Matanuska-Susitna Borough: Senior Citizen/Disabled Veteran Property Tax Exemption

The first exemption is the State's, AS 29.45.030(e), which Alaska requires every taxing municipality to grant; the State entry records what the statute says and what the optional program in subsection (f) adds. The Borough adds its own on top, in MSB 3.15.037, and the Borough Assessor administers both under MSB 3.15.030. Amount. $150,000 of assessed value is exempt under the mandatory program. MSB 3.15.037(A) exempts a further $114,000, adjusted every January 1 by the year's change in the Federal Housing Finance Agency's House Price Index for the Anchorage metropolitan area (third-quarter report), from the borough levy only. The 2027 application prints the optional amount as $135,259, which matches the Assessor's schedule on the Assembly's September 2026 Action Memo ($285,259 in all for tax year 2026, and $279,720 for 2025); the Borough's service page prints $135,279, $20 more, which looks like the misprint. Ask the Assessor for the 2027 figure once the January adjustment is made. Who qualifies as a disabled veteran. A disabled person separated from the military service of the United States under a condition that is not dishonorable, who is a resident of the state, whose disability was incurred or aggravated in the line of duty, and whose disability has been rated 50 percent or more by the branch of service in which the person served or by the VA, with an effective date before January 1 of the tax year. MSB 3.15.037(A)(2) names a person disabled in the line of duty in the Alaska Territorial Guard. A widow or widower who has reached 60 may take over the exemption of a previous participant, with marriage and death certificates. Residency and occupancy. The applicant must have been an Alaska resident for the entire year before the exemption year, must own and occupy the home as a permanent place of abode before January 1, and in each later year must own and occupy it at least 185 days as the primary residence. MSB 3.15.030(B)(1) adds a Permanent Fund Dividend test: the applicant must be eligible for the dividend for the same or the preceding year, or show they would have been had they applied. The Borough uses the dividend to check residency, so a veteran who does not apply for or receive it must file the Supplemental Residency and Occupancy Qualification Form, an affidavit made under penalty of unsworn falsification, every year by April 30. The applicant may not own other property that is receiving, or will receive, a residential, senior citizen or disabled veteran exemption. Applying. The application, with a current VA letter giving the 50 percent or more rating and its effective date, is due by April 30 of the tax year (MSB 3.15.030(C) and 3.15.037(C), later than the State's March 31). It goes to the Division of Assessment, 350 East Dahlia Avenue, Palmer, (907) 861-8642, [email protected]. A qualifying veteran does not reapply each year: the exemption stays until ownership, occupancy, use or disability status changes, and the owner must tell the Assessor when it does. If the property is in a trust, the Assessor wants the trust's first page, the page naming the applicant sole owner or trustee, and the signature and witness page. Buying a home mid-year. Since January 1, 2026, MSB 3.15.037(E) gives a veteran who buys and moves into a home after January 1 a prorated exemption from the date of purchase and occupancy to the end of the year, on a separate written application filed by December 31 of that year. Ordinance 25-084 put the question to the voters as Proposition No. 1 and the Assembly's November 18, 2025 certification records it passing 11,466 to 1,839. (The memo filed with the ordinance on Legistar is stamped "Defeated by the voters: 11/04/25"; the certified count and the ordinance's own "Ratified by the voters" stamp are what govern.) Late and retroactive applications. The Assessor may accept a late application for good cause, and the Assembly may waive a late filing for good cause and have it treated as timely, but never more than two years after the original April 30 deadline. For earlier tax years the Assessor accepts a disabled veteran's application only where the veteran applied on time each year and then received a retroactive rating from the VA or the branch of service. In practice the Assembly approves late and retroactive applications roughly every two months on its consent agenda - the memos read on October 12, 2026 run from AM 26-004, adopting the November and December 2025 applications on January 20, 2026, through AM 26-028, AM 26-057, AM 26-092 and AM 26-130, approving the July and August 2026 applications on the September 15, 2026 consent agenda - and some cover two tax years. A veteran who misses the deadline should ask the Division of Assessment to place the application on the next memo. Appeals. A denial can be appealed in writing to the Assessor within 15 days, stating the reasons in detail, and the Assessor's decision on appeal goes to the superior court on the record (MSB 3.15.030(E)). Hardship exemption (MSB 3.15.033). A veteran who has the exemption can ask for a hardship exemption that reduces the real property tax on the home to 2 percent of gross household income. The household's income from all sources in the prior year must be no more than 135 percent of the federal poverty guideline for a household of its size in Alaska, the applicant must meet the State hardship standards in 3 AAC 135.040(b) and (c) and the dividend test, may own no more than one parcel besides an adjacent one the home needs, and may have a net worth of no more than $250,000, counting the first $150,000 of the home's market value. The application is due April 20, ten days before the main exemption, with the State's 3 AAC 135.040 application, the Borough's supplemental form and an affidavit; the Assessor decides within 15 business days of a complete file. A false statement carries a $500 fine and repayment of the exempted tax. The Borough's exemption page posts no hardship form, so ask the Division of Assessment for it.