• State Rental Registry: The law requires operators of short-term rental units to register with the Executive Office of Housing and Economic Development. Operators must identify the City or Town and street, but not the street number, where the rental until is located.

• Municipal Rental Registry: Municipalities may also establish a local registry for all short-term rental accommodations. The City or Town is empowered to determine what relevant information may be listed in the registry, including where the accommodation is located.

• State Excise Tax: The law mandates that homeowners collect a 5.7% state room occupancy excise tax on the transfer of short-term rentals – the same excise tax that currently applies to the transfer of rooms in traditional lodging establishments.

• Municipal Excise Tax: The law also extends the local option room excise tax on short-term rentals. If a City or Town has already adopted a local option room occupancy excise (M.G.L.c.64G, §3A), the local option automatically applies to a short-term rental starting July 1, 2019 for which a rental contract was entered into on or after January 1, 2019. No further action is required by these Cities or Towns to impose the local option on short-term rentals. See Department of Revenue’s Guidance, here.

• Community Impact Fee: Municipalities may impose a Community Impact Fee of not more than 3% on the transfer of a “professionally managed short-term unit,” defined as “1 of 2 or more short-term rental units that are located in the same city or town, operated by the same operator and are not located within a single-family, two-family or three-family dwelling that includes the operator’s primary residence.”If a municipality elects to impose the Community Impact Fee on professionally managed short-term units, then the City or Town may also impose the Community Impact Fee on the transfer of a short-term rental unit that is located within a two-family or three-family dwelling that includes the operator’s primary residence. A separate vote of Town Meeting is required to impose each type of Community Impact Fee. Municipalities must dedicate not less than 35% of any Community Impact Fees collected to affordable housing or local infrastructure projects.

• Exemption: Generally, the state excise tax, the local option tax, and the Community Impact Fee do not apply to properties rented for fewer than 15 days per calendar year. The operators of tax-exempt units must still register in the state registry and notify the state of their intention to rent the unit for fewer than 15 days in order to be exempt from the obligation to collect the applicable taxes.

• State Certificate of Registration: Operators must obtain a certificate of registration from the Department of Revenue prior to operation.

• Municipal Licensure and Regulations: Cities and Towns may, by ordinance or bylaw, regulate the operation of short-term rentals, as well as bed and breakfast establishments, hotels, lodging houses, and motels. Specifically, an ordinance or bylaw may:

• Regulate the existence or location of operators, including regulating the class of operators and number of local licenses or permits issued, and the number of days a person may operate and rent out an accommodation in a calendar year;

• Require the licensing or registration of operators;

• Require operators to demonstrate that any properties subject to the excise tax requirements are not subject to any outstanding building, electrical, plumbing, mechanical, fire, health, housing or zoning code enforcement, including any notices of violation, notices to cure, orders of abatement, cease and desist orders or correction notices;

• Require properties subject to the excise tax requirements to undergo health and safety inspections;

• Establish a civil penalty for violation of the ordinance or bylaw; and

• Establish a reasonable licensing or registration fee to cover the costs associated with the local administration and enforcement of regulating operators and accommodations.

• All local government approvals for small wireless facilities (SWFs) must be acted upon within the applicable shot clock deadline.
• This means zoning, wetlands, and even building permits.
• Shot clock deadlines are short. For example, there is a 60-day deadline from application to approval for collocation on existing structures (no longer just existing towers).
• Shot clock deadlines can be tolled by mutual agreement.
• A permit-granting Board or Committee may avoid the shot clock deadline if the application is incomplete and the applicant is notified shortly after filing.
• The applicant has 30 days to appeal any decision or failure to act.
• Application fees are limited to reasonable costs, not reasonable compensation of the permit-granting Board or Committee.
• Fees are presumed reasonable if , they are less than or equal to $500 for up to five SWFs.
• A municipality that wants to charge more must create a record in support of its decision. Such a municipality should assume that the SWF applicant will challenge the as unreasonable
• The fee cap is for all local governmental approvals (Planning Board filing fees, Conservation Commission filing fees, building permits, etc.) combined.
• The fee must apply to all SWF applications, not just those located in municipal rights of way.
• Recurring fees for use of municipal land and rights of way, or to attach to a government-owned fixture or structure must be non-discriminatory and represent a reasonable approximation of the reasonable costs specifically related to and caused by the deployment.
• Recurring fees will be deemed to be reasonable if they do not exceed $270/year per SWF.
• Gross revenue-based fees are not cost-based and therefore are not allowed.
•  Agreements for annual payments to a municipality that pre-exist this Order are not grandfathered; so the FCC can preempt them on a case-by-case basis. Expect existing agreements to be challenged.
•  If the municipality wants to apply aesthetic standards to SWFs, the standards must be reasonable, “no more burdensome than those imposed on similar infrastructure,” “incorporate clearly-defined and ascertainable standards” and must be published before an application is received.

• A requirement that all other Town permits (except for building permits) must be in hand before an application will be accepted as complete.
• A requirement that applicants specifically identify what statutory provision they are applying under, so that the applicable shot clock can be identified and adhered to.
• A requirement that the applicant state whether the application Is under this Order, the §6409/Wireless Siting Order (which mandates local approval of certain wireless broadband facilities on existing structures if the new equipment does not result in a substantial change to the structure), or neither.

• A requirement that construction drawings be included with each application.
• A prohibition against emailed applications.

• Do not accept an application without the fee payment.