Gwinnett County Tax Commissioner: Disabled Veteran and Disability Homestead Exemptions

The disabled veteran exemption is the State's, under Code section 48-5-48; see the Georgia entry. In Gwinnett the Tax Commissioner takes every homestead application, online, in person or by post, with one application for all exemptions ([email protected], 770-822-8800). Applications are taken all year; to count for the current year one must arrive by the appeal deadline on the assessment notice, as Senate Bill 566 of 2026 provides. S5, the disabled veteran exemption. For 2026 it is $126,526 off assessed value, with no age or income limit, and it continues for the unremarried spouse or minor children who keep the homestead in the county. The Tax Commissioner's list says it "requires a letter from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs stating applicant has a 100 percent service-connected disability". Section 48-5-48(a) also takes a veteran paid at the 100% rate for individual unemployability, a veteran with a VA statutory award for loss or loss of use of a foot or hand or loss of sight, the wartime limb-loss routes, and a veteran eligible for a specially adapted housing grant. A veteran on one of those routes should apply with the letter the statute names (section 48-5-48(c)) and cite the section. The list also leaves out the three-year refund for a retroactive VA decision in section 48-5-48(g). SS, the surviving spouse exemption. The list describes the spouse of a service member who "was killed or died while on active duty in a combat zone". Section 48-5-52.1 reaches a death in or as a result of a war or armed conflict, including on authorised travel to or from it, proved by Survivor Benefit Plan documents from the Secretary of Defense; it does not say combat zone. L5A, full exemption from school taxes. A local Act of 1990 exempts the homestead, with up to one acre, from all Gwinnett County School District taxes, bond taxes included, for a resident who is 65 or older or disabled, if the household's Georgia taxable net income for the previous year is no more than $25,000 plus the Social Security maximum; the Tax Commissioner gives $124,648 for 2026. VA disability compensation is not Georgia taxable income. The disabled route needs a letter from a doctor that the applicant is unable to be gainfully employed, not a VA rating, so a veteran rated below the State thresholds who cannot work, or one paid for unemployability, may qualify at any age. It replaces the other school exemptions rather than adding to them. L1, disability exemption. Any homeowner whose doctor certifies total and permanent disability on January 1 gets $10,000 off county, $4,000 off county bond, $8,000 off school, $4,000 off school bond and $7,000 off recreation taxes, with no income limit. Service members. A 2023 Act, approved by voters in May 2024, gives a $2,000 exemption from school taxes, from 2025, to a homeowner who on January 1 is a member of the armed forces, including the reserves, National Guard and Coast Guard; the Tax Commissioner describes it as for an "active-duty member". It saves about $37 a year. What has not happened. House Bill 540 of 2025 (Act 202) would add disabled veterans, as Code section 48-5-48 defines them, to that $2,000 school exemption from January 1, 2027, if school district voters approved it at the May 19, 2026 primary. The official results for Gwinnett list one local homestead question that day, House Bill 539, which raises the regular school exemption from $8,000 to $10,000 from 2027 and passed with 92,066 votes to 53,058; there was no question on House Bill 540, and the Tax Commissioner's list does not mention it. Unless a court orders the vote under the Act's mandamus clause, the expansion does not take effect and the Act repeals itself 365 days after the election date.