Indiana Vehicle Excise Tax Credit for Disabled Veterans

Indiana charges an annual excise tax on vehicles at registration, and disabled veterans who rent rather than own have a credit against it. The credit. IC 6-6-5-5.2 gives a credit equal to the lesser of the excise tax or seventy dollars, for no more than two vehicles, to: a wartime veteran with an honorable discharge and a service-connected disability of 10 percent or more; or a veteran with ninety days of service, an honorable discharge and either a total disability or age 62 with a disability of at least 10 percent; or certain surviving spouses, including the spouse of a World War I veteran and the spouse of someone who received the credit the year before. The claimant must not own property to which the matching property tax deduction may be applied, and proves it with an affidavit from the county auditor attached to the Bureau of Motor Vehicles form. The old route through an unused deduction. IC 6-6-5-5 lets any unused property tax deduction reduce excise tax at $2 per $100. The Department of Local Government Finance says that because the section 14 deduction is now 100 percent of the home's assessed value, "there ordinarily would be no unused deduction amount". You cannot use both routes (IC 6-6-5-5.2(e)). A question the 2026 rewrite left open. The second route still names a veteran "at least sixty-two (62) years of age" with 10 percent, and excludes anyone who owns property "to which a property tax deduction may be applied under IC 6-1.1-12-14". Since 2026, section 14 no longer covers that age route, so a 62-year-old veteran rated 10 percent who owns a home arguably no longer owns property to which a section 14 deduction may be applied. Ask the county auditor for the affidavit and see.