USVI Veteran Homestead Tax Credit

The Virgin Islands calls this a homestead tax exemption and administers it as a credit with a figure on it. The Office of the Lieutenant Governor's Application for Homestead Tax Credit states the amount: "A Veteran tax credit of $650 because I am a property owner who qualifies as a veteran (or the widow(er) of a veteran) of the Armed Services of the United States of America." It rests on 33 V.I.C. § 2305, and the Office of Veterans Affairs implements it through Policy Letter 6 of April 15, 2020, which defines veterans of the Armed Services of the United States, for this purpose, as those persons who were in the active service as determined by the Veterans Administration and who received a discharge from service other than a dishonorable discharge. That is a low bar: no era, no length of service, no rating. Two Guard routes appear on the application form alongside the DD214 question, and they do not appear in any summary of Virgin Islands benefits. The form asks whether the applicant is a member of the National Guard who has served for twenty years or more, and whether the applicant is a member of the National Guard who spent more than thirty consecutive days deployed in a war zone. Either is a path to the credit for a Guard member who has no DD214 from a federal activation. The constraint that costs people money is on the same page. The form reads: "IN ADDITION TO A HOMESTEAD EXEMPTION I AM APPLYING FOR ONE OTHER TAX CREDIT (select only one other credit below)." The veteran credit of $650 and the senior credit of $500 for a property owner aged sixty or older on January 1 are both in that list. A veteran who is sixty or older must choose. Take the veteran credit; it is the larger of the two. The mechanics. Permanent residency in the United States Virgin Islands is required on January 1 of the year the credit is claimed. The application is due to the Office of the Tax Assessor by March 1. The credit does not apply to vacant land. The property must be your principal residence, which the form defines as your true, fixed and permanent home to which you intend to return whenever absent, and you may have only one at a time. The form also asks whether the property is instead occupied by a qualifying family member under 33 V.I.C. § 2305, and whether that family member pays rent, so occupancy by family is contemplated rather than disqualifying. You may not claim a homestead credit on another Virgin Islands property or in another state or jurisdiction. There is a step before the Tax Assessor. Policy Letter 6 requires any veteran seeking this benefit to contact the Virgin Islands Office of Veterans Affairs to obtain a Veteran Tax Exemption Eligibility Form signed by the Director of Veterans Affairs or a representative. Going to the Tax Assessor first will send you back. This credit is not the full exemption. A veteran entitled to compensation for a permanent and total service-connected disability is exempt from all real property taxes on the homestead under a separate provision, and that has its own entry here. The two are different benefits with different tests, and the total exemption is worth far more than $650. This benefit belongs to the Office of Veterans Affairs' list of benefits for veterans residing in the U.S. Virgin Islands, not to the narrower list reserved for Virgin Islands Veterans, so a veteran who moved to the territory after service qualifies.