Santa Clara County Assessor: Disabled Veterans' Exemption

The exemption is the State's; the California entry gives the amounts, the income limit, the filing rules and Senate Bill 296's larger exemption from the January 1, 2027 lien date. The Santa Clara County Assessor administers it from 130 West Tasman Drive, San Jose (408-299-5500). What the Assessor asks for. The claim form, a VA letter verifying the service-connected disability (or the death, for a surviving spouse), the DD-214, and an income worksheet each year for the low-income amount; a surviving spouse adds the marriage and death certificates. The basic exemption stays in place until the veteran leaves title, moves or the rating changes. The page gives February 15 as the usual deadline for the full amount. Where the page falls short of the statute. The figures. The page says the exemption "may exempt up to $100,000", or $150,000 with the low-income claim. Those are the base amounts in section 205.5, indexed every year since 2006. For the 2026 lien date they are $180,671 and $271,009, with a $81,131 household income limit, and from 2027 section 205.5.1 exempts half of the first $1,000,000 of the home's value, or all of it under the income limit. The page does not mention 205.5.1. Title. The page says "the veteran must be on title to the property". Section 205.5(a) covers a home owned by the veteran, the veteran's spouse or both, and subdivision (d)(2) counts a home that is the spouse's separate property. A veteran whose spouse alone holds title qualifies and should file. The rating. The page's opening line describes a veteran "rated 100% service-connected disabled by the Veterans Administration". Its own conditions list is better: rated 100%, "compensated as 100% disabled" (which is the unemployability route), blind in both eyes, or the loss of the use of two or more limbs. Section 205.5(e) also accepts a rating by the military service the veteran was discharged from.