Nebraska Property Tax Exemption for a Paraplegic Veteran or Multiple Amputee

Sections 77-3526 to 77-3528 sit outside the homestead exemption article's income and value machinery entirely. Where they apply they are the best property tax result available in Nebraska, and 77-3506(2)(a) expressly directs a veteran who is eligible for this exemption to claim it instead of the ordinary disabled veteran homestead exemption. Section 77-3527 exempts the value of a home substantially contributed by the United States Department of Veterans Affairs for a paraplegic veteran or multiple amputee, during the life of the veteran or until the death or remarriage of the surviving spouse. Three defined terms carry the section, and 77-3526 supplies them. Paraplegic means a veteran paralysed in both legs such as to preclude locomotion without the aid of braces, crutches, canes or a wheelchair. Multiple amputee means a veteran who has undergone amputation of either both lower extremities, or one lower and one upper extremity, such as to preclude locomotion without braces, crutches, canes, a wheelchair or artificial limbs, or of both upper extremities. Note that this is a functional description rather than a rating percentage. No combined evaluation appears anywhere in the three sections. Home means one housing unit and the necessary land, not exceeding one acre, occupied by the veteran or the unmarried surviving spouse where that person is the owner of record from January 1 through August 15 of the year. Substantially contributed by the Department means any amount received by the veteran from VA under Public Law 85-857 as amended and in effect on January 1, 1979. That is the specially adapted housing and special housing adaptation grant authority. The phrase "any amount" is the operative one: the statute does not ask what share of the purchase price the grant covered, and the application need only include a certification from VA affirming that it substantially contributed to the purchase, construction, remodeling or special adaptation of the home. The replacement provision is the part most likely to matter and least likely to be known. If the veteran or unmarried surviving spouse disposes of the home and within one year uses the proceeds, or part of them, to acquire another home for their occupancy, the new home is deemed to be one VA substantially contributed to and the exemption follows. A veteran who downsizes, or whose adapted home no longer suits, does not lose the exemption by moving, provided the purchase closes inside the year. The filing requirement is where this exemption is unlike the rest of the article. Section 77-3528 requires an application to the county assessor on or before June 30 of each year, on forms prescribed by the Tax Commissioner, and the Department of Revenue administers category 5 as an annual filing with an annual VA certification. The exemption itself runs for life; the paperwork does not. The 2026 act that ended repeat filing for the ordinary disabled veteran homestead exemption amended 77-3506 and 77-3512 and did not touch 77-3528. One thing this exemption does not do is reach a rented or leased property, or more than one housing unit. It is the home and up to an acre, and nothing else.