The massachusetts lead paint removal credit
What is the Massachusetts lead removal credit?
The State of Mass has for quite a while has had a state tax credit for homeowners that bring their property into lead safe compliance. This credit is to help offset some of the costs of the lead paint inspection and the actual deleading and abatement work. Almost none of the people that put the lead paint in the homes own them today, but we’re all left to deal with the lead paint that’s there today.
Back in January of 2024, the lead paint removal credit was increased to $3000/unit (previously it was $1500/unit). Inspection fees and any money paid for deleading work counts.
How do I qualify and how do i get the money?
To qualify for the State’s lead removal credit, you need to complete the full process of bringing your home into lead safe compliance (Here’s my post on the details of that). When you’ve brought your house into compliance, you’ll have a Letter of Compliance which is the main document that proves you’ve gone through the whole process properly. To file for the tax credit, you’ll need the letter of compliance, invoices/receipts for the inspection and/or abatement work, and the schedule LP document from the State’s website (Here’s the link to last years form as an example). Please note this isn’t financial or tax advice and double check everything with your accountant.
You’ll need to submit these documents with your State Tax Returns, and you’ll receive the credit. The way the credit works is let’s say for example you earned the full tax credit of $3000. In this example you owe the State $5000 in taxes for the year. With the application of the credit, your new tax bill to the State would be $2000.
The credit cannot be used to make your taxes go negative, but the credit can be rolled into the following years tax returns so you receive your full credit in time.
A couple of examples
For a single family that’s brought into a compliance, you would qualify for a State Tax Credit of up to $3000. For a 2-family building, if both units are brought into compliance, you would receive up to $6000 in tax credits. For a 3-family property, if all the units are brought into compliance, you would receive up to $9000 in tax credits.
You can see that with the higher unit buildings, the amount of the credit can increase pretty quickly to cover most of the costs of the process of testing and abating the property.
Hopefully this helped to explain the tax credit a bit and if you have more questions, don’t hesitate to give us a call or reach out on our contact submission form. Cheers!