Which states have no property tax for 100% disabled veterans?

Of the 51 jurisdictions read for this page — all fifty states and the District of Columbia — 17 take the bill to zero on the veteran's home at the qualifying rating: Texas, Florida, New Jersey, Illinois, Virginia, Michigan, South Carolina, Maryland, Oklahoma, Arizona, Louisiana, Utah, Iowa, Indiana, Mississippi, Arkansas, Nebraska. Several others offer a fixed reduction instead — California, Minnesota, Oregon, Maine, North Dakota, Wyoming, Vermont, Alaska, New Mexico, Ohio, Georgia, South Dakota, Colorado, District of Columbia, North Carolina, Kentucky among them — which reduces the bill without ending it. The rating is federal and identical everywhere; what it is worth is set by each state.

Do disabled veterans pay property taxes?

It depends entirely on the state and the rating. A 100 percent service-connected rating removes the bill completely in Texas, Florida and New Jersey, and exempts the first $250,000 of equalized assessed value in Illinois from a 70 percent rating. Elsewhere it takes a fixed amount off the value, or pays part of the tax back after you have paid it. No state gives it automatically: every one of them requires an application.

What is the disabled veteran property tax exemption in Texas?

A veteran awarded 100 percent disability compensation for a service-connected disability, or rated individually unemployable, gets a total exemption on their residence homestead under Tax Code section 11.131 — the property tax bill goes to zero. Below that rating, section 11.22 gives a partial exemption that scales with the rating and can be applied to any one property the veteran owns. The exemption carries to a surviving spouse who has not remarried.

Does the exemption pass to a surviving spouse?

In most of these states, yes, but it is a fresh application rather than an automatic continuation. Texas, Florida, New Jersey and Illinois all carry the benefit to a spouse who has not remarried and continues to own and occupy the home. It is the provision households most often miss, because it has to be claimed at the worst possible moment.

Why is my state not on this page?

Because its rules have not been read in that state's own documents yet. 51 of 51 are covered here, and none of the absences is now a state this site could not reach — the four that were blocked have all been read somewhere else the state publishes. It does not mean the missing states have no exemption; several have very generous ones. It means this page has not got to them.

2026 · all 51 jurisdictions, each read in its own document

Disabled veteran property tax exemptions

A VA disability rating is issued once, by one federal agency, and means exactly the same thing in all fifty states. What it is worth in property tax does not: the same 100 percent certificate takes the bill to zero in Texas, Florida, New Jersey, is worth $1,000 of tax a year in Massachusetts, and is worth nothing at all in the first year in Kansas, which refunds the increase rather than cutting the bill, and is worth $445,000 off the assessed value in the District of Columbia. Six different mechanisms, one federal certificate. Here is what each state read for this page actually does, and the catch every one of them shares.

Written and edited by Pablo Ruiz QuinteroSources checked September 1, 2026All 51 jurisdictions read off government documents, each dated; the gaps that remain are named in the text

The rating is federal. What it is worth is not

A VA disability rating is issued once, by one federal agency, on one set of criteria. It means exactly the same thing in every state.

The property tax exemption it unlocks does not. The same veteran with the same 100 percent certificate pays no property tax at all on their home in Texas, Florida, New Jersey, Illinois, Virginia, Michigan, South Carolina, Maryland, Oklahoma, Arizona, Louisiana, Utah, Iowa, Indiana, Mississippi, Arkansas and Nebraska — and in New Mexico the same certificate takes $10,000 off the taxable value and leaves the rest of the bill standing.

Put a number on it and the gap is hard to believe. On a $400,000 home, priced at each state's own median county rate, the top rating is worth about $8,818 a year in New Jersey and about $34 a year in Wyoming. Same federal certificate, same house, and one is worth more than two hundred times the other. Both are called a disabled veteran property tax exemption, and the table further down prices every state read here.

The biggest single deduction in the country is not in a state at all. The District of Columbia takes $445,000 off the assessed value of a qualifying veteran's home, against $67,500 for an ordinary homestead — six and a half times what any other owner gets. It is also the clearest case of why a big number is not the same as a big benefit: the District's median home is $724,600, so that deduction covers about 61 percent of a typical house and leaves the rest taxable. The application goes to the District's Office of Veterans Affairs, which certifies the disability to the tax office — a veteran who starts at the tax office is in the wrong building.

And two states do not fit that sentence at all. Kansas hands a 100 percent veteran nothing in the first year, because it refunds the increase over the base year rather than cutting the bill — the benefit grows from zero and is worth most to whoever stays longest. Washington asks for a rating of 40 percent rather than 100, the lowest entry threshold read here, and then decides what you get from your income rather than your disability.

The single most under-reported figure in this subject is Georgia's. Georgia does not set its own amount: it grants the larger of $32,500 or the maximum payable under 38 U.S.C. 2102, a federal number that rises most years, and the Department of Revenue puts it at $121,812. That sits on a base of 40 percent of market value, so it is really more than $300,000 of house — more value removed than any other partial exemption read here, Minnesota's $300,000 included. It is published everywhere as $121,812, next to states quoting market value, and so it reads as mid-table when it is not.

Which is not the same as being worth the most, and the table below shows why. Georgia removes more value than Minnesota and is still worth less per year, because Georgia's median county rate is 0.89% against Minnesota's 0.99%. An exemption is a quantity of value; what you keep is that quantity times a rate you do not control.

So the only useful version of this question is the state-level one, and the answer is not a number but a mechanism. There are six in use across the 51 jurisdictions read here, and they behave completely differently.

The six ways a state does this

1. A total exemption at a qualifying rating. Texas, Florida, New Jersey, Illinois, Virginia, Michigan, South Carolina, Maryland, Oklahoma, Arizona, Louisiana, Utah, Iowa, Indiana, Mississippi, Arkansas and Nebraska take the bill to zero on the veteran's home once the rating reaches the threshold — 100 percent, or in Illinois' case 70 percent and up to the first $250,000 of equalized assessed value, which is a total exemption for most houses in practice. This is the most valuable form by a wide margin, and it usually carries to an unremarried surviving spouse.

Two states reach zero and are deliberately left out of that list, because the certificate alone will not do it. Pennsylvania grants a full exemption but requires service during a period of war — a peacetime veteran rated 100 percent does not qualify — and a showing of financial need, presumed below $114,637 of annual income since 1 January 2025. Alabama reaches zero through its disability homestead rather than any veterans programme, and verifies the disability with a physician's affidavit instead of the VA letter. Both are worth as much as anything in the list above to the veterans who clear the extra hurdle, and nothing to those who do not.

2. A fixed amount off the value. California, Minnesota, Oregon, Maine, North Dakota, Wyoming, Vermont, Alaska, New Mexico, Ohio, Georgia, South Dakota, Colorado, District of Columbia, North Carolina and Kentucky remove a set figure — California $100,000, Minnesota $300,000, Oregon $15,000, Maine $6,000, North Dakota $120,000, Wyoming $6,000, Vermont $10,000, Alaska $150,000, New Mexico $10,000 of taxable value, Ohio $59,000, Georgia $121,812 of 40 percent assessed value, a federal figure that rises most years, South Dakota $200,000 of assessed value, Colorado half of the first $200,000 of actual value, District of Columbia $445,000 of assessed value, against $67,500 for an ordinary homestead, North Carolina $45,000, and only one per property however many owners qualify and Kentucky $49,100 for 2025 and 2026. The saving is that figure times your local rate, so it is the same benefit in dollars of value to a veteran in a cheap district and an expensive one, and a very different one in dollars of tax.

3. Bands, and they are not all banded on the same thing. Illinois, Louisiana and Nevada band by rating: Illinois takes $2,500 off at 30 to 49 percent, $5,000 at 50 to 69 and the first $250,000 at 70 and above, Louisiana stacks $2,500 then $4,500 of assessed value on its ordinary homestead before exempting the rest entirely at 100 percent, and Nevada runs $18,200, $27,300 and $36,400 of assessed value at 60, 80 and 100 percent. A re-rating there can be worth far more than the percentage points suggest. Washington and Montana band by income instead, which is a different animal: the rating gets you through the door and your earnings decide what is behind it. Montana's is the purest version anywhere — it leaves taxable value alone and multiplies the rate by 0, 20, 30 or 50 percent, and a zero multiplier is a zero bill.

4. A credit against the tax itself. Massachusetts, Delaware, Idaho and New Hampshire subtract dollars of tax rather than dollars of value, which makes them incomparable with everything above until you fix a house price — and comparable with each other immediately. At a 100 percent rating that is $2,500 a year in Concord, New Hampshire, $1,500 anywhere in Idaho, and $1,000 in Massachusetts, doubled to $2,000 where the town has adopted the 2024 HERO Act option. Delaware is the odd one: it zeroes a whole component instead — the school portion, the larger part of a Delaware bill — and leaves the county share standing.

