Virginia Disabled Veteran Real Estate Tax Exemption

This is a Commonwealth exemption. Every Virginia city and county has to grant it. Fairfax County does not write a separate version. In Fairfax, the Department of Tax Administration takes the application. The dwelling that is the principal residence, and up to one acre, comes off the local real estate tax. A manufactured home can qualify even when the veteran does not own the land under it. The land itself does not, in that case. A garage or similar improvement used for vehicles or household goods, and not for a business, can come with the acreage. If a locality already exempts more than one acre under its elderly and disabled program, it has to exempt that same acreage here. Fairfax applies the exemption to the residence and up to one acre. Loudoun applies it to the residence and up to three acres, because Loudoun's elderly and disabled relief covers three acres. Two rating paths are in the official materials. The Constitution and Code of Virginia section 58.1-3219.5 require a VA rating of 100% service-connected, permanent, and total. The Department of Veterans Services also says a veteran rated below 100%, but paid at the 100% rate for individual unemployability and rated permanent and total, qualifies. A 100% rating that is not permanent does not. There is no income test and no net-worth test. The veteran has to own the home, including the forms of trust and life estate the statute lists, and occupy it as the principal residence. A stay in a hospital or nursing home does not by itself end the exemption if the home is not rented out. The exemption can start on the rating date when that date is after January 1, 2011 and the veteran already owned the home. A surviving spouse can keep the exemption if the veteran died on or after January 1, 2011, the spouse does not remarry, and the home is the spouse's principal residence. Since July 1, 2019, that spouse can move to another Virginia locality and take the exemption along. The spouse does not pass the exemption to other heirs. Fairfax asks for a VA Summary of Benefits letter that shows the 100% service-connected, permanent, and total rating, or the unemployability rating Fairfax accepts. Fairfax says not to send the long rating decision, because it contains medical detail the county is not set up to hold. A veteran buying in Fairfax can email the Tax Relief office for a pre-certificate before closing. A denial on the eligibility facts can be appealed to the Commissioner of the Department of Veterans Services. A fight about the assessed value cannot.