Kansas Disabled Veteran Sales Tax Exemption

On and after July 1, 2026, section 79-3606h exempts from Kansas retailers' sales tax all sales of tangible personal property or services to a qualifying disabled veteran. This is the only general retail sales tax exemption for disabled veterans in this catalog. In a state whose combined state and local rates commonly run past nine percent, it is worth more than most property tax provisions. The gate is the strictest in Kansas. The person must be a Kansas resident, must have been honorably discharged from active service in any branch of the armed forces, and must be certified by VA to have a 100 percent disability or to be deemed totally disabled or unemployable, provided that the disability is permanent and was sustained through military action or accident or resulted from disease contracted while in active service. Read the discharge word carefully. This section says honorably discharged and stops there. The definition Kansas uses for the property tax refunds, the licence plate, the hunting licence and the employment preference all expressly accept a general discharge under honorable conditions. This one does not. A veteran holding a general discharge is inside every other Kansas program in this catalog and outside this one. Unemployability qualifies. The statute reaches a veteran "deemed totally disabled or unemployable," so individual unemployability is a route in its own right and the veteran does not need a 100 percent schedular rating. The permanence requirement still applies. The cap is $24,000 of qualifying sales per year per eligible person. Above that, tax is owed, and subsection (d) makes the excess a direct sales tax liability recoverable from the veteran rather than the retailer. On request of the secretary, the veteran must provide a statement executed under oath that the yearly limit has not been exceeded. The veteran is the one keeping the running total. Four categories are carved out: motor vehicles, alcoholic beverages, tobacco, and electronic cigarettes together with consumable material for them. Vehicle repairs and maintenance are not carved out and do qualify. Nothing used for the production of income qualifies, so the exemption is for personal use only and a veteran running a business cannot buy stock with it. The spouse and the household member are treated differently and the difference is easy to miss. Purchases made on the eligible person's behalf by a spouse, or by a member of the household authorised to purchase for them, are exempt. But the last sentence of subsection (a) limits the exemption to property and services used for the personal use of the eligible person or that person's spouse or surviving spouse. The Department of Revenue reads this as it is written: a spouse named on the card may buy for their own personal use, while an authorised household member may buy only on the veteran's behalf. A surviving spouse of an eligible person who was receiving the exemption at the time of death continues to receive it until the surviving spouse remarries. Nothing works without the card. Subsection (c) requires the veteran to apply to the secretary of revenue for a veteran exemption identification number before claiming anything. The department issues a driver's-licence-sized exemption certificate card carrying that number, and the veteran presents the card or enters the number on an exemption certificate at the retailer. Applications go in online or on form K-97 with a DD Form 214 member copy 4 and a VA award or benefit summary letter, and the department asks for at least ten business days plus mailing. The provision arrived the hard way. It was section 1 of House Bill 2098 in the 2024 session, which Governor Kelly vetoed and both chambers overrode. The act took effect July 1, 2024 but wrote the exemption itself to begin two years later, on July 1, 2026, which is why guidance published between those dates describes it in the future tense.