Nebraska Homestead Exemption for a Non-Service-Connected Total Disability

This is the homestead category most Nebraska veterans will end up reading about, because it is the one that does not require a service connection. It is also the one that most resembles an ordinary means-tested property tax program, and it is worth understanding how differently it works from 77-3506. Section 77-3508(1)(b)(i) applies to veterans as defined in section 80-401.01, discharged or otherwise separated with a characterization of honorable or general under honorable conditions, who are totally disabled by a non-service-connected accident or illness. The Department of Revenue administers it as category 2. Three restrictions apply here that do not apply to the service-connected exemption. The exemption is a percentage, not the whole bill. Section 77-3501.01(2) caps the exempt amount at the lesser of the taxable value of the homestead or 120 percent of the county average assessed value of single-family residential property, or fifty thousand dollars, whichever of those two is greater. Then the income scale in 77-3508(2) and (3) decides what percentage of that amount is actually exempt, on a sliding ladder from one hundred percent down to zero. The income limits move every year. Section 77-3508(4) indexes them to the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers for cumulative inflation since 2014, rounded down to the next lower hundred dollars, and the Department of Revenue publishes a table each year. For applications filed in 2026, a single disabled veteran claimant reaches full relief at a household income up to $41,600.99 and loses the exemption entirely at $59,001; for a married or closely related claimant the figures are $47,700.99 and $68,701. Those are the 2026 numbers and they are based on 2025 income. Get the current table before relying on any of them. The value cap bites as well. Section 77-3506.03(1) reduces the exempt amount by ten percent for each $2,500 by which the homestead exceeds the county maximum value, and cuts it off entirely at $20,000 over. Subsection (2) protects a claimant whose house grew into the cap while they were already receiving the exemption, freezing their percentage, unless the increase came from improvements they made. And the wartime test is real. "Veteran" here means the definition in 80-401.01, which is a list of named conflicts rather than a general definition of service. The gaps in that list are what decide cases: there is no qualifying period between February 1, 1955 and February 27, 1961, none between May 8, 1975 and August 24, 1982, none between February 27, 1984 and December 19, 1989, and none between February 1, 1990 and August 1, 1990. A veteran whose entire service fell in one of those windows is not a wartime veteran for this category no matter how disabled they are. There is a further wrinkle in how the period list is published. Section 80-401.01(10) and (11) define the Persian Gulf War as beginning August 2, 1990 and the Global War on Terror as beginning September 14, 2001, each "ending on the date thereafter prescribed by presidential proclamation or by law". No such proclamation has been issued for either. The Department of Revenue's Homestead Exemption Information Guide nonetheless prints end dates of February 28, 1991 and September 11, 2021. A veteran whose service falls after either of those administrative end dates, and who is refused on that basis, should ask the county assessor which statute supplies the end date. Certification is medical rather than percentage based. The application needs a Form 458B completed by a physician, physician assistant or advanced practice registered nurse, or a certification from VA affirming total disability due to a non-service-connected accident or illness. Section 77-3508(1)(c) then says the certification need not be repeated in later years if no change in medical condition has occurred, though the assessor or the Tax Commissioner may ask for it again. The application itself, Form 458 with Schedule I income statement, is annual, filed after February 1 and on or before June 30. A veteran drawing a VA pension for a non-service-connected total and permanent disability is the archetypal claimant here, and the same status opens the free hunting, fishing and park permits under chapter 37. The two programs are worth applying for together.