Recently in Property Tax in Boston:

The City Council made its decision and Medford's residential property tax rates went up for single family homeowners, reports the Boston Globe.

What may frustrate residential property tax payers even more is that as their rates went up, the commercial tax went down. As a result, single-family homeowners in Medford will pay an average $155 more in taxes this year. This is the 25th year in a row that taxes have gone up, according to Councilor Robert M. Penta.

Generally speaking, a local taxing authority (e.g. the county or municipal government) uses one of two methods to calculate the property tax rate:

The first winner of the reality show Survivor, Richard Hatch, who is from Rhode Island, is out of jail after nine months, reports the Washington Post. He has spent, in total, more than three years in prison for not paying taxes on his $1 million “Survivor” winnings.

The resident of Newport, who may be considered the first big reality star, was convicted of two counts of attempted tax evasion and one count of signing a false tax return, reports the Associated Press.

Vacant landowners are under attack in Massachusetts. Brockton Mayor Lisa Balzotti is pushing for an abandoned homes registry that requires a $150 fee from owners of empty homes. Now the Town of Weymouth has instituted a delinquent taxpayers list that targets vacant landowners.

Weymouth will publish on its website a list of property owners who have failed to pay property taxes. The list only includes properties that the town has taken a lien against -- usually after repeated, failed attempts to contact the landowners, reports The Patriot Ledger. About half of the 193 properties listed are vacant lots.

Boston taxpayers who have not yet filed their taxes may run into a few surprises due to legislation from the end of the last year that extended some tax breaks, but ended others.

According to The Boston Globe, some individuals may be able to take advantage of a couple of 2010 tax breaks, like energy or homebuyer's tax credits. Others might realize that their debt-reduction attempts last year may have increased their current tax bill, given that forgiven debt on credit cards is considered taxable income.

When an individual buys a home, the property immediately becomes subject to property taxes that are determined by a local taxing authority, like a municipal or county government. While most Boston homeowners are accustomed to paying these taxes, many people, especially those considering purchasing their first home, may not be familiar with how property tax rates are determined.

According to FindLaw, a property tax assessment is a general estimate of how much a piece of property is worth, and the valuation or appraisal of that property helps establish how much of the local property tax levy will be paid by the owner. That value, once it is determined, is multiplied by the local tax rates or “mill rate” to determine the how much property tax the owner is required to pay for the property.

The Massachusetts Department of Revenue reported that property values for single-family homes across the state fell to an average of 8.1 percent each year between 2007 and the summer of 2010. Although most Boston homeowners would assume that lower property values would mean lower tax bills, The Boston Globe writes that property taxes might actually increase instead.

Revenue Department spokesperson Bob Bliss said “it’s always been this way,” explaining that, “even if values go down, taxes go up… It’s like saying that it’s extraordinary that the sun rises every day.”

The budget cuts in state aid and struggling economy has led the city of Boston to increase its residential and property tax rates by the maximum amount permitted under the law. Mayor Thomas M. Menino's office stated that the decline in Boston's revenue sources, particularly in receiving state aid, has brought the city no other alternative but to raise the city's property taxes.

The Boston Herald reported residential tax rates will rise up to 7.6 percent or $12.79 for every thousand dollars of valuation. This comes out to an increase of $224 each year for the average Boston-area homeowner. Business property taxes will also go up 5.6 percent or $31.04 per thousand in the city.

Property tax is commonly based on the value of real property, even though there are different kinds of property subject to real property tax. "Real property" is land and anything permanently attached to the land, like a building. Examples of real property include offices, apartments, homes, and commercial buildings. Taxing land and buildings are a chief source of revenue for local governments like Boston's, and state law provides municipalities with the power to levy property taxes.

An MA real estate lawyer can explain the all the details on property taxes for Boston homeowners. Generally, property tax entails three phases: levy, appraisal, and collection. Taxing authorities, like a city or hospital, within local governments are responsible for administering the three parts of property tax.

It seems like BID, Boston's first attempt at a business improvement district, may have its first obstacle ahead of it. The Boston Herald reports that Equity Office Properties which is Boston's largest commercial property owner, has decided not to participate in Downtown Crossings' BID program. While a Boston real estate lawyer can explain the details of the BID program, the program is intended to help struggling commercial areas in Boston through initiatives such as security, cleaning, marketing, and improvements.

If Equity Office Properties had agreed to join BID, it would have contributed close to $700,000 annually. There is a total of 16 percent of BID property owners who have declined to pay BID fees. These fees are on top of existing property taxes. However, the BID program has 84 percent of property owners who are willing to contribute close to $3.1 million in the first year. Rosemary Sansone, president of the Downtown Crossing Partnership told the Boston Herald:

Mayor Menino has taken a stand against owners of abandoned properties. The Boston Herald reports that Mayor Menino has created an abandoned property task force to check on properties weekly in order to ensure that owners make "necessary repairs." Mayor Menino warns that if property owners do not cooperate, they will need to go to court with their Boston real estate attorney in order to fight an order to make repairs.

This is all part of an effort by the city of Boston to fight against blight and potentially dangerous properties. Mayor Menino told the Boston Herald: "We don't need buildings like this in our city." He was referring to the abandoned Roxbury warehouse that was engulfed in a fire over the weekend. The fire consumed a whole block of abandoned warehouses. The fire may have been started by fireworks set off by people who may have been illegally squatting on the block. One of the buildings in the blaze was on the city's fire department list as a dangerous building.