5. A refund or a credit you claim elsewhere. Tennessee, Kansas, Missouri, Wisconsin and West Virginia do not reduce the bill at all: you pay it and get money back. Two of them give back everything — Wisconsin and West Virginia both refund the whole property tax on the home through the state income tax return, and both are refundable, so they work with no income tax liability to offset. The difference is the door: Wisconsin wants a 100 percent rating and Wisconsin residence either at enlistment or for five consecutive years since; West Virginia asks only 90 percent, the lowest threshold to a full refund read here, but will not pay if the tax was paid late. Tennessee reimburses the tax on the first $175,000 of market value. Missouri has no property tax exemption and runs a capped credit on the income tax return, $1,550 from 2026. Kansas refunds only what the bill has risen above its base year — a freeze wearing a refund's clothes, worth nothing the first year and more every year after.

This whole category is the one most likely to go unclaimed, and the reason is structural: nothing on a property tax bill tells you that a different agency will give the money back if you ask on a different form in a different month.

6. A local option. New York, Connecticut, Hawaii and Rhode Island leave the decision to each county, city, town, village or district, so two veterans forty miles apart with identical ratings get different answers and both are correctly informed by their own assessor. Rhode Island is the cleanest demonstration anywhere: the same VA certification of total service-connected disability is worth $614 off the bill in Providence and $346 in Warwick, twelve miles down the bay. Warwick then stacks — $692 more for a paraplegic veteran, $519 for a prisoner of war — and says so in writing. Hawaii is local for a harder reason: its state Real Property Tax Law was repealed in 2016, so there is no state statute to cite and the four counties are the whole of it. Their thresholds are 70 percent on Maui, 80 percent on Kauai and total disability on Oahu and Hawaii Island, and Maui does not exempt anything — it levies a flat $150 a year instead.

And in the two Rhode Island towns that publish both, the exemption for blindness is larger than the one for a total service-connected disability — $921 against $614 in Providence, $622.80 against $346 in Warwick. They are separate line items with separate amounts, and a veteran who assumes the veterans one is the biggest relief on the list is wrong in both.

And one state qualifies you without mentioning veterans. Alabama's route to a zero bill is the homestead exemption for anyone permanently and totally disabled — no income limit, no cap on value. It is reached with a physician's affidavit rather than a VA award letter, which is exactly the kind of detail that costs people a benefit they qualify for.

All 51 jurisdictions, read in their own documents

Each of these is taken from a government document with the date it was read — usually the state's own agency, and where every state server was shut, the county or city office that actually administers the benefit. Nothing here is taken from a compilation.

Texas — total exemption at the top rating. A veteran awarded 100 percent disability compensation for a service-connected disability, or rated as individually unemployable, is entitled to a total exemption on their residence homestead under Tax Code section 11.131 — the bill goes to zero. Below that rating, section 11.22 gives a partial exemption that varies with the rating and can be applied to any one property the veteran owns, not only a home. A homestead donated by a charitable organization is covered separately under 11.132, and the surviving spouse of a service member killed or fatally injured in the line of duty gets a total exemption under 11.133. The 100 percent exemption carries to a surviving spouse who has not remarried, provided the property was and remains their homestead.

Florida — total exemption at the top rating. Three separate benefits stack up by severity. A veteran honorably discharged with a service-related total and permanent disability may be entirely exempt from ad valorem tax on their homestead under sections 196.081 and 196.091 — the same applies to a disabled veteran confined to a wheelchair. Below that, an honorably discharged veteran who is a Florida resident and disabled to a degree of 10 percent or more gets a $5,000 reduction in assessed value under section 196.24, and that one is not limited to homestead property. And from 65, a partially or totally permanently disabled veteran gets a discount on assessed value proportional to the rating under section 196.082. Surviving spouses can carry several of these over.

New Jersey — total exemption at the top rating. An honorably discharged veteran who was 100 percent permanently and totally disabled during active duty service qualifies for a full annual property tax exemption on their principal residence. It reaches the surviving spouse or civil union partner as well, provided the veteran was a New Jersey resident at death and the survivor has not remarried or formed a new partnership and continues to own and occupy the home. The certification of a service-connected disability has to come from the US Department of Veterans Affairs.

Illinois — total exemption at the top rating. Illinois bands the benefit by rating, and the top band is close to a total exemption for an ordinary house: a service-connected disability of at least 30 but under 50 percent takes $2,500 off equalized assessed value, 50 to under 70 percent takes $5,000, and 70 percent or more exempts the first $250,000 of EAV outright. A separate exemption for specially-adapted housing bought or built with federal funds removes up to $100,000 of assessed value and lasts as long as the veteran, the spouse or the unmarried surviving spouse lives there. A property cannot take two of these in the same year.

New York. New York has three veterans exemptions and you may only hold one: the Alternative exemption for wartime service or an expeditionary medal, the Cold War exemption, and the Eligible Funds exemption. All three are local options — each county, city, town, village and school district decides whether to offer them, so the answer genuinely differs by address. And a fourth is arriving: recent legislation creates a new exemption for veterans the Veterans Administration considers permanently and totally disabled from military service, under RPTL 458-a(11), applying to taxable status dates on or after 1 October 2026. None of them is automatic — the application goes to your assessor, and in most communities the deadline is 1 March.

Virginia — total exemption at the top rating. Virginia puts the exemption in its constitution rather than in ordinary law, which is unusual and makes it harder to withdraw. Article X, Section 6-A exempts the real property of any veteran rated by the US Department of Veterans Affairs as having a 100 percent service-connected, permanent and total disability, where the veteran occupies it as their principal place of residence, for tax years beginning on or after 1 January 2011. Where the rating arrives later, the exemption starts on the date of the rating — but no locality owes interest on a refund of tax paid before the affidavit was filed, so filing late costs money even when the exemption is backdated. The surviving spouse qualifies as well.

Michigan — total exemption at the top rating. The Disabled Veterans Exemption under MCL 211.7b exempts from property tax real property owned and occupied as a principal residence by a qualifying disabled veteran, or by their unremarried surviving spouse. It is claimed through Form 5107, the State Tax Commission affidavit, filed with the local municipality rather than with the state — which is the part that trips people up, because the municipality is also the body that can deny it, on Form 6055.

South Carolina — total exemption at the top rating. The house of an "eligible owner" is exempt from ad valorem taxation altogether, and an eligible owner includes a veteran of the US Armed Forces who is permanently and totally disabled from a service-connected disability, certified by the county service officer. South Carolina extends the same exemption to former law enforcement officers and firefighters permanently and totally disabled in service. The provision worth knowing is the survivorship one: a qualified surviving spouse keeps the exemption while unmarried and resident — and the statute says so even where the deceased spouse never applied for, filed for, or claimed it.

Maryland — total exemption at the top rating. A dwelling house is exempt from property tax where it is owned by a disabled veteran — honourably discharged and declared by the US Department of Veterans Affairs to have a permanent 100 percent service-connected disability — or by a disabled active duty service member, or by a qualifying surviving spouse. Two details matter: the definition reaches an individual who qualifies posthumously for a 100 percent rating, and the exemption follows a surviving spouse to a later home in defined circumstances rather than dying with the house.

Oklahoma — total exemption at the top rating. Oklahoma put this in its constitution by referendum rather than through the legislature, which is why it took a while to find: Article X, Section 8E exempts the full fair cash value of the homestead — not a slice of it — for a head of household honourably discharged from any branch of the US Armed Forces or the Oklahoma National Guard and certified by the US Department of Veterans Affairs at a 100 percent permanent disability sustained through military action or accident, or from disease contracted in active service. The surviving spouse is written into the same provision. It carries one feature almost no other state has: if the home is sold, a replacement homestead is exempt to the same extent from the year it is acquired, so the benefit moves with the household instead of dying with the house. Section 8F does the same for the surviving spouse of someone who died in the line of duty, until remarriage. Voters added 8E as State Question 715 in 2004 and amended it as State Question 770 in 2014; 8F arrived as State Question 771 the same night.

Arizona — total exemption at the top rating. A veteran with a service-connected rating of one hundred percent, or whose status is total disability based on individual unemployability, has their primary residence fully exempt from taxation — and where the home is owned by the veteran and their spouse, the statute treats it as owned solely by the veteran so that the whole of it qualifies. Below that, the exemption is $4,188 of value, and the figure everyone quotes is not the figure you get: the amount is then multiplied by the percentage of the disability rating, so a 30 percent rating is worth 30 percent of it. Arizona assesses residential property at ten percent of value, which makes $4,188 of exemption a much larger slice of an assessment than it looks.

Louisiana — total exemption at the top rating. Louisiana builds the veteran benefit on top of its ordinary homestead exemption, which covers the first $7,500 of assessed value, and bands it by rating. A service-connected rating of 50 to 69 percent exempts the next $2,500 — $10,000 in total, with tax applying to any assessment above that. From 70 to 99 percent it is the next $4,500, so $12,000 in total. At 100 percent unemployability or total disability the remaining assessed valuation is exempt altogether, which is a total exemption. Louisiana assesses residential property at ten percent of fair market value, so $12,000 of assessed value is a $120,000 house. The surviving spouse qualifies in every band, and the constitution says so explicitly whether or not the exemption was in effect before the veteran died. A constitutional amendment proposed by Acts 2026, No. 39 rewrites this subparagraph with effect from 1 January 2027 if ratified.

