Rhode Island Prisoner of War Property Tax Exemption

Subsection (e) of 44-3-4 provides that there may, by ordinance passed in the city or town where the person's property is assessed, be an additional fifteen thousand dollar exemption from local taxation on real and personal property for any veteran of the military or naval service of the United States, or the unmarried widow or widower of such a person, who has been or shall be classified as, or determined to be, a prisoner of war by VA. Like the disabled veteran exemption, this one is permissive. The town has to have passed the ordinance. Ask whether it has before assuming the figure. The named departures are Westerly up to $68,000, Cumberland up to $47,544, Narragansett up to $40,000, Tiverton as a tax credit of $600 or greater, Jamestown as an exemption greater than $15,000 or a tax credit offering equivalent relief, and North Smithfield as a tax dollar credit reduction of $350 or greater. The gate is a VA classification or determination of prisoner of war status. There is no disability rating in it, no minimum length of captivity, and no wartime period beyond what the section's general service test already requires, so the rating filter never hides this entry. It is written as an exemption in addition to the previously provided exemptions, so a former prisoner of war who also qualifies under the general veterans exemption in subsection (a) takes both, subject to whatever the town has adopted for each. The unmarried widow or widower is inside the grant on the same terms, and subsection (d) governs what unmarried means here: remarriage does not bar the benefit if the remarriage is void, has been terminated by death, or has been annulled or dissolved by a court of competent jurisdiction. A surviving spouse who remarried and was later widowed or divorced is eligible again, which is a more forgiving rule than most states use.