BOSTON (AP) – As it struggles to improve its financial condition by selling off closed churches, the Boston Archdiocese is facing a new and unfamiliar kind of expense: property taxes.

Under state law, houses of worship are exempt from property taxes.

But with more than 60 churches closed under a major restructuring of the archdiocese, local tax assessors are beginning to look at the closed churches as taxable property.

Last month, the tax assessor in Danvers sent the archdiocese a tax bill of $13,450 for St. Alphonsus Church, which closed more than a year ago under the archdiocese’s reconfiguration plan.

“What the law says is that a church or a house of religious worship has to be owned by the tax-exempt entity and occupied for religious services or instruction,” said Marlene Locke, chief assessor for Danvers. “My feeling was the church has been sitting vacant for over a year, they are actively marketing it. … I felt that it no longer met the requirements for a religious tax exemption, and that’s why we decided to put it back on the tax rolls.”

Terrence Donilon, a spokesman for the archdiocese, said its lawyers are reviewing the issue.

The issue is creating a buzz among tax assessors in Massachusetts, some of whom admit they do not know quite what to do.

Charles Zech, an economics professor at Villanova University who studies church finances, said he would side with the archdiocese on the issue.

“Until it’s converted to a non-church use, it’s still church property,” and still tax exempt, Zech said. “I suspect that what happened here is the Archdiocese of Boston has alienated the communities so badly where maybe some of them are looking for things that they maybe wouldn’t have before.”

It’s been a tumultuous past several years within the Boston Archdiocese – once viewed as a powerful and nearly untouchable institution in this heavily Catholic state – which saw burgeoning clergy sex abuse scandal lead to the resignation of Cardinal Bernard Law and a drop in attendance and contributions.

Last year, the archdiocese, under recently appointed Archbishop Sean O’Malley, announced plans to close about 80 of its 357 parishes as part of a restructuring. O’Malley has said the reconfiguration is necessary because of declining church attendance, a shortage of priests and the archdiocese’s struggling financial health.

In Scituate, assessors voted last week to send the archdiocese a bill for $42,000 to cover the annual property taxes for St. Frances Xavier Cabrini church, based on an assessment of $4.45 million for the 30-acre property. Masses have not been held at the church for nearly a year, but a group of parishioners has been holding a 24-hour-protest vigil in hopes of keeping the church open.

Stephen Jarzembowski, Scituate’s director of assessing, said the tax bill will be sent to the archdiocese in December.

“I think the board of assessors took the position that it was pretty clear that it no longer met the guidelines for an exemption under the statute,” Jarzembowski said.

But others say there is a great deal of confusion over whether the closed churches are taxable.

Fred Razzaboni, president of the Massachusetts Association of Assessing Officers, said there are two issues to consider: the ownership of the property and the use of the property.

“I think the use issue will prevail,” Razzaboni said. “Right now the law says a church is exempt from taxation. So if it is not used as a church, then I don’t think it has tax-exempt status anymore. I think it will be taxable.”

“It is a touchy area,” said Marion Fantucchio, the chief assessor in Quincy, who is also the secretary and treasurer of the state assessing group. She said the issue is a hot topic of debate on a Web site where assessors chat and exchange information.

Fantucchio herself said she is mulling over whether to send a tax bill to the archdiocese for St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, a closed church that the archdiocese has placed on the market.

“There is a specific section of the law that exempts houses of worship, and when a church is closed and it’s up for sale, it’s not being used as a church any longer, so the feelings right now are … why should it continue receiving an exempt status under the statute that covers churches?” Fantucchio said.

Fantucchio said she plans to seek a clarification from the state Department of Revenue before making a decision. But Tim Connolly, a spokesman for the department, said the decision on whether to tax closed churches will be left to individual communities.

“This is not a Department of Revenue decision,” Connolly said. “The assessors make their own decisions in their own communities. If they make a decision that the taxpayer disagrees with, the taxpayer can appeal to the (state) Appellate Tax Board.”

In Boston, tax assessors haven’t made a final decision. But Ron Rakow, the city’s commissioner of assessing, said he is inclined to agree that the closed churches have lost their tax-exempt status.

“If the property is no longer being used as a church as of July 1, then it does become taxable,” Rakow said.