Currently 14 environmental taxes, fees or exemptions exist in Massachusetts. They can generally be divided into the following categories:

1. Reducing Point Source Pollution
• Amortization – deduction for full amount of costs paid or incurred between 1972 and 1980 for the installation or acquisition of equipment used to treat industrial waste.
• Property Tax Exemption

Air Pollution: For property that is certified to abate, prevent or eliminate industrial air pollution, prorated based on percentage of property used for air pollution abatement.

Water and Industrial Waste Pollution: Exempts property that reduces water pollution by treating wastes; proportional based on extent property is used for waste treatment

2. Managing Solid Waste
• Fees on Treatment/Disposal Facilities – Tax per ton of solid waste received by privately owned or operated resource recovery facilities or landfills paid to the host municipality.
• Bottle Deposit – 5-cent deposit on the sale of glass, metal or plastic carbonated beverage containers. Unclaimed deposits must be submitted to the state for its Clean Environment Fund to be used for recycling, composting and solid waste reduction projects.
3. Reducing Fossil Fuel Use in the Transportation Sector
• Traditional Motor Vehicle Fuel Taxes – 21 cents per gallon of gasoline
• Van Pool Vehicle Tax Incentives
• Registration Fee Exemption – for corporate van pool vehicles subject to certification of threshold frequency of use and employee participation.
• Excise Tax Exemption – for up to 30% of the cost of purchasing or leasing shuttle vans. Subject to same certification as required for registration fee exemption.
4. Reducing Fossil Fuel Usage in the Energy Sector
• Renewable Energy Investment Incentives
• Property Tax Exemption – twenty-year property tax exemption available for qualifying solar and wind systems.
• Accelerated Depreciation – Corporate income tax deductions for full amount of costs for construction and installation of solar or wind climactic control or heating units.
• Sales Tax Exemption – Sales tax exemption for solar or wind powered heating or pumping system for an individual’s principal residence within the state.
• Income Tax Credit – Individual income tax credit for purchase and installation of renewable energy source systems in principal residence.
• Franchise Tax Exemption – Qualifying solar or wind energy equipment that may otherwise be included in determining a company’s franchise tax liability is exempted.
• Income Tax Deduction for Patent Revenue – Individual income tax deduction for income from the sale, lease or other transfer of US patents which are useful to energy conservation or to development of alternative energy systems.
5. Maintaining Undeveloped Land, Property Tax Relief – property tax scaled according to current use assessment of forest, farm, preservation, or recreational land.