Michigan Disabled Veteran Registration Plate

2024 PA 149, effective April 2, 2025, rewrote this section and widened it twice over. The plate used to belong to totally disabled veterans. It now reaches a partially disabled veteran and a surviving spouse, and that change has consequences well beyond the plate itself. Who may apply. A disabled veteran with an honorable discharge who owns a private passenger motor vehicle, on proof of the discharge plus one of three things: a VA determination of a service-connected total or permanent total disability rating for compensation; a total or permanent total rating together with disability retirement pay from a branch of the armed forces; or, for a partially disabled veteran, a VA service-connected disability rating of not less than 50 percent. The distinction that costs money. A special registration plate issued to a totally disabled veteran under the first two routes is exempt from the registration tax in section 801. A plate issued to a partially disabled veteran under the 50 percent route is not. Both are exempt from the service fee under section 804 on application and on renewal, but the 50 percent veteran still pays the ad valorem registration tax, which on a newer vehicle is the larger number by far. Summaries that say Michigan gives disabled veterans free plates are describing only the first case. Expiry differs too. A totally disabled veteran's plate expires on their birthday in a year when the Secretary of State issues new plates, which is a long cycle. A partially disabled veteran's plate expires as provided in section 226, the ordinary annual cycle. Neither has to furnish the disability proof again on renewal. The surviving spouse. The surviving spouse of a disabled veteran with a rating of not less than 50 percent and an honorable discharge may use the plate after the veteran's death, and may renew it in the same manner as a disabled veteran with the same rating the deceased held. If the plate is going on a different vehicle, the spouse must apply to register that vehicle first. The wheelchair tab. The Secretary of State may issue, free of charge, an adhesive tab for persons with disabilities showing the international wheelchair symbol, attachable only to the DV plate. The proof required is the same as for a permanent windshield placard under section 675, so the tab tracks a mobility disability rather than the VA rating. A new tab is issued free on each plate renewal without re-proving. A surviving spouse who is themselves a disabled person may apply for the tab in the same way. The vehicle limit. A private passenger motor vehicle means a vehicle personally owned by the disabled veteran and used primarily to transport the veteran and family members, and it expressly does not include a motor home. Using the plate or the tab on a vehicle other than the one it was issued for, or by someone who does not qualify, is a misdemeanour. The knock-on benefit nobody has updated. Section 324.74116(c) exempts from the Recreation Passport requirement any vehicle registered under 257.803f, without distinguishing between total and partial disability. Because 2024 PA 149 brought 50 percent veterans inside 803f, they are now inside the state park entry exemption too. The Michigan Veterans Affairs Agency's recreation page still says free park entry is for "100 percent disabled veterans", which was right before April 2025.