Alabama Disabled Veteran License Plate

The Department of Veterans Affairs describes two disabled-veteran plates. Read them separately. The county license office issues the plate. In Limestone County that is the License Commissioner. A service-connected disabled veteran rated 10% or higher, who is an Alabama resident when the exemption is claimed, does not pay the state privilege or license tax, or the state registration and issuance fees, on an automobile or motor vehicle. A veteran rated under 50% service-connected gets one exemption and one plate. The plate is not transferable. The department's note on this plate says local taxes and fees may still be charged. County ad valorem on the vehicle is a local tax. The separate entry for a vehicle paid for by VA is the one that also removes ad valorem. A second plate is available to a resident veteran who needs special mechanical controls to drive, whose physical disability exceeds 50%, or whose vehicle was fully or partly paid for by VA. The registration fee on that plate is $5 unless another law already removes it. Someone who qualifies only because VA paid for the vehicle is limited to one plate, and that plate is exempt from license fees and from ad valorem tax. Otherwise the department says there is no limit on how many of these plates are issued. One of them is exempt from the state issuance fee. These plates are not transferable. The department's index titles this second plate "60% or higher," and the paragraph under it says the disability exceeds 50%. Use the statute and the license office if those two lines disagree. Distinctive military plates that are only commemorative still charge a tag fee. Those plates are not this exemption.