What the Northern Mariana Islands Does Not Offer Veterans

A veteran arriving from a state will look for four things and find none of them. This entry exists so that search ends quickly and in the right place. No veterans property tax exemption. The Commonwealth's veterans provisions are gathered in Article 7 of Chapter 1, Division 2 of Title 1 of the Commonwealth Code, at 1 CMC §§ 20121 to 20134, and they cover the veterans office, the cemetery at Marpi, the anti-discrimination rule and the permissive private employment preference. There is no property tax exemption in that article and none elsewhere in the code that this catalog has found. Note also that Article XII of the Constitution restricts long-term interests in land to persons of Northern Marianas descent, so for many veterans the ownership question comes before the tax question. No exemption for military retired pay. The Commonwealth taxes income under the Northern Mariana Islands Territorial Income Tax, a mirror of the U.S. Internal Revenue Code, along with local wage, earnings and business gross revenue taxes. There is no Commonwealth carve-out for military retired pay of the kind many states in this catalog provide. VA disability compensation and Dependency and Indemnity Compensation are not taxable, because the federal exclusion at Internal Revenue Code section 104(a)(4) carries into a mirror code. Confirm your own return with the Division of Revenue and Taxation rather than relying on this paragraph. No territorial tuition waiver. The Commonwealth has no veterans tuition benefit at Northern Marianas College and no survivor or dependent education waiver in the veterans article. This is a place where Guam and the Commonwealth diverge sharply: Guam enacted the Guam Veterans Higher Education Benefits Act in February 2026, giving qualifying veterans a tuition exemption at the University of Guam and Guam Community College, and re-enacted it in its fiscal 2027 budget act at the end of August 2026. The Commonwealth has enacted no equivalent; no public law of the 24th Commonwealth Legislature, through Public Law 24-37 of August 2026, touches tuition for veterans. Federal education benefits, the Post-9/11 GI Bill and the rest, apply here on ordinary terms, and thirty veterans living in the Commonwealth used VA education benefits in fiscal 2023. The resident rate at Northern Marianas College is a federal rule, not a territorial benefit, and it is wider than the college says. 38 U.S.C. 101(20) treats the territories and possessions as States for Title 38, so 38 U.S.C. 3679(c) requires the college, as a condition of VA approval, to charge the resident rate to a covered individual living in the Commonwealth while enrolled. The college's veteran services page still describes the 2014 version of that rule, with enrollment required within three years of discharge, transfer or a Fry Scholarship death. Section 1005 of Public Law 116-315 removed those windows for terms beginning on or after August 1, 2021, and the rule now covers Chapter 30, 31, 33 and 35 users, and Chapter 1606 Selected Reserve users from August 1, 2026 under Public Law 119-55. A veteran who moved to Saipan years after leaving the service qualifies; point the college to 3679(c) as amended if it quotes a window. No veterans bonus. Guam's code still carries bonus articles for its Combat Patrol, Wake Island workers and civilian scouts from the Second World War. The Commonwealth Code has no counterpart. What the Commonwealth does have, and what the rest of this catalog's Northern Mariana Islands entries cover: a veterans cemetery built with a VA grant, license plates at a standing discount and free at one hundred percent permanent and total, a civil service preference worth two points and one point, a permissive private employment preference, an employment anti-discrimination section that is actionable as a civil tort, and an office in the Governor's office to certify status and chase paperwork. If someone tells you the Commonwealth has a veterans property tax exemption or a tuition waiver, ask which section of the Commonwealth Code. This catalog has not found one.