Georgia Disabled Veteran Homestead Exemption

Code section 48-5-48 grants a homestead exemption from state, county, municipal, and school ad valorem tax. The amount is the greater of $32,500 or the maximum grant under 38 U.S.C. 2102, the federal specially adapted housing grant. VA publishes that maximum as $126,526 for fiscal year 2026. The Department of Veterans Service page still prints $121,812 and labels it as the 2025 figure, and so did the Department of Revenue's own homestead exemptions page when re-read on 2026-10-23, though the Department's memorandum to county officials of December 31, 2025 sets $126,526 for tax year 2026. Use the current federal maximum. Assessed value above the exemption stays on the tax bill. This is not a full exemption of the home. The veteran has to be a Georgia citizen and resident, discharged under honorable conditions, and has to own the home and occupy it as the residence. The Department of Veterans Service uses the same occupancy rule. An unremarried surviving spouse, or a minor child, keeps the exemption while continuing to occupy the home. The statute's disabled-veteran test is any of these: VA has adjudicated a service-related disability that is 100% totally disabling; the rating is under 100% but compensation is paid at the 100% rate for individual unemployability; or VA has awarded a statutory benefit for loss or permanent loss of use of one or both feet, loss or permanent loss of use of one or both hands, loss of sight in one or both eyes, or a defined permanent impairment of both eyes. The department describes that eye test as central visual acuity of 20/200 or less in the better eye with glasses, or a field contracted so the widest diameter subtends an angle no greater than 20 degrees. A later paragraph of the same section also covers a veteran eligible for assistance acquiring housing under 38 U.S.C. 2101. The rating filter follows the 100% path and the unemployability path. Loss of a limb or sight, and the housing-grant path, are not rating tests. File the homestead application with the county tax commissioner or tax receiver. The department says each of the 159 counties administers the exemption, and a local question goes to that office. Bring a VA letter stating the qualifying disability. Senate Bill 566 of 2026, effective April 22, 2026, changed homestead administration for every exemption, this one included, from the 2026 tax year: an application can be filed during the year after the home becomes the residence, up to the last day to appeal the annual assessment notice; an owner who stops qualifying has to tell the tax receiver or commissioner by that date; and failing to report ineligibility brings back all tax and interest plus a penalty of 50 percent of the taxes the exemption removed. A removal or denial has to be in writing with reasons and can be appealed. An unremarried surviving spouse who remarries, or a minor child who moves out, is the case this reaches.