Knox County Trustee: Disabled Veteran Property Tax Relief
Knox County's Trustee takes applications for the state's disabled veteran property tax relief, worth up to $444 against 2026 county taxes. The county adds no match. The Trustee's page asks for an honorable discharge and a permanent and total rating, which is narrower than the law: only a dishonorable discharge bars relief, and two other routes need no rating.
Tennessee's disabled veteran property tax relief is a state payment toward the tax on the first $175,000 of a home's value; the Tennessee entry on it sets out who qualifies. In Knox County the Trustee takes the applications, at the City-County Building, 400 Main Street, Suite 427, Knoxville, (865) 215-2305, or at any satellite office without an appointment. Property inside Knoxville or Farragut also carries city taxes, for which the city takes its own application.
What it is worth. The Trustee lists the 2026 relief on Knox County taxes as up to $444 for a disabled veteran or the widow or widower of one, against up to $85 for an elderly or disabled homeowner. There is no income limit for the veteran categories. Knox County adds no money of its own under 67-5-701(j). In February 2025 the Commission asked the General Assembly (R-25-2-904) to let county trustees keep up to 10 percent of abandoned excess proceeds from delinquent tax sales to fund tax relief for elderly, disabled and disabled veteran homeowners; none of the 1,142 public chapters of the 2025 and 2026 sessions does so.
Where the Trustee's page narrows the law. It says that disabled veterans "who have an honorable discharge along with a service-connected permanent and total disability or disabilities rating" may qualify. Two things are wrong with that. Section 67-5-704(c) bars only a veteran who was dishonorably discharged, so a general or other than honorable discharge does not by itself disqualify. And the permanent and total rating is only one of three routes: a veteran with paraplegia, legal blindness, or loss or loss of use of two or more limbs from a service-connected cause qualifies at any rating, and so does a former prisoner of war rated one hundred percent permanent and total from that captivity. The page's surviving spouse line describes only the spouse of an eligible veteran, not the spouse of a veteran whose death was service-connected and combat-related, or of a service member who died on deployment, whom subsections (f) and (g) also cover. The page does link the Comptroller's brochure for the full rules, which a veteran turned away on these grounds should take to the counter.
When. The application closes thirty-five days after county taxes go delinquent, which for 2026 taxes is April 5, 2027, under 67-5-701(d). It must be renewed every year.
Thresholds
Thresholds for Knox County Trustee: Disabled Veteran Property Tax Relief
Gate
Rule
Permanent and total, as VA determines it
The state relief the Trustee administers. The rating route in 67-5-704(b)(3) asks for service-connected permanent and total disability as determined by VA, which a veteran paid at the total rate through unemployability that VA has found permanent also holds. It is recorded rather than enforced because the paraplegia, blindness and loss-of-limbs route and the prisoner of war route need no rating at all.
Or a named loss, at any rating
Paraplegia or permanent paralysis of both legs and the lower body, legal blindness, or loss or loss of use of two or more limbs from a service-connected cause qualifies whatever the combined rating, as does one hundred percent permanent total disability from having been a prisoner of war. The state entry on disabled veteran property tax relief sets out the routes.
Only a dishonorable discharge bars it
Section 67-5-704(c) excludes a dishonorably discharged veteran. The Trustee's page asks for an honorable discharge, which the statute does not.
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Disclaimer
VetTOC is not affiliated with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs or the Department of Defense. Information is for reference only and is not an eligibility determination. Verify with VA, the relevant state or territory, or an accredited VSO.