Alameda County Assessor: Disabled Veterans' Exemption

The exemption is the State's; the California entry gives the amounts, the income limit and Senate Bill 296's larger exemption from the January 1, 2027 lien date. The Alameda County Assessor's Exemptions Division handles it at 1221 Oak Street, Room 145, Oakland (510-272-3770, [email protected]). What the Assessor gets right. Its For Veterans page prints the figures for the 2026 lien date, $180,671 basic and $271,009 low-income with an $81,131 household income limit, and names the 100% rating and 100% unemployability routes. It takes the DIC letter in place of a rating letter from a surviving spouse, notes the 30 days after a supplemental assessment notice, and says retroactive claims can reach back up to eight years. Where it is wrong or narrower than the law. Filing every year. The page says claims "must be filed between January 1 and February 15 each year" and its FAQ answers "Do I need to file every year?" with "Yes". Only the low-income exemption is annual. Revenue and Taxation Code section 279(b) keeps a granted claim "in continuous effect" until title changes, the veteran stops living there, or the veteran stops qualifying. Late claims. The page says a claim filed after February 15 and before December 10 gets 80%, and a later one counts only for the next fiscal year. Section 276 gives 90% for a claim filed after February 15 and by December 10, and 85% for one filed after that. Routes. It names a veteran who is "blind or paraplegic". Section 205.5 says blind in both eyes or the loss of the use of two or more limbs, which is wider than paraplegia, and its FAQ tells a 70% veteran the law "requires a 100% disability or unemployability rating" without those two routes. Discharge. It asks for a DD-214 "showing honorable discharge". Section 205.5(b) asks for a discharge under other than dishonorable conditions, so a general discharge qualifies. From 2027. The page does not mention section 205.5.1, under which half of the first $1,000,000 of the home's value, or all of it under the income limit, is exempt from the 2027 lien date.