Moore County Tax Department: Disabled Veterans Homestead Exclusion

The exclusion is the State's, under G.S. 105-277.1C; see the North Carolina entry. The Moore County Tax Department decides claims, at 1 Courthouse Square, Carthage (P.O. Box 457, Carthage, NC 28327; 910-947-4121). What the Tax Department's brochure says. The first $45,000 of appraised value of the residence and up to one acre is excluded. It applies to veterans discharged honorably or under honorable conditions who have a permanent and total service-connected disability or received a specially adapted housing grant under 38 U.S.C. 2101, and to their unremarried surviving spouses. It is a one-time application: the State's form AV-9, the NCDVA-9 signed and certified by the veterans service office, and proof of residence such as a North Carolina driver licence, by June 1. After June 1 the Tax Department asks for an additional form, which is the good cause request G.S. 105-282.1(a1) allows for that year. Where the county's papers are narrower than the statute. The Tax Department links two documents that each leave out a route. The brochure gives the surviving spouse only the veteran's own routes, a permanent and total rating or a 2101 grant. The statute also qualifies an unremarried surviving spouse where VA has certified that the veteran's death was service-connected, with no rating needed in life. The criteria sheet, headed "Criteria for Veterans Property Tax Exclusion", says the exclusion is for those "Rated at 100% Permanent and Total" or a surviving spouse "in Receipt of Dependents Indemnity Compensation". It leaves out the 2101 grant, and it sends veterans to the county veterans office "to request the required certification from the US Department of Veterans Affairs", warning it can take two to three weeks. The certification is the State's NCDVA-9, which the county office signs; the VA letter is the evidence. The veterans office's own pages also describe the benefit as "100% Service Connected" and require "an honorable discharge". The statute's discharge test is honorable or under honorable conditions, which the brochure states correctly.