Utah — total exemption at the top rating. Utah calls it an abatement rather than an exemption and it carries the largest figure on this page by a wide margin: up to $505,548 of taxable value of a residence, open from a 10 percent service disability and scaled by the percentage of disability incurred in the line of duty and by the unemployability classification. Unmarried surviving spouses and minor orphans qualify. What the headline number hides is that Utah taxes residential property on 55 percent of its market value, so $505,548 of taxable value is a house worth about $919,000 — which means that at the top of the scale this behaves as a total exemption for very nearly every home in the state, while remaining, on paper, a fixed amount.

California. California exempts $100,000 of the full value of a veteran's principal residence where the veteran is blind in both eyes, has lost the use of two or more limbs, or is totally disabled from an injury or disease incurred in military service — and $150,000 where household income does not exceed $40,000. Both figures, and the income limit, are compounded annually by the California CPI, so the statutory numbers are floors rather than current amounts. The exemption is in lieu of the ordinary veterans' exemption in the state constitution rather than on top of it, and where two qualifying veterans co-own a home each is entitled to the exemption to the extent of their interest.

Minnesota. Minnesota excludes market value rather than exempting tax, and the two bands are large: $150,000 of market value excluded at a disability rating of 70 percent or more, and $300,000 at a total and permanent 100 percent rating. The exclusion carries to the surviving spouse of a 100 percent veteran until they remarry or sell, and to the spouse of a service member who died of a service-connected cause. Primary family caregivers are covered too, which almost no other state does. The county veterans service officer certifies each rating to the assessor by 1 July, so the paperwork runs through the veterans office rather than the tax office.

Oregon. Oregon exempts up to $15,000 of the assessed value of the homestead of a veteran certified by the US Department of Veterans Affairs at a disability of 40 percent or more — a much lower entry threshold than most states, and a much smaller amount. A veteran rated at 40 percent by a licensed physician rather than by the VA can also qualify, but only subject to an income test. The exemption reaches surviving spouses, and it has to be claimed under a separate statute rather than granted with the assessment.

Maine. Maine exempts estates up to a just value of $6,000 for veterans who served during a federally recognised war period — a list the statute spells out war by war, from the Korean Conflict through Operation New Dawn — once they reach 62, or at any age if they are receiving a pension or compensation from the federal government for total disability. The unusual part is that the disability does not have to be service-connected: the statute says "service-connected or nonservice-connected", which is a wider door than most states open.

Iowa — total exemption at the top rating. Iowa runs it as a credit rather than an exemption, and the credit is the whole thing: for a veteran with a permanent service-connected rating of 100 percent — or a permanent and total rating based on individual unemployability compensated at the 100 percent rate — the disabled veteran tax credit equals the entire amount of the tax levied on the homestead. Former members of any state's National Guard meeting the same service and rating tests qualify too, as do veterans who acquired the home under the federal specially adapted housing programmes. Because it is a credit against the homestead credit fund rather than a reduction in value, the state rather than the county carries the cost.

North Dakota. The provision read here is narrower than most and larger where it applies: the first $120,000 of true and full valuation of the fixtures, buildings and improvements on a homestead is exempt for a paraplegic disabled veteran, or any veteran awarded specially adapted housing by the Department of Veterans Affairs, or their unremarried surviving spouse. The same subsection covers a permanently and totally disabled person confined to a wheelchair, with the exemption surviving into joint ownership with a spouse — and it says plainly that none of this reduces liability for special assessments, which are the part of a North Dakota bill people forget.

Wyoming. Wyoming exempts $6,000 of assessed value a year, and the entry is unusually wide: any disabled veteran with a compensable service-connected disability qualifies, at any rating, alongside honourably discharged veterans of a list of named wars and anyone awarded an expeditionary or campaign medal. Three years of Wyoming residency are required, the claim goes to the county assessor by the fourth Monday in May, and it applies to the principal residence in one county only. The survivorship rule goes further than anywhere else read here: where there is no surviving spouse the exemption passes to surviving parents, and divorced parents living separately may each qualify separately.

Vermont. Vermont exempts $10,000 of appraisal value on the established residence of a veteran — or the veteran's spouse, widow, widower or child, or any combination of them owning it jointly — where one of them receives disability compensation for at least 50 percent disability, death compensation, dependency and indemnity compensation, or a disability pension. The paperwork goes to the Office of Veterans Affairs rather than the town, before 1 May. And for a permanent disability it is filed once only: after the first year the exemption stays on the grand list until the title changes hands, which removes the annual re-application trap that costs people the benefit in most other states.

Connecticut. Connecticut stacks three things and income-tests most of them, which makes it the hardest state here to state in one line. There is a base exemption under section 12-81(20) that scales with the disability rating; on top of that an additional state exemption for veterans whose qualifying income is below a limit, with its own thresholds for a 100 percent rating — $21,000 of adjusted gross income if married, $18,000 if not. And since the 2022 assessment year a municipality may vote to replace that addition with one worth three times the base exemption for a veteran rated at 100 percent, subject to its own income test excluding veterans' disability payments. Whether you get the municipal version depends on what your town decided.

Alaska. Alaska requires every municipality to exempt the first $150,000 of assessed value on the primary residence of a veteran with a service-connected disability of 50 percent or more — the same mandatory exemption that applies to owners 65 and over. Being mandatory rather than optional makes it unusual: most states that offer a large exemption leave the decision to the locality.

New Mexico. The veteran exemption rose from $4,000 to $10,000 of taxable value for tax year 2025 and is indexed for inflation from 2026. New Mexico assesses at a third of market value, so $10,000 of taxable value corresponds to $30,000 of market value — a detail that makes the figure look smaller than it is against states that exempt assessed value directly.

Ohio. Ohio runs the veteran benefit as an enhanced version of its homestead exemption: for taxes payable in 2026 it removes $59,000 of value, up from $56,000, against $32,000 for the ordinary homestead exemption. Unlike the ordinary one it carries no income test.

Tennessee. Tennessee reimburses rather than exempts. The state pays back part of the local property tax, and for disabled veterans the reimbursement covers the tax on the first $175,000 of market value — a much larger base than the equivalent programme for low-income owners aged 65 and over. You pay the bill first and claim afterwards, which is the form most likely to go unclaimed.

Georgia. Georgia does not write its own number. A qualifying disabled veteran is granted the greater of $32,500 or the maximum grant payable under section 2102 of title 38 of the United States Code — a federal figure that is raised most years — and the Department of Revenue puts the amount for 2025 at $121,812. That is deducted from the 40 percent assessed value, so it corresponds to more than $300,000 of the house, and it applies against state, county, municipal and school taxes alike, which is unusual: most partial exemptions spare the school levy that makes up the bulk of a bill. Anything above it stays taxable, and the exemption passes to an unremarried surviving spouse or to minor children for as long as they occupy the home. A separate provision gives the unremarried surviving spouse of a service member killed in a war or armed conflict $60,000 plus the same indexed sum.

South Dakota. South Dakota runs two separate programmes and the narrower one is the more generous. A veteran rated permanently and totally disabled from a service-connected disability has up to $200,000 of assessed value exempted on the property that carries the owner-occupied classification, and that reaches an unremarried surviving spouse. Above it sits a full exemption — all property taxes, not a portion — for a paraplegic veteran, a veteran who has lost the use of both lower extremities, or their unremarried widow or widower, but the house itself has to be specifically designed for wheelchair use inside. Both are filed with the county assessor and the deadline is 1 November.

Colorado. Colorado exempts half of the first $200,000 of actual value — up to $100,000 of the house — for a veteran the VA has rated one hundred percent permanently disabled or granted individual unemployability status, honourably discharged, owning and occupying the home as a primary residence on 1 January. The same exemption serves senior citizens, and for them it requires ten years of continuous occupancy; for veterans there is no age requirement and no occupancy history at all. It reaches the surviving spouse of a veteran who was already receiving it, and Gold Star spouses qualify on their own footing. The window is 1 January to 1 July; applications filed between 1 July and 1 August are still accepted but lose the right of appeal if the assessor denies them.

Washington. Washington has no veterans exemption as such. What it has is the exemption for owners aged 61 and over, and a veteran walks in through a side door: a combined service-connected evaluation rating of 40 percent or higher, or a total disability rating, qualifies at any age. Forty percent is the lowest entry threshold on this page by a wide margin — most states start at one hundred. What you get then depends on income against thresholds set county by county: below the third the state levy and every excess levy go, below the second regular taxes are lifted from the greater of $70,000 or 45 percent of the value up to $200,000, and below the first from the greater of $80,000 or 80 percent of it. The assessment is also frozen at its value in the year of first qualification, which over a long tenure can be worth more than the exemption itself. A surviving spouse from 57 keeps it.

