Nebraska Motor Vehicle Tax and Fee Exemption for a Disabled Veteran

This benefit is new. Section 10 of LB650, enacted in 2025, added subdivision (2) to section 60-3,185 and the exemption became available to claim from January 1, 2026. One motor vehicle owned and used for personal transportation by a disabled veteran or blind veteran, as those terms are defined in 77-202.23, whose disability or blindness is recognised by VA, is exempt from the motor vehicle tax. Section 60-3,190(1) then carries the exemption automatically to the motor vehicle fee, because an owner exempt from the tax under 60-3,185 is also exempt from the fee. The rating test is the same low one the mobile home exemption uses. Section 77-202.23 adopts 5 U.S.C. 2108, so a veteran who has established the present existence of a service-connected disability qualifies, including at zero percent, as does a veteran receiving compensation, disability retirement benefits or pension through VA or a military department. The Department of Veterans' Affairs states this plainly in its own guide. There is one word in 60-3,185(2) that does not appear in the mobile home provision, and it decides cases. The vehicle exemption requires that the veteran "was discharged or otherwise separated with a characterization of honorable". Section 77-202.24, the mobile home exemption, says "honorable or general (under honorable conditions)". The two provisions were amended by the same act in the same year and they do not use the same discharge test. A veteran holding a general discharge under honorable conditions should expect the mobile home exemption to be available and should not be surprised if the county treasurer refuses the vehicle exemption on the words of the statute. What is not exempt matters as much as what is. The exemption reaches the motor vehicle tax and the motor vehicle fee and nothing else. The registration fee, the plate fee, sales tax on the purchase and any local wheel tax are all still payable. On an ordinary car the motor vehicle fee is between $5 and $30 depending on value when new and age, and the motor vehicle tax is the larger figure, computed from the value when new on the schedule in 60-3,187. Then the timing, which is where this benefit will be lost most often. Section 60-3,189(1) requires the application to the county treasurer not more than fifteen days before and not later than thirty days after the registration date for the vehicle, and a renewal application annually, not sooner than the first day of the last month of the registration period and not later than the last day of that period. The Department of Veterans' Affairs puts it more bluntly: a request made outside the window means no exemption until the next renewal period. The department also states the exemption applies automatically to future renewals once granted, so the annual application in the statute is administered as a standing claim, but the initial timing is unforgiving and a purchase must be claimed within thirty days. Registration with the Nebraska Veterans' Registry comes first. The Department of Veterans' Affairs says it takes up to forty-eight hours after approval for a registry record to become visible to the Department of Motor Vehicles, so a veteran registering the week a plate expires has left it too late. Moving the exemption to a different vehicle is done at the time the old vehicle is sold, or during the expiration month of the existing registration. The county treasurer decides the application within twenty days and a denial is appealed to the county board of equalization within twenty days of the notice.