Colorado Disabled Veteran Property Tax Exemption: Rules and Filing

The Colorado disabled veteran property tax exemption removes 50 percent of the first $200,000 of your primary residence’s actual value from taxation, which takes $100,000 of value off the tax rolls on any home worth $200,000 or more.¹ Once the county assessor approves your application, the exemption stays in place year after year with no need to refile, as long as your ownership, occupancy, and disability status don’t change.²

Who Qualifies

Colorado law defines a qualifying veteran as someone who served on active duty in the U.S. armed forces, including Colorado National Guard members called to federal active duty, who was separated under honorable conditions and meets one of two disability thresholds.³

The VA or a military department has rated your service-connected disability as 100 percent permanent through disability retirement benefits.
The VA has granted you individual unemployability status, which compensates you at the 100 percent rate even if your combined schedular rating is lower. This pathway was added to Colorado’s definition effective January 1, 2025.³

Many veterans overlook the individual unemployability route. If the VA has determined you can’t maintain substantially gainful employment because of service-connected disabilities, check your VA benefits letter for that designation before assuming you don’t qualify.

Which Property Qualifies

The exemption applies only to residential property you own and occupy as your primary residence on the January 1 assessment date.⁴ Second homes, vacation properties, and rentals do not qualify, no matter your disability rating.

Trust or Entity Ownership

If you’ve transferred the home to a trust, partnership, or other legal entity, you can still qualify, but only when the transfer was made solely for estate planning purposes and you are the maker of the trust or a principal of the entity.³ The application asks for the names of the trust maker, trustee, and beneficiaries so the assessor can verify the arrangement.⁵

Hospitalization and Nursing Home Stays

If you’d normally live in the home but are confined to a hospital, nursing home, or assisted living facility, you still count as an owner-occupier. The home can sit temporarily unoccupied or be lived in by your spouse or a financial dependent during your absence without losing the exemption.³

How to Apply

File the completed exemption application and proof of your disability status with the county assessor’s office where the property is located. This is where to go now. Before 2023, applications went to the Colorado Division of Veterans Affairs; Senate Bill 23-036 moved intake to county assessors, so older guides pointing you to CDVA offices are out of date. Veterans already approved under the prior system keep their exemption without having to refile.⁵

The form, prescribed by the property tax administrator, asks for:

Your name, mailing address, date of birth, and Social Security number.
The property address and schedule or parcel number, which you’ll find on a previous tax statement or in your county’s online property records.
The name and Social Security number of every person who occupies the home as a primary residence.
Your VA Benefit Summary Letter documenting a 100 percent permanent disability rating or individual unemployability status. The name on the VA letter should match the name on the property title to avoid processing delays.⁶

Download the current form from the Colorado Division of Veterans Affairs website or the Division of Property Taxation website rather than relying on a copy found elsewhere online.

Filing Deadline

Your application and VA documentation must reach the county assessor no later than July 1 of the first tax year you’re claiming the exemption. Mailed applications count as filed on the postmark date, so a June 30 postmark meets the deadline even if the envelope arrives in July.⁵

If you miss July 1, you can ask the assessor to waive the deadline and accept a late application filed by August 1. The assessor has sole discretion to grant that request, and you’ll need to show good cause. When a late filing is accepted, the assessor must mail you a decision by August 25.⁷ The catch worth noting: a decision on a late application is final, with no appeal of either the waiver denial or the exemption denial. July 1 is the date to hit.

If the Assessor Denies a Timely Application

When your application was filed on time and the assessor denies it, you can contest the decision by requesting a hearing before the county board of equalization. The request has to be made no later than August 15 of the tax year. The board holds the hearing between August 1 and September 1, and its decision is final.⁷

After You’re Approved

The exemption carries forward automatically, so you don’t refile each year. You do have a legal duty to notify the county assessor within 60 days of any change in ownership or occupancy.² Selling the home, moving to a different primary residence, or renting the property out ends the exemption. Failing to report changes, claiming the exemption on more than one property, or providing false information on the application triggers penalties under Colorado law. The 60-day window is short enough to miss during a move, so set a reminder if your living situation is shifting.

Surviving Spouses and Gold Star Spouses

Colorado extends the same 50 percent exemption on the first $200,000 of actual value to two categories of spouses.

A surviving spouse of a qualifying veteran can keep the exemption after the veteran’s death, as long as they continue to own and occupy the home as a primary residence. The county assessor confirms eligibility.² The limiting rule here is that the veteran must have already been approved for the exemption before death; a surviving spouse cannot apply retroactively for an exemption the veteran never claimed.

A Gold Star spouse is the spouse of a service member who died in the line of duty, or of a veteran whose death resulted from a service-related injury or disease. Gold Star spouses apply through the county assessor by the same July 1 deadline and receive the same exemption amount.² Unlike the surviving spouse category, this one doesn’t require that the service member ever held the exemption.

Getting the Savings Into Your Mortgage Payment

If you pay property taxes through a mortgage escrow account, the exemption won’t automatically lower your monthly payment. Servicers base escrow deposits on the previous year’s tax bill or the most recent assessment, and many won’t adjust until their next scheduled escrow analysis unless you ask.

Once the exemption shows up on your property tax records, get a copy of the updated tax statement from the county assessor showing the reduced liability. Send that to your mortgage servicer with a request for an escrow reanalysis. Some servicers accept the request online along with a copy of your VA rating letter. If the servicer is slow to adjust, you’ll usually get a refund of the overpaid escrow balance at the next annual review, but keeping a paper trail of your request protects you either way.

1
Colorado Department of Local Affairs. Senior Citizen and Veterans with a Disability Property Tax Exemption and Senior Primary Residence Classification
2
Colorado Department of Local Affairs Division of Property Taxation. Property Tax Exemption For Veterans with a Disability and Gold Star Spouses
3
Justia. Colorado Code 39-3-202 – Definitions
4
FindLaw. Colorado Code 39-3-203 – Property Tax Exemption – Qualifications
5
Justia. Colorado Code 39-3-205 – Filing Requirements
6
Colorado Division of Veterans Affairs. Property Tax Exemption
7
FindLaw. Colorado Code 39-3-206 – Notice to Individuals Returning Incomplete or Nonqualifying Exemption Applications – Denial of Exemption – Administrative Remedies