Montana Vehicle Registration and Cemetery Fee Waiver

Section 61-3-460 is the money in Montana's veteran plate scheme. A person eligible under subsection (2) is exempt from the $10 veterans' cemetery fee for two sets of special veteran licence plates, and from all motor vehicle registration fees imposed by chapter 3 for two motor vehicles that are not used for commercial purposes. Two vehicles, not one. That is worth saying plainly because the benefit is often described as covering a vehicle, and a household with a truck and a car can put both under it. Five categories qualify. A veteran who was a prisoner of war, on Department of Defense documentation, or their unremarried surviving spouse. A veteran currently rated 100 percent, or paid at the 100 percent rate, for a service-connected disability on VA documentation, or their unremarried surviving spouse. A veteran determined by VA to be 50 percent or more disabled because of a service-connected injury who has been awarded the Purple Heart, on both VA documentation and the military service record, or their unremarried surviving spouse, with one carve-out: this group still pays the veterans' cemetery fee. The unremarried surviving spouse of a service member killed while on active duty, on Department of Defense documentation. And the unremarried surviving spouse of a service member or veteran who died of a service-connected injury or disability, on VA documentation. The 100 percent route is written as "currently rated 100% disabled or is paid at the 100% disabled rate", so individual unemployability reaches it, as it does for the disabled veteran plate and for the property tax program. Montana is consistent about this phrasing across its statutes, which is not true of every state in this catalog. The waiver is not tied to one plate design. Subsection (3) lets a veteran who qualifies under the prisoner of war, 100 percent or Purple Heart routes apply the waiver to any of the special veteran plates in 61-3-458(4), as long as they also meet the eligibility for that particular plate. A former prisoner of war can take the waiver on an ex-prisoner of war plate, a branch veteran plate, or whichever they prefer. Applications go through the county treasurer rather than through a state office. A separate and narrower provision, 61-3-456, lets a Montana resident on active duty who is stationed outside Montana register a vehicle without paying certain light vehicle registration fees, the fee in lieu of property tax and county option taxes. That one is about being posted away, not about disability, and it is filed with the county treasurer in the county of residence on a sworn application.