Rutherford County Trustee: Disabled Veteran Property Tax Relief

Rutherford County's Trustee lists all three routes to the state's disabled veteran tax relief correctly, but says taxes must be paid by the application deadline, which state law says is not a condition, and describes the deployment route for surviving spouses as combat operations only.

Also called: property tax, tax relief, Trustee, F-16, F-16S, surviving spouse, Murfreesboro, Smyrna, La Vergne, 67-5-704.

For: Veteran or service member, survivor.

Where it applies

Written for the jurisdictions listed here.

Rutherford County, TNCounty

Tennessee's disabled veteran property tax relief is a state payment toward the tax on the first $175,000 of a home's value; the Tennessee entry on it sets out the rules. In Rutherford County the Trustee takes the applications, (615) 898-7705, and so do the cities for their own taxes: Murfreesboro (615) 893-5210, La Vergne (615) 793-3388; the Trustee also handles Smyrna and Eagleville. What the Trustee's page gets right. It lists all three routes for the veteran (paraplegia, paralysis, loss of use of two limbs or blindness from a service-connected cause; a permanent and total service-connected rating; one hundred percent permanent and total from captivity), and for the surviving spouse it lists the veteran who was eligible at death, a service-connected combat-related death, and a death later recognised by VA. Few Tennessee trustee pages are this complete. Where it misstates the law. It says the deadline is thirty-five days after the jurisdiction's delinquency date, which is right, and then "Taxes must be paid by this time also". Section 67-5-701(d)(1) says the opposite: nothing in it requires payment of the full amount of taxes by the delinquency date as a condition of eligibility. Apply by the deadline whether or not the bill is paid; for 2026 county taxes that is April 5, 2027. It also describes the deployment route as the spouse of a veteran killed while deployed "in support of combat operations"; subsection (g) also covers a death on deployment in support of peace operations. And the veterans part of the page still says to apply when the "2024" tax bill arrives. There is no county match of the state payment.

Thresholds

Thresholds for Rutherford County Trustee: Disabled Veteran Property Tax Relief
Gate	Rule
Permanent and total, as VA determines it	The state relief the Trustee administers. The rating route in 67-5-704(b)(3) asks for service-connected permanent and total disability as determined by VA, which a veteran paid at the total rate through unemployability that VA has found permanent also holds. It is recorded rather than enforced because the paraplegia, blindness and loss-of-limbs route and the prisoner of war route need no rating at all.
Or a named loss, at any rating	Paraplegia or permanent paralysis of both legs and the lower body, legal blindness, or loss or loss of use of two or more limbs from a service-connected cause qualifies whatever the combined rating, as does one hundred percent permanent total disability from having been a prisoner of war. The state entry on disabled veteran property tax relief sets out the routes.
Paying the bill first is not a condition	Section 67-5-701(d)(1): payment of the full tax by the delinquency date is not a condition of eligibility, whatever the Trustee's page says.

Sources

Rutherford County Trustee, Tax ReliefOfficial

Updated

Last updated 2026-10-02.

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Disclaimer

VetTOC is not affiliated with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs or the Department of Defense. Information is for reference only and is not an eligibility determination. Verify with VA, the relevant state or territory, or an accredited VSO.