Shelby County Wheel Tax: the Disabled Veteran Exemption and the Trustee Rebate

The wheel tax is Shelby County's motor vehicle privilege tax, collected by the County Clerk with the registration. The Clerk lists it at $75.00 for a private car anywhere in the county, $105.00 for a vehicle owned or leased by a business, and $20.00 for a motorcycle, on top of the $29.00 state registration fee and any city fee (Memphis $60.00). The exemption. Section 5-8-102 exempts a veteran with one hundred percent permanent total disability from a service-connected cause, or any former prisoner of war, as VA determines, and any vehicle bought with a VA adapted-vehicle grant; the Tennessee entry on the county motor vehicle privilege tax sets out the routes. In Shelby County that is $75 a year. Claim it at any County Clerk office with the VA letter. A stale county code. Shelby County Code 24-317 still prints the wheel tax of Ordinance No. 90 of 1991, $25.00 for a private car, a third of what the Clerk charges. Code 24-316 lists those excepted from county registration as "a handicapped or disabled veteran, or former prisoner-of-war, ... who qualifies under the state special license plate laws" and "an active duty military serviceperson". Those exceptions predate the state's present tests, and the Clerk applies 5-8-102. The Trustee's rebate. Separately, the Trustee refunds up to $75 a year of the wheel tax, never more than was paid, to one vehicle per household for a resident 65 or older, or under 65 with a disabled license plate, whose household income is $39,083 or less for tags bought from July 1, 2026 to June 30, 2027 ($37,666 for the year before). It is not a veterans programme and has no rating test, so it can help a lower-income disabled veteran who is not one hundred percent permanent and total. The Trustee's page asks for a disabled license plate, not a hang tag; whether a Tennessee disabled veteran plate counts is not stated, so ask. Send the signed application, the paid registration, proof of age and proof of income to the Trustee; call (901) 222-0200. One Trustee page still says the rebate is $50.