Washington Disabled American Veteran and Former POW Plates, Fee Free

RCW 46.18.235 lets a veteran (as defined in RCW 41.04.007, so with a qualifying discharge) who is the registered owner of a personal-use vehicle apply for disabled American veteran or former prisoner of war plates, "issued for one personal use vehicle without the payment of any vehicle license fees, license plate fees, or excise taxes". The recurring exemption, not the plate design, is the benefit, and under subsection (3) the veteran may take the same exemption on regular or any qualifying special plates instead. The paths. Subsection (1) asks for VA or service certification of a service-connected rating and then names the conditions: the loss of use of both hands or one foot; capture and incarceration by an enemy during a war with a prisoner of war medal; blindness in both eyes as a result of military service; or a rating "receiving service-connected compensation at the one hundred percent rate that is expected to exist for more than one year". That last test looks forward: a veteran newly rated 100 percent whose rating is expected to last more than a year qualifies at once, with no waiting period, and the Department may periodically verify the rate. What the Department of Licensing says. Its disabled American veteran plate page asks only for a VA letter "verifying a 100% VA disability rating that is expected to last for more than one year" and does not mention the hands, foot or blindness routes, which the statute still gives; a veteran on those routes should cite subsection (1). Former prisoners of war have their own plate page, which also extends the exemption to a surviving spouse or domestic partner. Neither plate gives disabled parking privileges, which need a separate placard application. Other plates. The Purple Heart plate (RCW 46.18.280) is free of all fees and taxes for one vehicle for a Washington resident wounded in a war or conflict listed in RCW 41.04.005 with a qualifying discharge, and may be issued to an unremarried surviving spouse or domestic partner. The Medal of Honor plate (RCW 46.18.230) is free on up to three vehicles and is replaced free if lost or damaged. The Gold Star plate (RCW 46.18.245) needs WDVA certification: for a widow, widower, parent, stepparent or adult in loco parentis of a service member who died in service or from it, one vehicle is free of license fees, plate fees and excise taxes; for a child or sibling, only the plate fee is waived. Apply through the Department of Licensing on its Military Services and Veterans License Plate Application, with the VA letter or WDVA certification.