and sewer charges (semi-annually). 
• Process parking ticket payments and issue refunds for abatements granted by the Board of Assessors.  
• Pursue timely collection of all bills and maintain a collection rate of over 98% of property tax bills. 
• Establish and maintain Tax Title accounts on delinquent real estate tax accounts.  

The Treasurer is responsible for the receipt, investment and disbursement of all Town funds.  The Treasurer and office staff:

• Manage all town bank accounts;
• Conduct both short term and long term borrowing for the Town;
• Invest available funds;  and
• Manage School Student Activity Accounts, specialized bank accounts set up for each elementary and secondary school for the processing of collection and spending of funds supplied by the students for their extracurricular activities.

FY2010 Preliminary Real Estate Tax Information

Second quarter Fiscal Year 2010 preliminary real estate and personal property tax bills will be mailed to all taxpayers on September 30, 2009. Your bill shows the amount of preliminary tax you owe for the first two quarters of fiscal year 2010, which runs from July 1, 2009 to June 30, 2010. Your second quarter payment is due November 2, 2009.   

Property taxes can be paid on-line.

The preliminary tax bill amount was calculated using a preliminary tax rate of $13.31 per $1,000 of assessed value for residential property and $25.27 per $1,000 of assessed value for commercial property. The amount due also includes the corresponding Community Preservation Act surcharge.

If you have questions on how your preliminary tax was determined, you should contact the Assessors Office. If you have questions on payments, you should contact the Collector's Office.

Real estate taxes are calculated as follows:

• The amount of tax shown on the 1st and 2nd quarter bills (issued July 1 and October 1 respectively) is estimated. Generally, each bill is based on 1/4 of the prior year (FY2009) tax bill plus amounts to reflect the 2.5% growth in the Town's tax levy allowed under Proposition 2 1/2.
• The 3rd and 4th quarter bills (issued January 1 and April 1 respectively) are actual tax bills based on tax rates adopted by the Board of Selectmen in December of each year.

Also, all quarterly bills include an amount for the annual Community Preservation Act surcharge approved at the Town election on March 6, 2006 and any Betterments or unpaid Water/Sewer Bills liened to the Real Estate bills.

• For residential property owners, the CPA surcharge is calculated as 3% of a parcel's net tax, which is the fiscal year residential tax rate multiplied by a parcel's assessed property value minus $100,000.  For commercial and industrial property owners, the surcharge is calculated as 3% of a parcel's full assessed value multiplied by the commercial/industrial tax rate.
  
  
• Please note that certain qualifying property taxpayers are eligible for an exemption from the CPA surcharge.