Montana. Montana is the only state read here that leaves the taxable value alone and multiplies the rate instead. A qualified veteran — honourably discharged and currently rated one hundred percent disabled, or paid at the one hundred percent rate — has the residential rate multiplied by a percentage set by income: zero up to $45,803 single or $54,963 for a married couple, then 20, 30 and 50 percent through bands ending at $59,554 and $68,705. A zero multiplier is a zero bill, so below the first line the house is untaxed outright, and the benefit tapers instead of stopping dead. A surviving spouse who has not remarried gets a separate and lower table, starting at $38,169. The income lines are indexed each year to personal consumption expenditures and are not allowed to fall.

Alabama. Alabama takes the bill to zero and does it without mentioning veterans. The H-3 homestead exemption covers a taxpayer who is permanently and totally disabled — exempt from all ad valorem taxes, no income limit, no cap on assessed value, up to 160 acres — and that is the route a severely disabled veteran uses. The distinction matters in practice: Alabama verifies the disability with a physician’s affidavit, so a VA award letter showing one hundred percent is not by itself the document the county is asking for. A veteran who assumes the federal rating carries over, and files nothing else, can be turned down for a benefit they plainly qualify for.

Massachusetts. Massachusetts subtracts dollars of tax, not dollars of value, which makes it directly comparable with nothing else on this page. Chapter 59 section 5 runs a ladder of clauses by circumstance, and clause 22E, the one for a one hundred percent disability, is worth $1,000 a year. The HERO Act of August 2024 then added two local options: under clause 22J a city or town may vote to double every amount, taking that $1,000 to $2,000, and under clause 22I it may index them to the Consumer Price Index so they stop falling behind. Neither is reimbursed by the Commonwealth, which is why adoption is uneven — the state does fully reimburse clause 22D, for surviving spouses of those who died on active duty.

Delaware. Delaware zeroes one component of the bill rather than shaving all of it: the Disabled Veterans School Tax Credit wipes out the school portion, which is the larger part of a Delaware property tax bill, and leaves the county share standing. It wants a one hundred percent rating or individual unemployability, three years of legal domicile in Delaware, and every earlier property tax liability settled in full — that last condition appears nowhere else on this page. It is applied for once, at the county, and the credit comes off the bill before it is posted. It cannot be stacked with the senior school property tax credit, so a household where one spouse is a disabled veteran and the other is over 65 gets one credit, not two — though the veteran one is worth more.

Kansas. Kansas does not reduce the tax; it refunds the growth. Under K.S.A. 79-4508a a disabled veteran is an eligible claimant, and the refund is the current bill minus the bill in the base year — the year eligibility began — so the effect is a freeze rather than a discount, worth nothing in year one and more every year after. Household income has to be $50,000 or less, indexed, and the homestead has to have been appraised at $350,000 or less in the base year. A surviving spouse keeps it until remarriage. One detail is easy to miss and cuts the other way: veterans disability compensation is excluded from income for this test, so the payment that establishes the claim does not then disqualify it.

Missouri. Missouri has no property tax exemption for disabled veterans at all. What it has is the Property Tax Credit, claimed on the state income tax return, and a veteran of any age who became one hundred percent disabled as a result of service is an eligible claimant on the same footing as an owner aged 65. The cap was $1,100 for owners and $750 for renters; for 2026 House Bill 594 raises them to $1,550 and $1,055 and indexes both, and lifts the income ceiling to $38,200 single or $41,000 married, rising to $42,200 and $48,000 for a claimant who owned and occupied the home all year. The provision that makes it work is quieter: a one hundred percent service-connected disabled veteran is not required to list veterans payments and benefits as income, so the compensation does not push the claimant over the ceiling the way it would anyone else.

District of Columbia. The District runs the largest single deduction read on this page. Where an ordinary homestead gets $67,500 off the assessed value, a home owned by a qualifying veteran or eligible spouse gets $445,000 — enough to wipe out the tax on most houses outright. The veteran has to have been classified by the VA as totally and permanently disabled from a service-incurred or service-aggravated condition, or paid at the 100 percent rating level for unemployability, and the household has to meet the eligibility test the District uses for its over-65 relief. The application goes to the District of Columbia Office of Veterans Affairs rather than the tax office, and that office certifies the disability to the Office of Tax and Revenue. An eligible spouse includes a surviving domestic partner, not only a surviving spouse.

Indiana — total exemption at the top rating. Indiana runs three benefits at once and they behave differently. The main one deducts 100 percent of the assessed value of the principal residence — the whole bill — for a veteran with at least 90 days of service, an honourable discharge, a total disability, and at least one year of Indiana residence before the assessment date. Alongside it sit two credits in dollars of tax that stack with each other: $350 for wartime service with a rating of 10 percent or more, and $250 from age 62 with a rating of at least 10 percent. And a third, rarely mentioned, applies only where the homestead was given to the veteran free of charge by a tax-exempt organisation: there the deduction is literally the rating, 50 percent of assessed value at a 50 percent rating and so on up to 100. Applications go to the county veteran service officer or the county auditor, with the DD214 and the VA award letter.

Mississippi — total exemption at the top rating. Mississippi puts the veteran in the top tier of its homestead exemption, which is a total exemption from all property taxes on the qualifying homestead. It covers an honourably discharged American veteran classified with a service-connected total disability and their unremarried surviving spouse — and, separately, any honourably discharged veteran who is at least 90 years old on 1 January, disability or not. The unremarried surviving spouse of a service member who was killed or died on active duty qualifies too, including reserve and National Guard members on active duty for training. Filing is with the county tax assessor between 1 January and 1 April. And one condition appears nowhere else read here: Mississippi disallows the homestead exemption for failure to file or pay Mississippi income tax on time, for filing as a non-resident, and for failing to register your vehicles properly. The property exemption is hostage to the rest of your compliance.

Arkansas — total exemption at the top rating. Arkansas is the only state read here whose exemption reaches beyond the house. A disabled veteran awarded special monthly compensation by the VA for the loss or loss of use of one or more limbs, for total blindness in one or both eyes, or for a service-connected 100 percent total and permanent disability is exempt from all state taxes on the homestead and on personal property alike. It passes to the unremarried surviving spouse and to minor dependent children, and the same exemption reaches the spouse and children of a member killed within the scope of military duties or declared missing in action. Note the two separate doors: the special monthly compensation route does not require a 100 percent rating at all. Application is made at the county collector.

Nebraska — total exemption at the top rating. Nebraska exempts the homestead entirely and, unusually, the state then pays the tax directly to the county treasurer — the county loses nothing, which is why the exemption can be so clean. Category 4V covers a veteran drawing VA compensation for a 100 percent service-connected permanent disability, or with a rating below 100 percent but a 100 percent individual unemployability rating. The point most people miss is what it does not ask for: categories 4V, 4S, 5 and 7 have no income limit and no homestead value limit, while owners aged 65 and over must file an income statement every year and lose relief on a sliding scale, and lose it entirely once the house exceeds the county maximum by $20,000. And a 4V veteran files only on the first application and in years ending in 0 or 5 — a five-year cycle rather than an annual one.

Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania grants a full real estate tax exemption, and it is the only one read here that a 100 percent rating alone will not get you. Two extra conditions apply. The service has to have been during a period of war as determined by the VA, or carry an operation or service-specific expeditionary medal — a peacetime veteran rated 100 percent does not qualify. And you must show financial need: applicants with annual income at or below $114,637 are presumed to need it, a level the State Veterans Commission raised to that figure on 1 January 2025, and above it you can still qualify by showing that allowable monthly expenses exceed monthly household income, documented. The disability test is 100 percent permanent service-connected, total disability individual unemployability, or service-connected blindness, paraplegia or loss of two or more limbs. The Department of Military and Veterans Affairs runs it, not the revenue department.

North Carolina. North Carolina excludes the first $45,000 of assessed value, and that is the maximum allowed however many owners qualify: co-owners who are not spouses and are each individually eligible still share one $45,000 exclusion between them. Two separate doors open it — a permanent and total service-connected disability of 100 percent, or receipt of benefits for specially adapted housing under 38 U.S.C. 2101 — and a never-remarried surviving spouse qualifies through either, or where the veteran died as a result of a service-connected condition. The process runs through two agencies and that is where it goes wrong: Form NCDVA-9 must first be certified by a veterans service office, and only then does it go with Form AV-9 to the county tax office, by 1 June. Starting the certification in late May is usually too late.

Kentucky. Kentucky has no veterans exemption. It has a homestead exemption for owners aged 65 or over and for those classified as totally disabled, worth $49,100 for the 2025 and 2026 assessment years, deducted from the assessed value — and the department states plainly that a total disability classification under a programme administered by an agency of the United States government counts, so the VA letter is the document. What the veteran gets that nobody else does is an exemption from the paperwork: everyone claiming on total disability must reapply every single year, except veterans with a service-connected disability, people the Social Security Administration has found totally and permanently disabled, and Kentucky Retirement Systems cases. Kentucky assesses at fair cash value, so the $49,100 is $49,100 of house.

