Delaware Disabled Veterans School Property Tax Credit

This is Delaware's only property tax relief for veterans, and it is narrower than the name suggests. What it covers. Title 14, section 1917, subsection (d) allows "a credit against taxation in the full amount of tax liability imposed by this chapter" on a qualified veteran's principal residence. "This chapter" is chapter 19 of Title 14, the local school district tax. The county property tax and, as the Department of Finance and the Office of Veterans Services both put it, the vocational school district tax are not covered. What the credit does is zero out the largest part of most Delaware property tax bills, the non-vocational school district levy, and nothing else. Who qualifies. A veteran who "receives from the United States Department of Veterans Affairs, or its successor agency, 100% disability compensation due to a service-connected, permanent and total disability based on individual unemployability or a 100% disability rating", and who has been legally domiciled in Delaware for at least three consecutive years. Read the sentence carefully: the words "permanent and total" govern both routes. A veteran rated 100 percent schedular whose rating is not permanent, for example a temporary 100 percent under a convalescence rating, does not meet it on the words, and neither does a veteran paid at the total rate through unemployability that VA has not found permanent. Bring the VA benefit summary letter that states permanent and total status. The three years are consecutive and domicile, not residence: seasonal residence does not count and twelve months away is prima facie abandonment. It depends on your school district, and all of them have adopted it. The statute makes the credit available only "if authorized by majority vote of the whole school board of the local school district". When House Bill 214 was signed on August 10, 2021, which is 83 Delaware Laws chapter 124, the state announced in November 2021 that all sixteen non-vocational school districts had approved it. Nothing requires a district to keep it, so a veteran moving between districts should confirm with the county. The state pays for it: Title 29, section 6102, subsection (r) creates the Disabled Veterans Property Tax Relief and Education Expense Fund with $1,000,000 a year and authority to draw more from the Department of Education contingency, allocated to districts by the number and value of disabled veteran homes. If a board declines, the money reverts, which is the state's lever to keep districts in. The surviving spouse route, which the state's own form does not mention. Senate Bill 241 of 2022, which is 83 Delaware Laws chapter 529, approved November 2, 2022, added paragraph (d)(1)d.: if the district has authorized the credit, it "must be allowed" for a surviving spouse who was a titled owner before the veteran died, has not remarried and owns and occupies the home as a principal residence, provided the veteran was claiming the credit at death. It ends on remarriage, on ceasing to be a titled owner or on moving out. Paragraph (d)(2)b. requires the Secretary of Finance to maintain the credit for an eligible spouse "without disruption occasioned by the death". The Division of Revenue application form DVP-TAX is revision 20211026 and has no surviving spouse section, and the Department of Finance FAQ does not mention spouses. A widow or widower should write to the county citing section 1917(d)(1)d. rather than wait for a form. How to apply. File form DVP-TAX with the county, not the state: New Castle County Assessment Division, Kent County Levy Court Assessment Division or Sussex County Billing Services. Attach the VA determination, a Delaware driver licence or state ID and the Social Security number, which the state uses to verify the three years of domicile. The statewide deadline is April 30 for the tax year that follows, and the form says in capitals that the credit is not permitted retroactively. Once approved you do not reapply, but the credit does not follow you to a new house: file again before or after you move. The application also commits you to tell the county of any change in rating within 60 days. Three traps. First, the credit is withdrawn for the following year from anyone who has not paid the rest of the property tax bill in full by the end of the tax year, so the county portion still has to be paid on time. Second, you cannot also take the senior school property tax credit; section 1917(d)(4)e. gives you this one, which is always larger. Third, co-owners who are not married share one credit by ownership share, while spouses holding as tenants by the entirety are each treated as owning the whole. Two versions of the section. The Code prints section 1917 twice, one version effective until August 12, 2028 and one from that date, because 85 Delaware Laws chapter 134 changed the penalty rules in subsection (a) for a limited period. The two versions of subsection (d), which holds this credit, are word for word the same, so nothing about the veteran credit changes on that date. What died. House Bill 349 of the 153rd General Assembly would have lowered the threshold from 100 percent to 80 percent. It was assigned to the House Appropriations Committee and did not pass before the session ended on June 30, 2026. The 100 percent permanent and total test is current law.