What States Exempt Disabled Veterans From Property Taxes?

Roughly two dozen states exempt disabled veterans from property taxes in full when the veteran holds a 100% Permanent and Total (P&T) service-connected disability rating from the VA, and most other states offer a partial reduction tied to the rating level. The exemption applies to your primary residence, the qualifying rules differ by state, and the dollar value runs from a few thousand dollars off your assessed value to a complete zero tax bill.

States With a Full Property Tax Exemption

Veterans rated 100% P&T by the VA pay no property tax on their primary residence in Texas, Florida, Virginia, Oklahoma, Maryland, Michigan, Mississippi, New Mexico, South Carolina, Arkansas, and Hawaii.¹ Several of these states also extend the full exemption to veterans compensated at the 100% rate through Individual Unemployability (TDIU), even though the underlying rating is lower.

New Jersey offers the full exemption too, but with a narrower condition: the 100% permanent and total disability must have been incurred during active-duty service. Maryland extends its full exemption to surviving spouses of service members killed in action.¹ If you hold a 100% P&T rating and own your home in one of these states, the benefit is often substantial and sometimes unclaimed.

States With Partial or Tiered Exemptions

Many states reduce the bill without eliminating it. The two common structures are fixed-dollar reductions off assessed value and tiered amounts that scale with your disability rating.

Fixed-Dollar Reductions

Wyoming reduces assessed value by $6,000 for eligible disabled veterans.² Alaska exempts the first $150,000 of assessed value for veterans rated 50% or higher. The dollar savings depend on your local tax rate, but even a modest reduction can cut an annual bill by hundreds.

Tiered Systems

Texas uses one of the clearest tiers in the country. A 10% to 29% rating gets a $5,000 exemption from appraised value; 30% to 49% gets $7,500; 50% to 69% gets $10,000; 70% to 99% gets $12,000. At 100%, the exemption is total.

Illinois exempts $2,500 of equalized assessed value at the 30% to 49% tier, $5,000 at the 50% to 69% tier, and up to $250,000 of assessed value at 70% or above.

California takes a different approach. Rather than full relief at 100%, California reduces assessed value by a capped amount that adjusts for inflation each year. For 2026, the basic exemption is $180,671, and veterans whose household income falls below $81,131 qualify for a low-income exemption of $271,009. These are large reductions, not a complete elimination, and veterans rated below 100% do not qualify.

Who Qualifies

VA Disability Rating

Every program starts with a rating from the VA. How high the rating needs to be depends on the state. Florida and Massachusetts offer benefits starting at a 10% rating, though the exemption at that level is modest. Many states set the floor at 50% or higher, and full exemptions almost always require 100% P&T. Many states also accept TDIU, which means the VA compensates you at the 100% rate because service-connected disabilities keep you from substantially gainful employment.¹

Discharge Status

Nearly every state requires an honorable discharge. Some use the broader “other than dishonorable conditions” standard, which can reach General (Under Honorable Conditions) discharges and, in certain states, Other Than Honorable discharges. If your discharge was anything other than dishonorable, read your state’s exact language before assuming you are out. A discharge upgrade through the military review boards can also open the door.

Homestead Requirement

The property must be your primary residence. States call this the homestead requirement, and it exists so the break goes to the home you live in rather than rental or vacation property. Expect to prove residency with a driver’s license, utility bills, and the deed. Some states add a minimum residency period. Wyoming, for instance, requires three years of state residency before the exemption applies.²

Income Limits

Most states with exemptions for 100% disabled veterans impose no income cap, but a handful do. The District of Columbia, Idaho, Pennsylvania, and Washington all apply some form of income or means test.¹ Whether your VA compensation counts toward that limit also varies. Missouri explicitly excludes VA benefits from its income calculation; not every state does. If your state imposes a cap, find out how VA compensation is treated before assuming you are over.

