Maine Veteran Property Tax Exemption

Title 36, section 653(1)(C) exempts estates up to the just value of $6,000, having a taxable situs in the place of residence, for a veteran who meets one of two tests. The first test is age plus service. The veteran served during a federally recognized war period, including the Korean Conflict, the Vietnam War, the Persian Gulf War, the periods from August 24, 1982 to July 31, 1984 and December 20, 1989 to January 31, 1990, Operation Enduring Freedom, Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation New Dawn, or during the period from February 1, 1955 to February 27, 1961, or was awarded an expeditionary medal, and has reached the age of 62. There is a second half to that first test that most summaries drop, and it is the most useful sentence in the section. The veteran also qualifies at 62 when they are receiving any form of pension or compensation from the United States Government for total disability, service-connected or nonservice-connected, as a veteran. Nonservice-connected is in the statute. A wartime veteran aged 62 or over who receives VA pension at the total disability rate qualifies without any service-connected rating at all. The second test has no age condition. A veteran who is disabled by injury or disease incurred or aggravated during active military service in the line of duty, and who is receiving any form of pension or compensation from the United States Government for total, service-connected disability, qualifies at any age. Note the words: total, service-connected. The statute does not say one hundred per cent and does not say permanent, so a veteran paid at the total rate through individual unemployability should read this test rather than assume it excludes them. A Vietnam War veteran must have served on active duty after February 27, 1961 and before May 8, 1975. Persian Gulf War means active duty on or after August 2, 1990 and before or on the date the federal government recognizes as the end of that war period, which has not closed. There is an older and larger tier. Section 653(1)(C-1) exempts up to $7,000 of just value for a veteran who served during a federally recognized war period during or before World War I and who would otherwise be eligible under paragraph C. It is in lieu of the $6,000 rather than added to it. The exemption reaches property held in joint tenancy with the veteran's spouse and property held in a revocable living trust for the veteran's benefit, which is what makes ordinary estate planning safe here. Three procedural points decide whether a veteran actually gets it. The applicant must be a Maine resident. Written application and written proof of entitlement go to the assessors of the place of residence on or before the first day of April in the year the exemption is first requested. And once granted, the assessors continue it while the person remains a resident, so this is a one-time filing rather than an annual one. That application and proof are confidential and are not available for public inspection. An individual is not entitled to an exemption under more than one paragraph of the section, so the $6,000, the $7,000 and the $50,000 specially adapted housing amounts do not stack. Finally, the local value of the exemption is not the headline figure. The assessor multiplies the exemption by the ratio of current just value on which the assessment is based, so in a town assessing below full value the exemption shrinks proportionally.