Oregon Disabled Veteran or Surviving Spouse Property Tax Exemption

Oregon exempts a fixed dollar amount of homestead assessed value rather than a percentage. For the tax year beginning July 1, 2026 the amounts are $27,092 and $32,512, under ORS 307.250 to 307.283. Each figure rises 3 percent a year, so a veteran who checked a few years ago is looking at a stale number. The exemption applies first to the home and then to taxable personal property. Note what this is not. Oregon has no general homestead exemption and no exemption based on age or income alone, so for most Oregon homeowners this is the only assessed-value break available. The rating floor is 40 percent, low by the standards of this catalog, and the two tiers differ in a way that is easy to misread. The $32,512 amount requires disabilities certified by VA or a branch of the armed forces as service-connected and 40 percent or more. A surviving spouse or registered domestic partner who has not remarried also qualifies at this amount where the veteran died of a service-connected injury or illness, or where the veteran received at least one year of the maximum exemption. The $27,092 amount does not require service connection at all. It reaches a veteran certified by VA or a branch as having disabilities of 40 percent or more, whether or not they are service-connected, and it also reaches a veteran certified each year by a licensed physician as 40 percent or more disabled. That physician path carries an income test: total gross income in the year before the exemption year cannot exceed 185 percent of the federal poverty guidelines, counting pensions, disability compensation, and military retirement pay. The surviving spouse or partner of a veteran also qualifies at this amount, and may claim even if the veteran was never disabled and never filed. So a veteran with a 40 percent rating that is not service-connected, or with no VA rating but a physician's certification and low income, is not shut out. Most states would shut them out. The retroactive provision is the most valuable thing here and the least known. Filing within six months of the date VA or a branch notified you of a certified rating of 40 percent or more lets you claim up to three prior tax years plus the current year. A veteran who just received a retroactive rating decision should file immediately rather than waiting for the next cycle, and should count the months. The earliest year available is the tax year following the effective date of the certified disability. File with the county assessor on or before April 1 for the tax year beginning July 1. Property acquired after March 1 but before July 1 gets 30 days from acquisition. Attach the DD-214 or equivalent and the disability certificate, which must be dated within three years of the claim unless it was already filed after age 65 or the disability is certified permanent. There is no annual refiling on the VA-certified path; refile only if a qualifying condition changes. Property held in a trust qualifies only if the trust is revocable. Buyers under recorded contracts of purchase and life estate holders count as owners. Temporary absences for vacation, travel, or illness do not disqualify. Expect the figures to keep drifting up by 3 percent rather than jumping. SB 387 in the 2025 session would have raised the bases to $60,000 and $65,000 and added a $150,000 amount at 100 percent; it never left the Senate Committee on Finance and Revenue and has no chapter number, so it is not law. Guides quoting $60,000 are quoting a bill that died. One historical curiosity remains on the books: an unremarried surviving spouse of a Civil War or Spanish War veteran gets an additional $2,000 exemption if currently receiving a pension.