Wisconsin. Wisconsin pays the whole thing back, through the income tax return. The credit under section 71.07(6e) equals the property taxes paid during the year on the principal dwelling of the claimant and up to one acre, excluding special assessments, delinquent interest and service charges, and it is refundable — so it works even with no income tax liability. The rating required is 100 percent service-connected under 38 U.S.C. 1114 or 1134, or 100 percent based on individual unemployability. The condition that catches people is residence at the wrong end of a life: you must have been a Wisconsin resident when you entered active service, or have been a Wisconsin resident for any consecutive five-year period since. Moving to Wisconsin after service means waiting five years. The Wisconsin Department of Veterans Affairs certifies eligibility before the Department of Revenue will pay, and non-residents cannot claim at all.

West Virginia. West Virginia has the same shape as Wisconsin and a lower threshold. A disabled veteran homeowner takes a refundable credit against the personal income tax for the property tax timely paid on the homestead, and where the property tax exceeds the income tax the excess is refunded — so the whole bill comes back. The definition on Form DV-1 is honourably discharged and considered at least ninety percent totally and permanently disabled due solely to service-connected disabilities, which is the lowest bar to a full refund read on this page. The word doing the work is timely: pay late and the credit is gone, and the claim needs the tax receipt and the VA rating letter attached to the return. It cannot be combined with the Senior Citizens Tax Credit or the Homestead Excess Property Tax Credit, and from 2025 a widow or widower may claim it where the veteran claimed it the year before, provided they have not remarried and the property has been neither reclassified nor sold.

Nevada. Nevada bands the benefit by degree of disability, and the amounts are quoted in assessed value: $18,200 at a rating of 60 to 79 percent, $27,300 at 80 to 99, and $36,400 at 100 percent, against $3,640 for an ordinary wartime veteran and $5,460 for blindness. Assessed value in Nevada is about 35 percent of taxable value, so the top band corresponds to roughly $104,000 of house. The figures are adjusted annually for the Consumer Price Index, honourable separation and Nevada residence are required, and a surviving spouse who was eligible when the veteran died may continue it. Two things set Nevada apart. First, the exemption is portable between unrelated taxes — you may apply it to the property tax bill, to business personal property, aircraft or manufactured housing, or against the governmental services tax when you register a vehicle, or split it. Second, and the county says so in its own worked example, the vehicle route is calculated at a higher multiplier than the property route: the same exemption converts at five cents on the dollar of assessed value against the vehicle tax and at the local property rate against the house, which the worked example puts at three and a half. Whichever you choose is capped by the bill you apply it to. A veteran may also decline the reduction entirely and direct the county to pay the money into the gift account for a state veterans home. And the wartime exemption and the disabled one cannot both be held: the state says a veteran can only qualify for one.

Hawaii. Hawaii has no state programme, and the reason is stronger than it looks: chapter 246 of the Hawaii Revised Statutes, the Real Property Tax Law, was repealed outright in 2016, finishing what a 1978 constitutional amendment began. Citations to HRS 246-31 are citations to a repealed chapter. Real property tax belongs to the four counties, and all four have now been read. Honolulu exempts the home of a totally disabled veteran from real property taxes except for the minimum tax, on a physician certificate, filed by 30 June or 31 December. Hawaii County asks the same of the veteran — 100 percent disabled or 100 percent unemployable — and leaves less behind: it exempts everything except fifty percent of the minimum tax, and the minimum is $200 a year, falling to $150, $100 or $50 where improvements are assessed at $75,000 or less. Halving the floor is the whole difference between the two islands. Kauai asks 80 percent rather than total and exempts all property taxes other than special assessments, and it continues for a surviving spouse, civil union partner or reciprocal beneficiary. Maui does not exempt at all: since an ordinance effective 1 January 2023 it simply levies a real property tax of $150 a year on the home, and in the same ordinance it lowered its threshold from totally disabled to severely disabled, which it defines as a VA rating of 70 percent or higher. Four islands, four thresholds, four answers.

Idaho. Idaho takes $1,500 straight off the tax bill on the primary home and up to one acre, for a veteran with a 100 percent service-connected disability rating. Income is not a factor, which sets it apart from the circuit breaker sitting next to it — and the two can be combined, though the pair together cannot exceed the actual bill. The application window is 2 January to 15 April, the 100 percent determination has to predate 1 January, and the VA letter has to be produced fresh every single year: this is not a benefit you claim once. Filing is with the county assessor.

New Hampshire. New Hampshire runs two things that are easy to confuse. The disabled veterans credit under RSA 72:35 comes off the tax bill in dollars, for an honourably discharged veteran with a total and permanent service-connected disability or their surviving spouse, and the amount is voted town by town within a statutory band of $700 to $4,000. That is not a vague answer: the Department of Revenue Administration publishes every town figure, and across the 259 municipalities with one the median is $1,500, seventy-one sit at the floor of $700 and forty-eight at the ceiling of $4,000. Manchester, Nashua, Concord and Bedford are at $2,000; Portsmouth, Dover and Keene at $4,000. Concord is also the warning about using the statewide table alone: the 2024 report has it at $2,000 and the city assessing department now publishes $2,500, because towns raise these and the compilation lags. Separately, RSA 72:36-a exempts the homestead from all taxation — but not on the strength of the rating. It turns on the house: the veteran must own a home specially adapted by the VA under an approved Special Adapted Housing or Special Home Adaptation grant, or bought with the proceeds of selling one, and be 100 percent permanently and totally disabled, or a double amputee or paraplegic, or blind in both eyes at 5/200 or less. Both are filed on state form PA-29 with the town assessor by 15 April, and you must own the property on 1 April.

Rhode Island. Rhode Island lets each of its 39 cities and towns fix its own figure under RIGL 44-3-4, and 16 of them have been read here one assessor at a time. A veteran with a total service-connected disability gets $4,725 a year off the bill in Cranston and $250 in North Kingstown — nineteen times, in a state an hour wide. In between: Barrington $670.78, Providence $614, Tiverton $440, Woonsocket $400, East Providence $381.81, Burrillville $350 on top of its ordinary $275 veteran credit because the two stack, Warwick $346, South Kingstown $340, East Greenwich $300. Barrington and East Greenwich then exempt a specially adapted home outright. The units are not shared either: nine of the sixteen state the benefit only as dollars of tax and five only as assessed value — Pawtucket $35,930, Newport $21,400, West Warwick $20,534, Lincoln $11,000, North Providence $10,000 — with Cranston and East Providence publishing both, and East Providence alone banding the partial ratings, $18,635 of value at 1 to 30 percent up to $27,235 at 61 to 99. South Kingstown lets its credit be taken against the dwelling or the motor vehicle, the only town here that does. And Burrillville explains the divergence in its own words: it used to express exemptions as a reduction in assessed value and now shows only the tax credit.

What it is worth a year, state by state

A percentage or a dollar figure off the value is not money until you multiply it by a rate. Using each state's own median county effective rate on a $400,000 home, here is roughly what each of these is worth to a veteran at the top qualifying rating:

New Jersey — the whole bill, about $8,818 a year at the state's median county rate of 2.20%.

Illinois — the whole bill, about $7,386 a year at the state's median county rate of 1.85%.

Wisconsin — the whole bill back, about $5,780 a year at the state's median county rate of 1.44% — paid first, refunded through the income tax return.

Iowa — the whole bill, about $5,358 a year at the state's median county rate of 1.34%.

Pennsylvania — the whole bill, about $5,179 a year at the state's median county rate of 1.29% — but only with wartime service and a showing of financial need.

Nebraska — the whole bill, about $5,048 a year at the state's median county rate of 1.26%.

Texas — the whole bill, about $5,004 a year at the state's median county rate of 1.25%.

Michigan — the whole bill, about $4,533 a year at the state's median county rate of 1.13%.

Maryland — the whole bill, about $3,772 a year at the state's median county rate of 0.94%.

Minnesota — about $2,982 a year — $300,000 of value at the state's median county rate of 0.99%.

Florida — the whole bill, about $2,948 a year at the state's median county rate of 0.74%.

Mississippi — the whole bill, about $2,932 a year at the state's median county rate of 0.73%.

Montana — the whole bill below the income line — about $2,834 a year at the state's median county rate of 0.71% — tapering to a fifth of it in the top band.

Indiana — the whole bill, about $2,722 a year at the state's median county rate of 0.68%.

Georgia — about $2,711 a year — $304,530 of value at the state's median county rate of 0.89%.

District of Columbia — about $2,567 a year — but on this state's own median home of $724,600 the $445,000 exemption covers 61 percent of the value and leaves about $1,613 still to pay.

Oklahoma — the whole bill, about $2,520 a year at the state's median county rate of 0.63%.

Virginia — the whole bill, about $2,507 a year at the state's median county rate of 0.63%.

Arizona — the whole bill, about $2,159 a year at the state's median county rate of 0.54%.

South Dakota — about $2,155 a year — $200,000 of value at the state's median county rate of 1.08%.

Arkansas — the whole bill, about $2,127 a year at the state's median county rate of 0.53%.

South Carolina — the whole bill, about $2,110 a year at the state's median county rate of 0.53%.

