South Carolina / State / 125th General Assembly, 2023-2024

2024 Act No. 116 (H.3116) Made the disabled veteran property tax exemption run for the whole year the disability occurs

Needs reviewEnactedScope changed

Signed 2024-03-11 · Takes effect 2024-03-11

Added Section 12-37-610(B). A permanently and totally disabled veteran who files the county service officer certificate may immediately claim the exemption for the entire year in which the disability occurs; a surviving spouse may do the same regardless of whether the veteran ever applied, filed for or claimed it; and a veteran permanently and totally disabled for any part of the year, or that veteran’s surviving spouse, is entitled to the exemption for the entire year. Where the veteran owned the property for less than a year, any other owner who is not a disabled veteran is responsible for the tax accrued while they owned it. The same act amended Section 12-37-220, which is where the current definitions of eligible owner, permanently and totally disabled, qualified surviving spouse and house sit, including the definition that keys the exemption to the four percent legal residence classification under Section 12-43-220(c) rather than to a standalone five-acre limit. Tracked for a live conflict about how far back it reaches: Section 4 of the act says it applies to tax years beginning after 2023 and any open period less than three years, while the Department of Veterans’ Affairs announcement of the act says the exemption is retroactive to 2022. Those are different claims and a refund argument turns on which one a county applies.