Senior Citizen Property Tax Credit for Volunteers - (Cape Elizabeth: vehicle registration, assessor)

[ilovemycat]

Reading an online article from Kiplinger's comparing state tax treatment for retirees, an interesting paragraph regarding Maine was: A senior citizen property tax credit for volunteer service is available. A municipality may adopt an ordinance to allow resident homeowners who are at least 60 years old to earn up to $750 in benefits by volunteering to provide services to the municipality. The benefits are not subject to Maine income tax.
Read more at State-by-State Guide to Taxes on Retirees-Kiplinger

Anyone live in a municipality where this applies? I happen to volunteer in my town (Cape Elizabeth) and am over 60, but doubt we have such an ordinance. I will check next week and suggest other volunteers check with their town as well.

Also, while on the subject of taxes, do you know that if you itemize your deductions, you can deduct as part of your charitable contributions the portion of the annual cost of your vanity license plates that goes toward the charity involved. For instance, if you have the lobster license plate, $10.00 of your fee is considered a donation to the Lobster Research Education and Development Fund. And the excise tax you pay with your vehicle registration is considered tax deductible under "personal property taxes", again if you itemize. Both of these items were explained to me by my municipal clerk when I asked, and when registering our vehicles and buying a vanity plate.

[Northern Maine Land Man]

Your town meeting or city council must pass that on an annual basis. Your work must be approved beforehand. You can't show up at the end of the year and submit a bill to the town for work nobody knew about.

[ilovemycat]

I am a little confused about why you use the terms "work" and "submitting a bill". My impression, just from reading the paragraph I posted, was that if you volunteer in your town (say on a committee), and if your town has passed some sort of provision to recognize that volunteerism, you could get a partial property tax credit. But, I guess the value of that volunteerism needs to be quantified in some way, so I really don't understand what the provision is all about. Does it apply to say volunteers who shovel snow off hydrants, if the town asks for such volunteers, and then they say, you "worked" at shoveling for 6 hours, and the "value of your work was $10.00 an hour, so you could get a $60.00 tax credit? Or volunteer fire fighters? Is that who it is aimed at?

[retiredtinbender]

As far as I know there are only 1 or 2 towns that do this. The town has to pass an ordinance to have it apply. Check with your towns assessor to see if yours does this. Simplest way. Boards and committee volunteering is not a method, I don't believe.