Utah — the whole bill, about $1,964 a year at the state's median county rate of 0.49%.

West Virginia — the whole bill back, about $1,939 a year, refunded through the income tax return — and from a 90 percent rating rather than 100.

Washington — not a discount but a different bill: the state and excess levies go, regular taxes are lifted from up to 80 percent of the value, and the assessment freezes at the year you first qualify.

Louisiana — the whole bill, about $1,684 a year at the state's median county rate of 0.42%.

Idaho — $1,500 off the tax bill, with no income test, but the VA letter has to be filed again every year.

New Hampshire — between $700 and $4,000 off the tax bill depending on how your town voted — the median across 259 of them is $1,500 — plus a full exemption, but only for a home the VA itself adapted.

Alabama — the whole bill, about $1,320 a year, but through the disability homestead rather than any veterans programme.

Hawaii — four different answers on four islands — the whole bill on Kauai, the whole bill bar the minimum tax in Honolulu, all but half the minimum in Hawaii County, and a flat $150 a year on Maui — against about $1,137 untouched at the state's median county rate of 0.28%.

North Dakota — about $1,116 a year — $120,000 of value at the state's median county rate of 0.93%.

Delaware — the whole school portion of the bill, which is the larger part of it in Delaware, and nothing off the county share.

Alaska — about $1,075 a year — $150,000 of value at the state's median county rate of 0.72%.

Massachusetts — $1,000 straight off the tax itself, or $2,000 where the town has voted for the HERO Act option.

Missouri — a credit of up to $1,550 from 2026, income-tested and claimed on the income tax return, not on the property.

Tennessee — about $880 a year — $175,000 of value at the state's median county rate of 0.50%.

California — about $705 a year — $100,000 of value at the state's median county rate of 0.70%.

Ohio — about $636 a year — $59,000 of value at the state's median county rate of 1.08%.

Rhode Island — between $250 a year in North Kingstown and $4,725 in Cranston, measured across 16 of its 39 towns — and five of those quote assessed value instead, so the state has no single unit either.

Nevada — about $528 a year — $104,000 of value at the state's median county rate of 0.51%.

Colorado — about $386 a year — $100,000 of value at the state's median county rate of 0.39%.

Kentucky — about $352 a year — $49,100 of value at the state's median county rate of 0.72%.

North Carolina — about $309 a year — $45,000 of value at the state's median county rate of 0.69%.

Vermont — about $171 a year — $10,000 of value at the state's median county rate of 1.71%.

New Mexico — about $166 a year — $30,000 of value at the state's median county rate of 0.55%.

Oregon — about $114 a year — $15,000 of value at the state's median county rate of 0.76%.

Maine — about $67 a year — $6,000 of value at the state's median county rate of 1.12%.

Wyoming — about $34 a year — $6,000 of value at the state's median county rate of 0.57%.

New York — set locally, so there is no single figure — the median county rate is 2.19%, which puts a full bill at $8,741.

Connecticut — set locally, so there is no single figure — the median county rate is 1.80%, which puts a full bill at $7,198.

Kansas — nothing in the first year and everything the bill has risen since: it freezes rather than reduces, so it is worth more the longer you hold the house.

Two cautions on that table. It uses each state's median county rate, and your own county may be well above or below it — the county ranking shows how far apart they get inside one state. And it prices the exemption at one house value: a total exemption is worth more on an expensive home and a fixed reduction is worth the same on any home, which is why the ranking above reorders completely at a different price.

Two figures in that table are converted, and one is not. New Mexico exempts $10,000 of taxable value against a third of market value, so it is shown as $30,000 of house; Georgia's $121,812 sits on a base that is 40 percent of market value, so it is shown as $304,530 — which makes Georgia, not Minnesota, the largest partial exemption read here. Comparing those against states that exempt market value directly, without the conversion, is the commonest arithmetic error in this subject, and it is the reason Georgia is routinely listed as mid-table.

South Dakota is the one not converted. Its $200,000 is assessed value and this page has not read the state's assessment ratio, so that row is a floor rather than an estimate. Saying so is better than quietly applying a ratio nobody checked.

What every one of them has in common

It is claimed, not granted. No assessor is told by the VA that you have a rating. Every programme above needs an application with a copy of the VA certification, and several need it by a date: New York's is 1 March in most communities, and a missed deadline costs the year.

The surviving spouse provision is the part people find out about too late. Most of these carry to a spouse who has not remarried and continues to own and occupy the home — Texas, Florida, New Jersey and Illinois all do. It is not automatic on the veteran's death either: it is a fresh application, made at the worst possible moment, and households that do not know it exists simply start paying.

And a rating increase can be worth more than it looks. Where the benefit is banded, moving from 60 to 70 percent in Illinois is the difference between $5,000 off and the first $250,000 exempt. A re-rating is worth checking against your state's thresholds rather than assumed to be proportional.

Watch what the exemption attaches to. Some of these apply only to a residence homestead; Texas's partial exemption under section 11.22 and Florida's $5,000 reduction can be applied to a property that is not your home. If you own more than one, which one you claim on is a decision worth making deliberately.

The five states where a town meeting sets the amount

Five states do not set the figure at all; their municipalities do. Four are local options outright — New York, Connecticut, Hawaii and Rhode Island — and New Hampshire is a fifth of a different kind: the credit exists statewide, but every town votes its own amount inside a band the legislature sets. In all five, "it depends where you live" is the correct answer and also a useless one.

It is only useless while nobody measures it, and two of the five can now be measured.

New Hampshire can be measured completely, because the state counts it. The credit under RSA 72:35 for a total service-connected disability is voted by each town inside a statutory band of $700 to $4,000, and the Department of Revenue Administration publishes what every one of them chose. Across the 259 municipalities with a figure, the median is $1,500. 71 towns sit at the statutory floor and 48 at the ceiling — the same federal certificate, the same state, and a difference of $3,300 a year decided at town meeting.

The distribution is lumpy, not smooth, which tells you these are votes rather than formulas: 71 towns at $700, 50 towns at $1,400, 64 towns at $2,000 and 48 towns at $4,000, and only 26 municipalities scattered across every other amount. Towns copy their neighbours and round to figures that sound like decisions.

Where the big towns landed: Portsmouth $4,000, Dover $4,000, Keene $4,000, Derry $2,400, Manchester $2,000, Nashua $2,000, Concord $2,000 and Bedford $2,000. New Hampshire granted 4,305 of these disability credits in the report year, and $38,334,614 of veterans credits of every kind.

And do not rely on the statewide table alone. It has Concord at $2,000; Concord's own assessing department publishes $2,500. The town raised it and the compilation has not caught up, which is the general case with anything voted annually by 234 separate bodies. The state table tells you the shape; your assessor tells you your number.

Rhode Island had to be measured the hard way, one assessor at a time, and it is worth it. Rhode Island leaves the amount to each of its 39 cities and towns under RIGL 44-3-4. 16 have been read here, and among them a veteran with a total service-connected disability is worth $4,725 a year in Cranston and $250 a year in North Kingstown — nineteen times, inside a state you can drive across in an hour.

In between, in dollars of tax a year: Cranston $4,725, Barrington $671, Providence $614, Tiverton $440, Woonsocket $400, East Providence $382, Burrillville $350 (and it stacks with the ordinary veteran credit, so $625), Warwick $346, South Kingstown $340, East Greenwich $300 and North Kingstown $250. Barrington and East Greenwich then exempt a specially adapted home entirely, so in those two the most severely injured veterans pay nothing at all, while South Kingstown pays $710 for one and lets the credit be taken against a car instead of the house.

And the towns do not share a unit. Of the 16 read, nine state the benefit only as dollars struck off the tax, five only as dollars of assessed value — Pawtucket $35,930, Newport $21,400, West Warwick $20,534, Lincoln $11,000, North Providence $10,000 — and two, Cranston and East Providence, publish both, which is the only reason the two columns can be lined up at all. Burrillville explains the split in its own words: it used to show exemptions as a reduction in assessed value and now shows only the tax credit. Towns switch.

The state does compile this, and that is worth saying precisely. The Division of Municipal Finance publishes a Report on the Veteran, Senior, and Other Tax Exemption Programs. Its server returns 403 to every client tried — script, browser and fetching service alike — so this page could not read it. "Nobody compiles it" would be false; "it exists and we could not reach it" is the true sentence.

The 23 towns missing above are missing for three different reasons, and the third is the interesting one. A few block automated readers outright. A few publish their amounts only inside their codified ordinances, and the company that publishes those codes blocks readers too. And several — Charlestown, Bristol and Portsmouth among them — put the application form for the 100 percent disabled veteran exemption online and state the amount nowhere at all: not on the assessor page, not on the form, not in the tax roll, which reports only the town-wide total. For those the figure genuinely exists only at the end of a telephone line, which is worth knowing before you go looking for it.

What the 16 do settle is that a single Rhode Island figure is a fiction. You cannot average a dollar of tax against a dollar of valuation, and a list that prints one number for the state has quietly picked a town — usually Providence, which turns out to sit in the middle rather than anywhere representative.

