Colorado Property Tax Exemption for Veterans with a Disability and Gold Star Spouses

Colorado exempts 50 percent of the first $200,000 of the actual value of a qualifying veteran's owner-occupied primary residence. The most that can be taken off actual value is therefore $100,000. The state reimburses the county for the lost revenue, so a county has no fiscal reason to resist a valid claim. Two things about this benefit changed recently and a veteran reading older guidance will get both wrong. The first is eligibility. Through property tax year 2024 the exemption reached only veterans with a service-connected disability rated 100 percent and permanent. HB23-1052 extended it to veterans with individual unemployability status, but because the exemption sits in Article X, section 3.5 of the state constitution, the change had to go to the voters. It did, as Amendment G in November 2024, and it passed with roughly 73 percent against a 55 percent threshold. Unemployability qualifies beginning with property tax year 2025. Legislative analysts estimated about 3,700 additional veterans would become eligible, and many of them have never applied. Colorado's own guidance describes the unemployability path as a veteran rated at least 70 percent who is compensated at the 100 percent rate. Note the asymmetry with the schedular path: the 100 percent rating has to be permanent, while the unemployability finding does not. The second change is where to file. Before January 1, 2024 applications went to the Division of Veterans Affairs. They now go directly to the county assessor, and the Division warns that an application sent to the Department of Military and Veterans Affairs will be delayed and may miss the deadline. The deadline moves in 2027. Senate Bill 26-046 (2026 Session Laws, chapter 10, signed March 26, 2026) moves the filing deadline in C.R.S. 39-3-205(1)(b) from July 1 to July 15 of the first year the exemption is claimed, and the late filing deadline in 39-3-206(2)(a.7) from August 1 to August 15. Section 18 of the act makes those two sections take effect January 1, 2027; the rest of the act took effect August 12, 2026. So 2026 claims ran on July 1 and August 1, and 2027 claims are due July 15, 2027, with late applications to August 15, 2027. Agency pages written before the act still say July 1. The late route is statutory and the agency pages do not mention it. A veteran who missed the deadline may ask the assessor to waive it and accept a late application up to the late deadline; the assessor may accept it on a showing of good cause, in the assessor's sole discretion, and must mail a decision by August 25. The Division's warning that applications arriving after the deadline are destroyed and must be resubmitted when the window reopens in January describes applications past the late deadline, not everything after July 1. Underneath the rating test are requirements that are easy to overlook. The Division of Veterans Affairs says the veteran must have served at least 24 months of active duty, including National Guard service called to active duty, with an honorable discharge. The statute is wider on both points: C.R.S. 39-3-202 defines a qualifying veteran as someone who served on active duty, including a Colorado National Guard member ordered into federal active service, and was "separated therefrom under honorable conditions". It names no minimum length of service, and "under honorable conditions" includes a general discharge. The 24 month figure mirrors the federal minimum service rule for VA benefits; a veteran with a shorter tour who holds the rating should apply and let the assessor decide. The property must have been owned and occupied since January 1 of the application year. A VA Benefit Summary Letter has to be attached, and while such letters do not expire, most assessors want one dated within the past year. Gold Star spouses qualify on their own footing: a surviving spouse of a service member who died in the line of duty and received a death gratuity, or whose death VA determined resulted from a service-related injury or disease and who receives Dependency and Indemnity Compensation. There are two different survivor rules and conflating them is a real error. A surviving spouse who continues a veteran's granted exemption must not have remarried and must still live in the same home. Colorado's own FAQ says remarriage does not disqualify a Gold Star spouse claiming in that capacity. Anyone in either situation should get the assessor to confirm which rule is being applied before relying on it. Once granted, no reapplication is needed from the same address unless VA status changes. Moving to a new property restarts the process, and the new application has to land by the filing deadline of that year, which is July 15 from 2027. A property held in a trust or other entity solely for estate planning still qualifies, and a temporary stay in a nursing home or assisted living does not break primary residence as long as the home stays unoccupied or is occupied only by a spouse or financial dependents. Repeated attempts to enlarge this benefit have failed. HB24B-1006 would have replaced the flat $200,000 with a formula tied to the state median home value and was postponed indefinitely in August 2024. Proposals to lower the rating floor to 50 percent have not reached the ballot. The figure is still 50 percent of the first $200,000.