Virginia Real Estate Tax Exemption for Surviving Spouses of Service Members Who Died in the Line of Duty

This is a Commonwealth exemption under subdivision (b) of Article X, section 6-A of the Constitution of Virginia and Code section 58.1-3219.9. Every Virginia county, city, and town has to grant it. It was written for the spouse of a member killed in action. 2024 Acts chapter 583 (Senate Bill 240) widened it to a member of the armed forces of the United States who died in the line of duty with a Line of Duty determination from the Department of Defense, from January 1, 2025, after the voters approved the matching constitutional amendment on November 5, 2024. The current section says a death by suicide with that determination counts. The exemption is not always the whole tax bill. A dwelling assessed at or under the locality's average assessed value for a dwelling on land zoned single-family residential, in the most recently ended tax year, is fully exempt. Above that figure, only the value over the average is taxed. The average is set locality by locality and moves every year, which is why the county and city pages here print the local figure where the locality publishes it. For a county, the average is taken over dwellings in the whole county, towns included. Land up to one acre comes with the dwelling, and more acreage when the locality exempts more than one acre under its elderly and disabled program. Land the spouse does not own is not exempt, but a house or manufactured home the spouse owns on someone else's land is. A garage or shed used for vehicles or household goods, and not for a business, goes with the exempt land. The spouse has to occupy the home as the principal residence and must not remarry. The exemption goes with the spouse to a new principal residence anywhere in Virginia. A life estate and the trusts listed in the section qualify. When other people also own the home, the exemption is prorated. The exemption runs for tax years from January 1, 2015, and a locality does not owe interest on a refund of tax paid before the spouse filed. File with the commissioner of the revenue, or the office the locality designates, on the locality's form, with Department of Defense documentation of the date of death in the line of duty. Section 58.1-3219.10 says the spouse refiles only when the principal residence changes, and must report a remarriage.