Minnesota Vehicle, Title, Sales Tax and Driver’s Licence Fee Exemptions

Minnesota bundles four separate fee and tax exemptions behind one defined term, so they stand or fall together. Section 171.01, subdivision 51 defines a "veteran with a total service-connected disability" as a veteran under section 197.447 who provides the commissioner with satisfactory evidence, issued by the Department of Veterans Affairs, the United States Veterans Administration or a service retirement board, demonstrating that the veteran has received a 100 percent total and permanent service-connected disability rating. Read that carefully, because it is the open question in this entry. The definition names a 100 percent total and permanent rating and nothing else. It does not mention individual unemployability. Published guidance, including the Department of Defense benefits library, states that a veteran with a total disability rating based on individual unemployability qualifies and lists a TDIU award letter among the acceptable documents. A veteran paid at the total rate through unemployability, whose VA letter states a total and permanent evaluation, has a real argument on the face of the definition, because the letter says what the definition asks for. A veteran whose TDIU is not permanent has a weaker one. This asymmetry between administrative practice and statutory text is unresolved, and a veteran relying on TDIU should get Driver and Vehicle Services to confirm in writing before paying for a vehicle in reliance on the exemption. Registration. Section 168.012, subdivision 13 exempts a passenger automobile, one-ton pickup truck, motorcycle or recreational vehicle registered by a qualifying veteran from registration taxes, administrative fees, filing fees and surcharges under section 168.33, subdivision 7, and plate and validation sticker fees including transfer fees. The exemptions apply to a vehicle jointly registered by the veteran and a spouse or domestic partner. They do not cover the fee for personalised plates, and they do not cover the required contribution or donation attached to a special plate, which is the trap on the "Proud to be a Veteran" plate and its $30 World War II memorial contribution. A qualifying veteran may register no more than two motor vehicles at the same time under this subdivision, and nothing stops the veteran registering more in the ordinary way. Title. Section 168A.29, subdivision 4 waives the certificate of title fee where the title is being issued to a person and for a vehicle meeting the section 168.012, subdivision 13 requirements. Motor vehicle sales tax. Section 297B.03, clause (15), numbered clause (16) until May 28, 2026, exempts the purchase of a motor vehicle by a veteran having a total service-connected disability, as defined in section 171.01, subdivision 51. That clause was added by Laws 2023, chapter 68, article 3, section 31 and is effective for sales and purchases made after June 30, 2024. Laws 2026, chapter 128, article 11, signed May 27, 2026 and effective the next day, deleted an earlier clause and renumbered this one from (16) to (15) without changing its words, so the 2025 Minnesota Statutes and any form or guide printed before June 2026 cite clause (16). The statutory text contains no numerical limit: it does not say one vehicle, and it does not carry a lifetime cap, although secondary descriptions of the exemption commonly say one vehicle. If the department is applying a one-vehicle limit it is applying it administratively rather than under the words of clause (16), and a veteran buying a second vehicle should ask on what authority. A separate and older exemption sits in section 297A.67, subdivision 11: automobiles or other conveyances are exempt where the purchaser is assisted by a grant from the United States under 38 U.S.C. 3902, the VA automobile grant. That one turns on the grant rather than on the rating, and section 297A.67, subdivision 12 exempts parts, accessories and labour used solely to modify a motor vehicle to make it accessible to a person with a disability. Driver's licence and identification card. Section 171.06, subdivision 2c says that for an applicant who is a veteran with a total service-connected disability, the commissioner must not impose a licence or endorsement fee, including the fees and surcharges in subdivisions 2 and 2a and in section 171.02, subdivision 3; a filing fee under subdivision 2 or section 171.061, subdivision 4; or a fee for an identification card under section 171.07, subdivision 3 or 3a. This reaches endorsements, so a commercial endorsement is free too. Two unrelated vehicle provisions are worth knowing. Section 168.031 exempts the motor vehicle of a person engaged in active military service from the registration tax during that service and for 90 days after, on written application filed before, during or within 90 days after the service, provided the vehicle is not operated on a Minnesota public highway during the exemption except by the owner on furlough or leave. Its definition of active service excludes annual training, periodic inactive duty training, special reserve training and the Active Guard Reserve programme. And the same section exempts the motor vehicle of a disabled war veteran that was furnished free in whole or in part by the United States government, and a vehicle owned and registered by a former prisoner of war bearing EX-POW plates.