South Dakota Property Tax Reduction for Paraplegics

Section 10-4-24.11 reduces rather than exempts, and it is worth knowing about precisely because it is not a veterans program. Nothing in it asks about service. What it asks is that the dwelling be owned and occupied by a paraplegic or an individual with the loss or loss of use of both lower extremities, for the full calendar year before the year the taxes are due, and that household income be low enough. That opens a door the exemption closes. Section 10-4-24.10 exempts only a dwelling specifically designed as a wheelchair home. A veteran with loss of use of both legs who lives in an ordinary house does not meet that, and falls back here. The schedules are flat dollar brackets and they have not been generous. For a single-member household under 10-4-24.12 the reduction is 100 percent below $14,000 of household income, 75 percent from $14,000 to $15,000, 50 percent from $15,000 to $17,000, 25 percent from $17,000 to $18,000, and nothing at $18,000 and above. For a multiple-member household under 10-4-24.13 the brackets are $18,500, $19,500, $21,000 and $22,000 on the same 100, 75, 50 and 25 percent steps. Household income is the definition in 10-6B-1, which is adjusted gross income plus all nontaxable income. That is the trap for a veteran. VA disability compensation is not taxable and is therefore nontaxable income inside this definition, so it counts in full against the brackets. A single veteran drawing compensation at the 100 percent rate is well over $18,000 of household income on that alone and gets nothing from this program, however little other money comes in. The exemption in 10-4-24.10 has no income test at all, which is why it is the one to check first. The Department of Revenue collects the application annually, by November 1, with the county assessor.