Cobb County Tax Commissioner: Disabled Veteran Homestead Exemption

The exemption is the State's, under Code section 48-5-48; see the Georgia entry. In Cobb County the Tax Commissioner, not the Board of Tax Assessors, takes homestead applications, online or from the Property Tax Division, P.O. Box 100127, Marietta, GA 30061 (770-528-8600, [email protected]). The exemption shows on the bill as a code with 5 as the middle digit, such as 453. The amount for 2026. The Department of Revenue's memorandum of December 31, 2025 sets the exemption at $126,526 of the homestead for tax year 2026, the federal specially adapted housing maximum, for a qualifying veteran, an unremarried surviving spouse or minor children. Value above that stays taxable. The Tax Commissioner's page calls it "a set exemption in all tax categories". Who qualifies. The page says the veteran must "have 100% service-connected disability, be compensated at 100% due to unemployability, or be a disabled veteran as defined by O.C.G.A. § 48-5-48", which by reference takes in the statutory awards for loss of limbs or sight, the wartime limb-loss routes and adapted housing eligibility. What it asks for, and where that is narrower than the law. The page asks for "a letter from the Veteran's Administration indicating the effective date of the Veteran's 100% service-connected disability". A veteran on another route has no such letter. Section 48-5-48(c) asks for a letter from VA or the Department of Veterans Service stating the qualifying disability, or for adapted housing a letter stating that eligibility, and for the wartime limb-loss routes a DD-214 and a Georgia doctor's letter. Bring the document the statute names for your route. Retroactive refund. The page does not mention section 48-5-48(g): a veteran whose VA decision has a retroactive effective date can get back up to three years of taxes that would have been exempt. Deadline. The page already follows Senate Bill 566 of 2026: an application for the current year may be filed before the appeal deadline on the Notice of Assessment, and a later one waives the exemption for that year. It also warns that an owner who moves, rents the home out or stops qualifying must tell the office, as the Act requires on pain of back taxes and a penalty. Surviving spouse. The page does not say that a disabled veteran's exemption continues for the unremarried surviving spouse or minor children who keep living in the home, and can move with them to a later home in Cobb, as sections 48-5-48(b), (b.1) and (d) provide. For the separate exemption for the spouse of a service member killed in a war or armed conflict (section 48-5-52.1), the page adds a death "as a result of service-connected injury or illness" and minor children, neither of which the section mentions; the section requires a war or armed conflict death and Survivor Benefit Plan proof from the Secretary of Defense, which the page does ask for. See the Georgia entry. Cobb's own disability exemption. A local act, Cobb Code sections 34-23 and 34-24, gives any disabled resident a further $22,000 off county and school taxes, other than bond taxes, if household net income for the previous year was no more than $12,000. Retirement, survivor and disability benefits from any public or private system, VA compensation among them, are left out of income up to the Social Security maximum. It needs certificates from one to three Georgia physicians that the applicant cannot be gainfully employed and that the incapacity is likely permanent; a VA rating alone does not satisfy it. A veteran rated below the State thresholds who cannot work may qualify. Cobb also exempts residents 62 and over from all school taxes, regardless of income (Code section 34-22).