A Massachusetts town may charge commercial, industrial and personal property a higher rate than homes, shifting part of a fixed levy off residents. 16 of this region's 101 towns do. The other 85 charge every class the same rate, and one of those, Shutesbury, certifies rates two cents apart, a difference too small to move the burden either way.
The widest split is Florida, where business pays $21.72 per $1,000 against $8.28 residential: 2.62 times the rate. The narrowest is Adams at 1.38 times.
Two Different Reasons to Split
The sixteen are really two lists. One is the cities and larger suburbs: Springfield, Holyoke, Chicopee, West Springfield, Pittsfield and the rest, where business holds roughly a fifth to a quarter of the value and the split shifts some of the burden off a large residential population.
The other list is stranger and more western Massachusetts: Florida, Monroe, Rowe, Erving, small hill towns where hydroelectric and utility installations hold 51% to 85% of the entire tax base. There the split is not relief for a big population; it is a few hundred households letting the power company carry the town. Rowe charges homes $5.24 per $1,000 that way, among the lowest residential rates in the region.
Why It Does Less for Homeowners Than It Sounds
The split does not raise a dollar. The levy is fixed before the rates are set; the split only reapportions it. So what a homeowner saves depends entirely on how much business value there is to shift onto, and in most of these towns there is not much.
Take Springfield. Business pays 2.22 times the residential rate, which sounds like business carrying the city. It carries 39% of the levy, because it holds only 22% of the value. Households pay most of the property tax in every split-rate city here; the closest case is West Springfield, where business carries 45%. The exceptions are the infrastructure towns above, where the base itself, not the split, is what makes residents' bills small.
The split also has a cost the bill never shows: a storefront or a shop building in a split-rate town pays materially more tax per $1,000 than the house next door, which is part of any conversation about why a Main Street struggles to fill.
All Sixteen, With What Business Actually Carries
Sortable. The last two columns are the pair to read together: the share of value business holds, and the share of the levy it ends up paying once the higher rate is applied.
Split Tax Rates and the Business Share of the Levy, Fiscal 2026
Download CSV, same columns, same definitions
Every town charging commercial, industrial and personal property a higher rate than residential: both certified rates, the multiple between them, the business share of assessed value, and the computed share of the levy business pays.
| Town | Residential Rate | Commercial Rate | Multiple | Business Share of Value | Business Share of Levy |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Florida | $8.28 | $21.72 | 2.62x | 56.6% | 77.4% |
| Monroe | $10.13 | $23.50 | 2.32x | 50.5% | 70.3% |
| Springfield | $15.46 | $34.35 | 2.22x | 22.1% | 38.7% |
| Holyoke | $17.43 | $38.15 | 2.19x | 21.1% | 36.9% |
| Rowe | $5.24 | $11.42 | 2.18x | 84.8% | 92.4% |
| Chicopee | $15.24 | $32.60 | 2.14x | 19.5% | 34.2% |
| West Springfield | $14.02 | $29.59 | 2.11x | 27.7% | 44.7% |
| Pittsfield | $17.50 | $36.90 | 2.11x | 18.5% | 32.4% |
| North Adams | $15.97 | $33.40 | 2.09x | 20.1% | 34.5% |
| Westfield | $14.93 | $29.17 | 1.95x | 17.1% | 28.7% |
| Agawam | $14.10 | $26.67 | 1.89x | 21.3% | 33.8% |
| Erving | $9.58 | $16.14 | 1.68x | 78.7% | 86.2% |
| Montague | $15.13 | $25.06 | 1.66x | 27.9% | 39.1% |
| Sandisfield | $7.89 | $12.79 | 1.62x | 12.1% | 18.2% |
| Lenox | $9.85 | $14.37 | 1.46x | 19.7% | 26.4% |
| Adams | $15.63 | $21.51 | 1.38x | 15.6% | 20.2% |
The line under each Business Share of Levy is its margin from this table's middle of 35.7%: left of centre is below it, right of centre is above, and both sides are drawn to the same scale. The middle is this table's own and does not move when you sort. It is a distance, not a position in a league table, and nothing here is ranked.
What These Columns Mean
- Town
- The municipality. Links to its full tax record.
- Residential Rate
- The certified residential rate per $1,000 of assessed value, fiscal 2026.
- Commercial Rate
- The certified commercial, industrial and personal property rate per $1,000, fiscal 2026.
- Multiple
- The commercial rate as a multiple of the residential rate.
- Business Share of Value
- Commercial, industrial and personal property as a share of the town's total assessed value.
- Business Share of Levy
- The share of the town's property tax actually paid by commercial, industrial and personal property, computed from certified values and rates.
Cite: RE413. “Split Tax Rates and the Business Share of the Levy, Fiscal 2026.” Updated September 19, 2026. https://www.re413.com/news/split-tax-rate-massachusetts/, underlying sources at https://www.re413.com/sources/.
What This Does Not Mean
A single rate is not a subsidy to business, and a split rate is not a punishment; both raise the same levy. The choice is made annually at each town's tax classification hearing, so a town can adopt a split, widen it or abandon it year by year. This table is fiscal 2026 and carries no promise about fiscal 2027.
If you are pricing a home, the split matters only through the residential rate, and every town's rate and real bill is the place to compare those. If you are pricing a commercial building, the commercial column above is your rate, and each town's record carries its history.
Sources
- Massachusetts Department of Revenue, Division of Local Services. Certified tax rates by class and assessed values by class, fiscal 2026.
"Figures through" is the period the publisher's data describes; "checked" is only when we last asked. The full sourcing: sources and method.