Surviving Spouse Benefits

A clear majority of states extend the exemption to the unremarried surviving spouse of a qualifying disabled veteran. The usual conditions: the spouse was married to the veteran at the time of death, has not remarried, and still occupies the property as a primary residence. Florida, Georgia, Michigan, Mississippi, Montana, Ohio, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, and Texas all offer this.¹

Many states also cover surviving spouses of service members killed in action or who died from a service-connected cause, even if the service member was never rated disabled during life. Maryland, Michigan, and Illinois include killed-in-action survivors. In North Carolina, the surviving spouse of a veteran whose death was service-connected qualifies if they receive Dependency and Indemnity Compensation (DIC) from the VA.¹ The benefit does not expire as long as you meet the conditions, so it is worth checking even if years have passed.

How to Apply

What to Gather

The two essential documents are your DD-214 and a VA letter confirming your disability rating and its effective date.³ The VA issues benefit verification letters through eBenefits or by mail. Local offices use different names for what they want (some call it a VA Certificate of Disability), but any official VA correspondence that states the rating percentage and whether it is permanent and total is usually accepted.

You also need proof you own and live at the property. A copy of the deed, a recent utility bill, and a government-issued ID with the matching address will typically do it. The application form itself comes from your county tax assessor, property appraiser, or comptroller, and many counties now post it for download.

Where and When to File

File with the local office responsible for property taxes in the county where your home sits. Deadlines vary and matter. Virginia takes applications between January 1 and March 31. Nebraska’s window runs from February 1 through June 30. Maryland requires filing by September for the exemption to apply the following year. Miss your window and you usually wait a full year. Build in time for mailing and processing, and don’t file the week of the deadline if the office needs originals.

Renewals

Some states grant the exemption permanently; others require annual filing. Michigan requires disabled veterans to reapply every year, and Nebraska requires an annual filing. Even where the exemption rolls over, you must notify the office if you sell, move, or your rating changes. Ask your assessor directly whether yours renews automatically.

Moving Within the Same State

The exemption follows the veteran, not the house, so selling and buying again in the same state generally keeps you eligible, but you have to re-apply at the new property. New York, for example, lets you transfer the exemption by filing a new application with proof the prior home carried it, and if the transfer application lands within 30 days of purchase, the exemption can be prorated instead of waiting until the next tax year. Elsewhere, moving means starting over with the new county. Begin that paperwork early so you don’t lose a year.

Retroactive Refunds

If your VA rating carries an effective date that predates your exemption application, you may be owed a refund on taxes already paid. The rules are state-specific. South Carolina allows retroactive exemptions back to 2022 for totally disabled veterans.¹ Maryland requires its assessment offices to issue retroactive refunds for up to three years from the date the VA confirmed the qualifying disability.

If your rating was recently increased to 100% P&T with a backdated effective date, contact your county tax office and ask specifically about retroactive refunds, with your VA letter in hand. Many veterans never ask, and assessors rarely volunteer the information.

If You Are Denied

Most jurisdictions give you 30 to 60 days from the denial notice to file a formal appeal, typically to a local Board of Equalization or Value Adjustment Board. The usual reasons for denial are missing documentation, a VA letter that does not clearly state the rating is permanent and total, or a late application. If the problem is a missing document, resubmitting is often faster than a hearing. If the office disagrees on substantive eligibility, use the appeal to present your case with updated VA correspondence. Treat the appeal deadline as seriously as the original. Miss it and the denial becomes final in most states.

Making Sure the Savings Reach Your Monthly Payment

If you have a mortgage, your lender collects property taxes through escrow. When the exemption takes effect, your tax bill drops but your escrow payment does not adjust on its own. Send your mortgage servicer a copy of the approval letter or the updated tax bill as soon as the exemption is posted, and ask whether they will run an early escrow analysis. Under federal rules, servicers must refund escrow surpluses or apply them to future payments during the annual review.⁴ If months pass with no adjustment, follow up in writing. The gap between your old tax-inclusive payment and the correct amount can run to several hundred dollars a month.

1
VA News. Unlocking Veteran Tax Exemptions Across States and U.S. Territories
2
Dept. of Revenue. Tax Relief – Section: Veteran’s Property Tax Exemption Program
3
Ohio.gov. Homestead Exemption Application for Disabled Veterans and Surviving Spouses
4
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. 12 CFR 1024.34 Timely Escrow Payments and Treatment of Escrow Account Balances