Prince William County Disabled Veteran Real Estate Tax Exemption

This is how Prince William County applies the statewide disabled-veteran real estate exemption. The Real Estate Assessments Office in the Department of Finance takes the application. There is no income test and no net-worth test. The exemption covers the home and up to one acre of the land it occupies. Prince William also relieves the county solid waste fee on that home, which the 2026 rate table sets at $84.00 for a single-family home. That fee relief is a county choice. The state exemption reaches only the real estate tax. Relief is prorated for a veteran who becomes eligible or buys the home during the year. Relief is granted on one home only, even when the other home is in another jurisdiction. The county asks for VA documentation that the disability is service-connected, 100% or compensated at the 100% rate, permanent, and total, with the date VA made that determination. The "compensated at the 100% rate" wording is how the county accepts individual unemployability. The first-time application also asks for a copy of the prior year's Virginia income tax return, and a first-time applicant has to show a government photo ID in person. Two county practices are narrower than the statute. First, the county's forms say a qualifying applicant must recertify every year, and the office mails a recertification form. Code section 58.1-3219.6(A) says the veteran "shall be required to refile" only if the principal residence changes. Returning the form avoids a dispute, but a missed recertification is not a statutory ground to lose the exemption. Second, the county's disabled veterans page and 2026 brochure say a surviving spouse qualifies while the spouse "continues to occupy the real property". Section 58.1-3219.5(B) says the exemption "applies without any restriction on the spouse's moving to a different principal place of residence". A surviving spouse who moves within Virginia keeps the exemption on the new principal residence and should cite that subsection. The county's separate surviving spouses page states the rule without the "continues to occupy" condition. A veteran who is permanently and totally disabled but does not meet this VA test looks at the county's income-based relief instead.