Hawaii and New York are the two left unmeasured, and they are local for different reasons again — Hawaii because its state property tax law was repealed and only counties remain, New York because each county, city, town, village and school district votes separately on three different exemptions. In all five, the question "what is it worth?" has no state-level answer, and anyone who gives you one is telling you about somewhere else.

All 51, and what it took to read them

This page started with nine jurisdictions and a list of the ones it could not reach. There is no list any more. All 51 have now been read in a document published by a government entitled to publish it, each with the date it was read, and every one of those documents is linked at the foot of this page.

That is worth spelling out, because the interesting part is not the number — it is where the last ones turned out to be. Almost none of them were on the page you would guess. Oklahoma put its exemption in the state constitution by referendum, so it is not in the statutes at all. Arizona and Louisiana have tax agencies behind bot screens and legislatures publishing the identical rule in the open. Utah had it in a benefits booklet. West Virginia has it in one line on page 20 of the income tax instructions. Wisconsin has it in Publication 128. North Carolina, whose legislature and revenue department both refuse connections, has the whole thing — rule, forms, deadline — on its Department of Military and Veterans Affairs site.

And the last four had to be read at a level below the state. Idaho, New Hampshire and Rhode Island shut every state server: legislature, revenue department, veterans office, to a browser as readily as to a script. What was open was local government — a county assessor in Idaho, a city assessing department in New Hampshire, two municipal assessors in Rhode Island — and local government is where those three administer the benefit anyway, so the reading is closer to the taxpayer rather than further from them. Hawaii is not blocked at all; it simply has no state property tax to read, only four counties, and the largest of them publishes its ordinance in full.

The lesson generalises and it is the whole method of this page. A tax rule that affects hundreds of thousands of households is almost never published in exactly one place. When the obvious door is shut, the same rule is sitting open in the legislature, the constitution, a veterans department, an income tax booklet, or the county office that actually processes the form. The work is finding the second door, and it is work — not a reason to copy a compilation and hope.

Nevada is the clearest illustration of the whole method, because it changed twice. Its legislature refuses every connection, so NRS 361.091 could not be read and the figures were left out rather than guessed. They are published, though — by the county assessors who administer them, which is how Clark County came to supply not only the ladder ($18,200, $27,300 and $36,400 of assessed value by band) but the conversion, the annual CPI adjustment and the arithmetic showing the exemption is calculated at a higher multiplier against a vehicle than against a house. A statute that could not be read turned into more detail than the statute carries.

Hawaii was the last one and it cost the most, because the thing everybody cites does not exist. HRS 246-31 is quoted all over the internet as Hawaii's disabled veteran exemption; chapter 246 of the Hawaii Revised Statutes was repealed in 2016, and the state tax department publishes the repeal notice itself. There is no Hawaiian answer — there are four county answers, and reading them meant one city ordinance, one county code chapter, one county ordinance from 2022 and one county code section, none of which agree on the threshold.

What is still missing is named rather than hidden. New Hampshire is now complete to the last municipality because its revenue department counts them; Rhode Island has 16 of 39 towns read, because nobody in Rhode Island compiles them and the towns do not use the same unit. That gap is in the text where it belongs, not papered over with a number from somewhere else — and the 16 that are read are enough to show that a single Rhode Island figure would be a fiction.

Where these came from

Texas — Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts, Property Tax Exemptions — Disabled Veterans and Surviving Spouses. Read 2026-09-22. https://comptroller.texas.gov/taxes/property-tax/exemptions/

Florida — Florida Department of Revenue, PT-109, Property Tax Benefits for Active Duty Military and Veterans. Read 2026-09-22. https://floridarevenue.com/property/Documents/pt109.pdf

New Jersey — New Jersey Division of Taxation, 100% Disabled Veteran Property Tax Exemption. Read 2026-09-22. https://www.nj.gov/treasury/taxation/lpt/lpt-disabledvet.shtml

Illinois — Illinois Department of Revenue, Property Tax Relief — Homestead Exemptions. Read 2026-09-22. https://tax.illinois.gov/localgovernments/property/taxrelief.html

New York — New York State Department of Taxation and Finance, Veterans exemption. Read 2026-09-22. https://www.tax.ny.gov/pit/property/exemption/vetexempt.htm

Virginia — Virginia General Assembly, Code of Virginia § 58.1-3219.5, under Article X, Section 6-A of the Constitution of Virginia. Read 2026-09-23. https://law.lis.virginia.gov/vacode/title58.1/chapter32/section58.1-3219.5/

Michigan — Michigan Department of Treasury, Disabled Veteran Exemption, MCL 211.7b as amended by PA 161 of 2013. Read 2026-09-23. https://www.michigan.gov/taxes/property/exemptions/homeowner/disabled-veteran-exemption

South Carolina — South Carolina Legislature, Code of Laws, Section 12-37-220(B)(1). Read 2026-09-23. https://www.scstatehouse.gov/code/t12c037.php

Maryland — Maryland General Assembly, Tax-Property Article § 7-208. Read 2026-09-23. https://mgaleg.maryland.gov/mgawebsite/Laws/StatuteText?article=gtp&section=7-208&enactments=false

Oklahoma — Oklahoma State Legislature, Constitution of the State of Oklahoma, Article X, Sections 8E and 8F. Read 2026-09-23. https://www.oklegislature.gov/OKStatutes/CompleteTitles/AllOKConstitutionArticles.rtf

Arizona — Arizona State Legislature, A.R.S. § 42-11111, under Article IX, Section 2 of the Constitution of Arizona. Read 2026-09-23. https://www.azleg.gov/ars/42/11111.htm

Louisiana — Louisiana State Legislature, Constitution of Louisiana, Article VII, Section 21(K). Read 2026-09-23. https://www.legis.la.gov/legis/Law.aspx?d=206551

Utah — Utah Department of Veterans and Military Affairs, Utah Veterans Benefits Guide, Disabled Veteran Property Tax Abatement. Read 2026-09-23. https://veterans.utah.gov/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/Utah-Department-of-Veterans-Military-Affairs-Benefit-Booklet.pdf

California — California Legislature, Revenue and Taxation Code § 205.5. Read 2026-09-23. https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=RTC&sectionNum=205.5

Minnesota — Minnesota Office of the Revisor of Statutes, Minnesota Statutes § 273.13, veterans with a disability homestead market value exclusion. Read 2026-09-23. https://www.revisor.mn.gov/statutes/cite/273.13/

Oregon — Oregon Legislature, ORS 307.250, Property of veterans or surviving spouses. Read 2026-09-23. https://www.oregonlegislature.gov/bills_laws/ors/ors307.html

Maine — Maine Legislature, Maine Revised Statutes, Title 36 § 653, Estates of veterans. Read 2026-09-23. https://legislature.maine.gov/statutes/36/title36sec653.html

Iowa — Iowa Legislature, Iowa Code § 425.15, Disabled veteran tax credit. Read 2026-09-23. https://www.legis.iowa.gov/docs/code/425.15.pdf

North Dakota — North Dakota Legislative Branch, North Dakota Century Code § 57-02-08, subsection 20. Read 2026-09-23. https://ndlegis.gov/cencode/t57c02.pdf

Wyoming — Wyoming Legislature, Wyoming Statutes § 39-13-105, under § 39-11-105(a)(xxiv). Read 2026-09-23. https://www.wyoleg.gov/statutes/compress/title39.pdf

Vermont — Vermont General Assembly, 32 V.S.A. § 3802(11). Read 2026-09-23. https://legislature.vermont.gov/statutes/section/32/125/03802

Connecticut — Connecticut General Assembly, General Statutes, Chapter 203, sections 12-81(20), 12-81g and 12-81l. Read 2026-09-23. https://www.cga.ct.gov/current/pub/chap_203.htm

Alaska — Alaska Division of Community and Regional Affairs, Property Tax Exemptions in Alaska; AS 29.45.030(e). Read 2026-09-14. https://www.commerce.alaska.gov/web/dcra/LocalGovernmentResourceDesk/TaxationAssessment/PropertyTaxExemptionsinAlaska.aspx

New Mexico — New Mexico Taxation and Revenue Department, Property Tax; NM Department of Veteran Services. Read 2026-09-14. https://www.tax.newmexico.gov/individuals/personal-income-tax-information-overview/property-tax/

Ohio — Ohio Revised Code, Section 323.152, and Legislative Service Commission analysis of HB 96. Read 2026-09-14. https://codes.ohio.gov/ohio-revised-code/section-323.152

Tennessee — Tennessee Comptroller of the Treasury, Property Tax Relief Program 2026. Read 2026-09-14. https://comptroller.tn.gov/office-functions/pa/property-taxes/property-tax-programs/tax-relief.html

Georgia — Georgia Department of Revenue, Property Tax Homestead Exemptions, O.C.G.A. section 48-5-48. Read 2026-09-23. https://dor.georgia.gov/property-tax-homestead-exemptions

