If any of you practice (or live) in MA and haven't seen this, you may wish to read it.
The Office of Chief Counsel has issued a memo about treatment of the refundable MA senior citizen's circuit breaker credit which is a refundable credit based on your real estate tax.
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Really short version:
- If you get it as a renter, the refundable part is not gross income.
- If you get it as an owner and do not itemize, the refundable part is not gross income.
- If you itemized, then you have to include the credit as income to the extent the real estate tax deduction reduced the tax imposed.