Waterford Veterans’ Property Tax Exemptions

The assessor’s Local Veterans’ Exemption sheet for the 2026 grand list gives qualifying wartime veterans and surviving spouses an additional $10,000 off the assessment of real estate or a motor vehicle, for income below $81,500 married or $71,300 single. Qualifying income is all taxable and non-taxable income plus Social Security, tax-exempt interest and pension, with veterans’ pensions and disability payments included, which the state’s income rules under 12-81l do not do; the sheet’s limits are the state’s 2026 amounts plus $25,000, as Groton’s are. Applications run February 1 through October 31, 2026, and the benefit applies from the July 2027 tax bill, the October 1, 2026 grand list. A veteran with a 100 percent VA disability has different income levels, which the sheet sends to the assessor. OLR’s 2023 survey recorded the same $10,000 with limits of $74,100 and $65,300, the 2023 state amounts plus $25,000. The office’s Veterans’ Exemptions overview lists the state exemptions on a discharge filed with the Town Clerk, the disability exemptions on VA proof, the certificate of entitlement for portability under 12-81cc, the active-duty serviceman’s one motor vehicle applied for by December 31 following the due date, and the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act for non-residents stationed in Connecticut, citing C.G.S. 12-81(19), (20), (22) to (28) and (53). OLR’s 2023 survey also recorded Waterford as offering the specially adapted house option under 12-81(21)(C); the page does not mention it and Waterford’s Municode code carries no veterans’ section. Ask the assessor. A veteran rated permanently and totally disabled at 100 percent has the dwelling or one motor vehicle exempt under 12-81(83), on form D-2; the office posts the Public Act 24-46 notice and the state’s questions sheet on the new exemption.