Orange County Property Appraiser: Veteran Exemptions and the Combat Discount

The exemptions are the State's; the Florida entries explain them. The Orange County Property Appraiser, 200 S. Orange Avenue, Suite 1700, Orlando (407-836-5044), grants them; applications are due March 1 and can be filed online, by email to [email protected] or by post, except the combat discount, which is by post only. What the Appraiser asks for. Every VA letter must give the percentage and an effective date on or before January 1 of the tax year. For the total and permanent exemption, the letter must bear VA's seal and say the veteran is totally and permanently disabled; year-end summary letters are refused and rating decisions are taken case by case. The Appraiser also handles the prorated refund for a veteran or surviving spouse who buys a new home between January 1 and November 1. Where the Appraiser is narrower than the statutes. The $5,000 exemption. The Appraiser offers it for "a service-connected disability of 10% to 100% (not totally and permanently disabled)", and the same for a surviving spouse. Section 196.24 reaches any resident discharged under honorable conditions and disabled 10% or more, and covers any property, so a totally and permanently disabled veteran whose homestead is already exempt can still claim $5,000 on other property. The Appraiser also wants the letter to show an honorable discharge, which a general discharge would not satisfy, and for a surviving spouse it requires that the veteran was a Florida resident at death, which section 196.24 does not. The combat discount. The Appraiser wants a VA letter stating the disability is service connected and combat related, "at least 10%", and says "It is imperative that the letter contain the verbiage 'combat related'." Section 196.082(4) asks for a VA letter stating the percentage and "evidence that reasonably identifies the disability as combat-related", which need not be the same letter or those words; a veteran whose combat history is shown another way, such as a Combat-Related Special Compensation award, should still apply. Surviving spouses. The page says the total and permanent exemption "does not carry over" when the veteran dies and that the spouse must apply as a widow or widower. Section 196.081(3) carries it over to the spouse who holds title and lives there until remarriage or sale; the new application is how the Appraiser records that, not a new test. The deployment exemption. The Appraiser's link opens the Department of Revenue's 2011 form DR-501M already filled in for "Tax year 20 13". Change the year, and see the Florida entry for the operations added in 2026.