South Dakota Registration Fee Exemption for a Disabled Veteran Plate

The gate on the disabled veteran plate is not a percentage. Section 32-5-157(2) asks for a veteran who has been rated as in receipt of a statutory benefit for loss or loss of use of one or more extremities, a veteran who receives a veteran's allotment for a total service-connected disability, or a veteran who has received a United States Veterans Administration K Award, and it adds that the disability must have been incurred while serving on active duty during a time of war or while participating in a military mission involving armed conflict. Every part of that is different from the "100 percent disabled" shorthand. Special monthly compensation at rate K, which VA pays for anatomical loss or loss of use of a hand, foot, eye, or reproductive organ, qualifies on its own, and a veteran drawing it may have a combined rating well under a hundred. Conversely a veteran at 100 percent for conditions with no anatomical loss and no total allotment does not obviously meet any of the three limbs. And the wartime or armed conflict condition on when the disability was incurred is a separate hurdle no rating percentage answers. What the exemption is worth. Section 32-5-160 provides that a veteran receiving the disabled veteran, Prisoner of War, Pearl Harbor survivor or Purple Heart plate pays ten dollars for the initial issuance and ten dollars a year for renewal decals, but is not subject to the annual registration fees under 32-5-6 or 32-5-9. The Medal of Honor plate is free of everything, including the issuance and decal fees. Two sets, and what they can go on. A veteran with any of those five plates may have a maximum of two sets, on an automobile, pickup, van or motorcycle. One of the two sets may go on a noncommercial pickup over six thousand pounds or a motor home, but the regular annual registration fees are then payable for that vehicle. The privacy option, added in 2024. Section 32-5-157.1 lets a disabled veteran who meets the requirements obtain standard issue county motor vehicle or motorcycle plates in place of disabled veteran plates and still pay fees according to 32-5-160. The exemption follows the veteran, not the plate design, so a veteran who would rather not advertise a disability, or a Purple Heart, on a bumper does not pay for the choice. North Dakota reached the same result the following year by a different route. The disabled veteran plate also carries a parking privilege. Under 32-30-11.1 a person with a physical disability displaying plates issued under 32-5-157(2) may park without time limitation where parking is restricted by time and may use any space reserved for a person with a disability, subject to municipal fire-lane and rush-hour ordinances and to outright parking prohibitions. Anyone other than the veteran to whom it was issued who uses the plate to park commits a Class 2 misdemeanour under 32-30-11, with a minimum fine of one hundred dollars where the space is marked to the Americans with Disabilities Act guidelines. Taking the standard issue plate under 32-5-157.1 gives that parking privilege up, because 32-30-11.1 is keyed to the plate. There is no South Dakota exemption from the four percent motor vehicle excise tax for a disabled veteran. The exemption here is from the annual registration fee only.