South Dakota — South Dakota Department of Revenue, Property Tax Relief Programs. Read 2026-09-23. https://dor.sd.gov/individuals/taxes/property-tax/relief-programs/

Colorado — Colorado Department of Local Affairs, Division of Property Taxation, Senior Citizen and Veterans with a Disability Property Tax Exemption. Read 2026-09-23. https://dpt.colorado.gov/property-tax-exemption-for-senior-citizens-and-veterans-with-a-disability

Washington — Washington State Legislature, RCW 84.36.381, as amended by 2026 c 163. Read 2026-09-23. https://app.leg.wa.gov/RCW/default.aspx?cite=84.36.381

Montana — Montana Code Annotated 2025, Sections 15-6-311 and 15-6-301, Disabled Veteran Program. Read 2026-09-23. https://archive.legmt.gov/bills/mca/title_0150/chapter_0060/part_0030/section_0110/0150-0060-0030-0110.html

Alabama — Alabama Department of Revenue, Homestead Exemptions, Title 40-9-21. Read 2026-09-23. https://www.revenue.alabama.gov/property-tax/homestead-exemptions/

Massachusetts — Massachusetts Division of Local Services, Reviewing Changes in Massachusetts Veteran Property Tax Exemptions, 8 January 2026. Read 2026-09-23. https://www.mass.gov/info-details/reviewing-changes-in-massachusetts-veteran-property-tax-exemptions

Delaware — Delaware Department of Finance, Disabled Veterans School Tax Credit FAQ. Read 2026-09-23. https://finance.delaware.gov/disabled-veterans-school-tax-credit/

Kansas — Kansas Office of Revisor of Statutes, K.S.A. 79-4502 and 79-4508a, Homestead Property Tax Refund Act. Read 2026-09-23. https://www.ksrevisor.org/statutes/chapters/ch79/079_045_0008a.html

Missouri — Missouri Revisor of Statutes, RSMo 135.010 and 135.030, as amended by H.B. 594 and 508 (2025). Read 2026-09-23. https://revisor.mo.gov/main/OneSection.aspx?section=135.030

District of Columbia — Council of the District of Columbia, D.C. Code section 47-850(a-2), Homestead deduction for houses and condominium units. Read 2026-09-23. https://code.dccouncil.gov/us/dc/council/code/sections/47-850

Indiana — Indiana Department of Veterans Affairs, Disabled Veteran Property Tax Benefits, State Form 12662. Read 2026-09-23. https://www.in.gov/dva/divisions/training-and-services/disabled-veteran-property-tax-deduction

Mississippi — Mississippi Department of Revenue, Homestead Exemption, county services. Read 2026-09-23. https://www.dor.ms.gov/county-services/homestead-exemption

Arkansas — Arkansas Department of Veterans Affairs, Guide to Arkansas Property Taxes, Ark. Code section 26-3-306. Read 2026-09-23. https://www.veterans.arkansas.gov/guide-to-ar-property-taxes

Nebraska — Nebraska Department of Revenue, Nebraska Homestead Exemption Information Guide, 19 February 2026, and Form 458 (2026). Read 2026-09-23. https://revenue.nebraska.gov/PAD/homestead-exemption

Pennsylvania — Pennsylvania Department of Military and Veterans Affairs, Disabled Veterans Real Estate Tax Exemption. Read 2026-09-23. https://www.pa.gov/agencies/dmva/pennsylvania-veterans/pa-vetconnect/state-veterans-programs/financial-assistance/retx.html

North Carolina — North Carolina Department of Military and Veterans Affairs, Veterans Property Tax Relief, N.C.G.S. 105-277.1C. Read 2026-09-23. https://www.milvets.nc.gov/benefits-services/veterans-property-tax-relief

Kentucky — Kentucky Department of Revenue, Homestead Exemption, residential, farm and commercial property. Read 2026-09-23. https://revenue.ky.gov/Property/Residential-Farm-Commercial-Property/Pages/Homestead-Exemption.aspx

Wisconsin — Wisconsin Department of Revenue, Publication 128, Wisconsin Tax Information for Military Personnel and Veterans, laws enacted as of 22 January 2026. Read 2026-09-23. https://www.revenue.wi.gov/DOR%20Publications/pb128.pdf

West Virginia — West Virginia Tax Division, Form DV-1 (Rev. 07/2025) and 2025 Personal Income Tax Information and Instructions, page 20. Read 2026-09-23. https://tax.wv.gov/Documents/PropertyTax/2025/dv1.2025.pdf

Nevada — Clark County Assessor and Nevada Department of Veterans Services, Exemptions (NRS 361.090 and 361.091) and State Benefits for Veterans. Read 2026-09-23. https://www.clarkcountynv.gov/government/assessor/exemption

Hawaii — City and County of Honolulu, County of Hawaii, County of Maui and County of Kauai, ROH 8-10.5; Hawaii County Code sections 19-73 and 19-90(e); Maui County Code 3.48.475 as amended by Ordinance 5410 (2022); Kauai County Code 5A-11.6; and HRS chapter 246 (repealed, L 2016, c 52). Read 2026-09-23. https://realproperty.honolulu.gov/tax-relief-and-forms/exemptions/totally-disabled-veterans/

Idaho — Kootenai County, Idaho, Assessor, Service-Connected Disabled Veterans Property Tax Benefit. Read 2026-09-23. https://www.kcgov.us/838/Veterans-Property-Tax-Benefit

New Hampshire — City of Concord, New Hampshire, Assessing Department, Disabled Veterans Credit (RSA 72:35) and Certain Disabled Veterans Exemption (RSA 72:36-a). Read 2026-09-23. https://www.concordnh.gov/1084/Disabled-Veterans-Credit

Rhode Island — Tax assessors of Cranston, Providence, Pawtucket, Warwick, Woonsocket, Newport, Barrington, East Providence, East Greenwich, North Kingstown, South Kingstown, North Providence, Lincoln, Tiverton, West Warwick and Burrillville, Municipal tax assessor exemption schedules for 16 cities and towns (RIGL 44-3-4, 44-3-4.2, 44-3-5.2, 44-3-31). Read 2026-09-23. https://www.providenceri.gov/tax-assessor/exemptions/

These rules move. New York's new exemption for permanently and totally disabled veterans was created by 2025 legislation and applies to taxable status dates from 1 October 2026; Ohio's enhanced figure rose for taxes payable in 2026; New Mexico's has been indexed since 2026. A figure here is what the agency published when it was read, and the agency is the authority on the day you apply.

Property tax is levied by counties, municipalities and school districts rather than by states, so a state exemption may reach only part of your bill and a local option may not exist where you live. All 3,143 counties are on this site with the layers shown separately.

Where to go next

Property tax relief for seniorsThe other age- and status-based relief, and the four mechanisms it uses.States with no property taxNone of the fifty, and where it is lowest instead.Property tax by countyAll 3,143 counties, each with its own state's rules.Lowest property tax countiesEvery US county ranked by effective rate.

Questions

Which states have no property tax for 100% disabled veterans?: Of the 51 jurisdictions read for this page — all fifty states and the District of Columbia — 17 take the bill to zero on the veteran's home at the qualifying rating: Texas, Florida, New Jersey, Illinois, Virginia, Michigan, South Carolina, Maryland, Oklahoma, Arizona, Louisiana, Utah, Iowa, Indiana, Mississippi, Arkansas, Nebraska. Several others offer a fixed reduction instead — California, Minnesota, Oregon, Maine, North Dakota, Wyoming, Vermont, Alaska, New Mexico, Ohio, Georgia, South Dakota, Colorado, District of Columbia, North Carolina, Kentucky among them — which reduces the bill without ending it. The rating is federal and identical everywhere; what it is worth is set by each state.
Do disabled veterans pay property taxes?: It depends entirely on the state and the rating. A 100 percent service-connected rating removes the bill completely in Texas, Florida and New Jersey, and exempts the first $250,000 of equalized assessed value in Illinois from a 70 percent rating. Elsewhere it takes a fixed amount off the value, or pays part of the tax back after you have paid it. No state gives it automatically: every one of them requires an application.
What is the disabled veteran property tax exemption in Texas?: A veteran awarded 100 percent disability compensation for a service-connected disability, or rated individually unemployable, gets a total exemption on their residence homestead under Tax Code section 11.131 — the property tax bill goes to zero. Below that rating, section 11.22 gives a partial exemption that scales with the rating and can be applied to any one property the veteran owns. The exemption carries to a surviving spouse who has not remarried.
Does the exemption pass to a surviving spouse?: In most of these states, yes, but it is a fresh application rather than an automatic continuation. Texas, Florida, New Jersey and Illinois all carry the benefit to a spouse who has not remarried and continues to own and occupy the home. It is the provision households most often miss, because it has to be claimed at the worst possible moment.
Why is my state not on this page?: Because its rules have not been read in that state's own documents yet. 51 of 51 are covered here, and none of the absences is now a state this site could not reach — the four that were blocked have all been read somewhere else the state publishes. It does not mean the missing states have no exemption; several have very generous ones. It means this page has not got to them.