Rhode Island Totally Disabled Veteran Property Tax Exemption

Subsection (c) of 44-3-4 is the disabled veteran exemption and the first thing to understand about it is that it is permissive, not mandatory. A veteran determined by VA under applicable federal law to be totally disabled through a service-connected disability "may, by ordinance, passed in the city or town where the veteran's property is assessed, receive a ten thousand dollar ($10,000) exemption". If the town has never passed the ordinance, the exemption does not exist there. That is the opposite of how the same sentence is usually reported, and it is the question to put to the assessor first: has this town adopted the disabled veteran exemption at all. Where a town has adopted it, the amount again varies and the range is enormous. North Kingstown sets $11,000 from the December 31, 2002 assessment. Westerly sets $39,000 from the December 31, 2005 assessment. Cumberland sets not more than $47,544. Narragansett sets not more than $20,000 of real property value or $12,000 of a motor vehicle. Tiverton applies a tax credit of $400 or greater, extended to the unmarried widow or widower by Public Laws 2026, chapters 325 and 326 (it was $200). Exeter sets $5,000 from the December 31, 2026 assessment under Public Laws 2026, chapters 52 and 53. And Cranston, from the December 31, 2016 assessment, sets an exemption not exceeding two hundred and fifty thousand dollars, extended to the unmarried widow or widower of the veteran. Cranston's figure is not a typo and it is worth saying out loud: a totally disabled veteran in Cranston can have a quarter of a million dollars of assessed value exempted, where the same veteran two towns over may have nothing. Rhode Island's disabled veteran benefit is a lottery of municipal boundaries. There is a second thing in subsection (c) that nobody lists. Where the veteran owns real property, the exemption may also reach taxation "by any fire and/or lighting district". Rhode Island has independent fire districts that levy their own property tax, and those bills are not part of the municipal bill. A veteran who has the municipal exemption should ask the fire district separately. Scituate is handled at subsection (k): the town may provide, in lieu of an exemption, a tax credit in an amount set from time to time by the town council, for all disabled veterans with a one hundred percent service-connected disability. Bristol is handled at subsection (h): the town council may provide an exemption for a veteran, and for the unmarried widow or widower of a deceased veteran, determined to be partially disabled through a service-connected disability. Warren does the same at subsection (a)(4) for partial disability, up to $8,250, with Barrington at $3,000 and Warwick at $4,000. Those are the only routes in the section for a rating below total. The statute says "totally disabled" rather than naming a percentage, and VA total disability includes a total rating based on individual unemployability. The section does not address unemployability either way. A veteran paid at the total rate through unemployability should present the VA determination and ask the assessor to read the word as VA uses it, rather than assume a schedular hundred percent is required. The certificate rule in the neighboring subdivision is the useful one for paperwork: a certificate from VA that the person is totally disabled "remains effectual so long as the total disability continues", so the filing is not repeated annually while the rating stands. Because the exemption turns on total disability as VA determines it and not on a schedular percentage, and because the partial-disability routes in Bristol, Warren, Barrington and Warwick reach lower ratings, the rating filter does not hide this entry.