Bexar Appraisal District: Disabled Veteran Exemptions

The exemptions are the State's: the total exemption of the homestead of a veteran awarded 100% compensation and rated 100% or unemployable (Tax Code 11.131), and the partial exemption scaled by the rating (11.22). The Texas entries explain them. The Bexar Appraisal District decides them for property in Bexar County, and there is never a fee to apply. 100% homestead (form 50-114). Apply online through the district's Online Services, or send the form through help.bcad.org, by mail, fax or in person to 411 N. Frio Street, San Antonio. Send a copy of a Texas driver licence or ID showing the property's address, and a VA letter dated within two years showing the effective date and entitlement to 100% compensation for a service-connected disability or for individual unemployability. An active-duty applicant or spouse, or someone in a nursing facility, should ask the district for an alternative to the licence. The exemption does not have to be renewed each year, but it can be lost by not answering the district's homestead audit verification letter. Surviving spouse. Tax Code 11.131(c) continues the exemption for the unremarried surviving spouse of a veteran who qualified under subsection (b) when the veteran died, which includes a veteran paid at 100% for unemployability. The district's help page says a spouse of a veteran who "qualified, or would have qualified" may be eligible, but its list of required documents asks for a VA letter "reflecting a 100% total combined percentage of service-connected disability at Veteran's time of death". A spouse whose veteran was rated below 100% but paid at 100% for unemployability should send the letter showing the unemployability award and cite section 11.131(c). The spouse also sends the marriage and death certificates, and a transfer certificate if moving the exemption from another Texas county. Partial exemption (form 50-135). The district lists it as for ratings of 10% to 90% and asks for a VA benefits letter dated within five years and a Texas licence or ID. Section 11.22 also gives the top amount to a veteran 65 or older rated 10% or more, or one who is blind in one or both eyes or has lost the use of a limb; claim those routes on the same form. Other survivor exemptions the district takes, with their documents, include the surviving spouse of a service member killed in the line of duty (casualty report), the donated residence of a partially disabled veteran (recorded deed from the charity and a VA letter within five years), and the surviving spouse of a veteran whose death VA has service-connected (a DIC award letter).