Sarasota County Property Appraiser: Veteran Exemptions and the Deployment Exemption
How the Sarasota County Property Appraiser describes Florida's veteran exemptions, and where it departs from the statutes: it lists only eleven of the twenty-two deployment operations in section 196.173, leaving out Noble Eagle, Inherent Resolve, Spartan Shield and eight others, and still gives 2026's one-time August 1 deadline; it requires a permanent disability for the $5,000 exemption; and it describes the combat discount as for a totally and permanently disabled veteran.
Also called: property tax, property appraiser, SCPA, 196.081, 196.24, 196.082, 196.173, DR-501DV, DR-501M, deployed military exemption, Operation Noble Eagle, March 1.
The exemptions are the State's; the Florida entries explain them. The Sarasota County Property Appraiser, 2001 Adams Lane, Sarasota, grants them.
Where its pages are out of date or narrower than the statutes.
The deployment exemption. The Appraiser's list of qualifying operations has eleven entries, from Atlantic Resolve/Atlantic Sentry to the Multinational Force and Observers. Section 196.173(2) names twenty-two, and the Appraiser omits Joint Task Force Bravo, Joint Guardian, Noble Eagle, the Balkans, Nomad Shadow, the U.S. airstrikes on Al Qaeda in Somalia, Copper Dune, the Georgia Deployment Program, Spartan Shield, Inherent Resolve and Freedom's Sentinel, so a member deployed on Inherent Resolve or Spartan Shield would not find the operation listed. It also dates the Multinational Force and Observers from 1991, where the statute says 1981. And it gives the deadline as August 1: that was the 2026 roll's one-time deadline under chapter 2026-239; the statute's deadline is March 1 of the year after the deployment. The Appraiser correctly covers former members, takes the application from a spouse, an attorney in fact or a personal representative, and computes the exemption from the share of the year deployed. See the Florida entry.
The $5,000 exemption. The page asks for a VA letter "stating a service connected permanent disability to a degree of 10% or more". Section 196.24 requires a disability of 10% or more "by misfortune or while serving during a period of wartime service", with an honorable discharge, and does not require the disability to be permanent; it also extends the exemption to the unremarried surviving spouse, as the page says.
The combat discount. The page describes a veteran "deemed to be totally and permanently disabled to a degree of 10% or more". Section 196.082(1) covers a veteran 65 or older who is "partially or totally permanently disabled", with a combat-related disability and an honorable discharge, so a veteran rated, say, 40% permanent with a combat-related part qualifies. The page sets the discount correctly at the veteran's permanent service-connected percentage and describes the surviving spouse's carry-over and transfer.
The total and permanent exemption and the exemption for the surviving spouse of a member who died on active duty are described as section 196.081 provides.
Thresholds
Thresholds for Sarasota County Property Appraiser: Veteran Exemptions and the Deployment Exemption
Gate
Rule
10% for the $5,000 exemption; permanent and total for the full one
The $5,000 exemption starts at 10%. The full homestead exemption needs total and permanent disability. The combat discount needs age 65 and a permanent rating with a combat-related part; the deployment exemption needs no rating.
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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.