Maine Disabled Veteran Property Tax Exemption: Amounts and Filing

The Maine disabled veteran property tax exemption reduces the assessed value of a qualifying veteran’s primary residence by $6,000, or by $50,000 for veterans who received a federal specially adapted housing grant. You claim it by filing a Veteran Exemption Application with the assessor in the municipality where your home is located, by April 1 of the year you want it to take effect. The program is set out in Title 36 M.R.S. § 653.¹

Who Qualifies

You must be a legal Maine resident and have been discharged, retired, or separated from the Armed Forces under other than dishonorable conditions.¹ The statute does not require an honorable discharge specifically. A general discharge under honorable conditions still qualifies. Only a dishonorable discharge disqualifies you.

On top of the discharge requirement, you need to fit one of these three categories:

Age 62 or older, and you served during a federally recognized war period or received the Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal.
Any age, and you receive a federal pension for total disability that is not service-connected, and you served during a recognized war period or received the Expeditionary Medal.
Any age, and you receive federal compensation for a service-connected total disability caused or aggravated by active military service in the line of duty.

Whether your disability is service-connected or not does not change the exemption amount. Both routes lead to the same $6,000 reduction. The statute does require, in every disability-based case, that the VA has rated the disability as total.¹ A partial VA rating on its own does not qualify you under the disability paths, though you may still qualify under the age-62 path if you meet the war-period or Expeditionary Medal requirement.

Which War Periods Count

For the age-62 path and the non-service-connected disability path, your service has to fall inside a war period the statute names, or you have to have earned the Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal. The recognized periods are:

The Korean Conflict.
February 1, 1955 through February 27, 1961.
The Vietnam War: active duty after February 27, 1961 and before May 8, 1975.
August 24, 1982 through July 31, 1984.
December 20, 1989 through January 31, 1990.
The Persian Gulf War: active duty on or after August 2, 1990, through a date the federal government has not yet declared as the end of that war period.
Operation Enduring Freedom, Operation Iraqi Freedom, and Operation New Dawn.

If your service falls outside every one of those windows, the Expeditionary Medal still opens the door.¹ Veterans who served during a service-connected total disability path do not need to have served during a war period at all.

How Much It’s Worth

The exemption lowers the just value of your primary residence before your municipality applies its mill rate. You do not receive a check or a credit; the bill is simply calculated on a smaller number.

The Standard $6,000 Reduction

Most qualifying veterans get a $6,000 reduction.¹ Your actual savings depend on your local mill rate. At 20 mills ($20 per $1,000 of assessed value), $6,000 off the value saves you $120 a year. At 15 mills, the same reduction saves $90. The exemption is a flat $6,000 regardless of what your home is worth.

The $50,000 Reduction for Specially Adapted Housing

A much larger $50,000 reduction is available if you received a federal grant for specially adapted housing under 38 U.S.C. § 2101.¹ Eligibility for that federal grant covers a range of severe disabilities, including loss or loss of use of both lower extremities, blindness in both eyes with visual acuity of 20/200 or less, loss or loss of use of both upper extremities at or above the elbows, severe burn injury, and, for disabilities incurred on or after September 11, 2001, loss or loss of use of one or more lower extremities that prevents walking without assistive devices.² If you received that grant, you qualify for the $50,000 Maine exemption in place of the standard $6,000. At 20 mills, that means about $1,000 in annual savings.

Stacking With the Homestead Exemption

Maine’s general homestead exemption knocks another $25,000 off the assessed value for any permanent resident who has owned a home in the state for at least 12 months. It stacks with the veteran exemption. The statute is direct: the homestead exemption “is in addition to the exemptions provided in sections 653 and 654-A.”³

Combined, a qualifying veteran who also claims the homestead exemption gets a $31,000 reduction ($25,000 plus $6,000). At a 20-mill rate, that combined reduction is worth about $620 a year. A veteran with the $50,000 specially adapted housing exemption plus the homestead exemption sees a $75,000 reduction. The homestead exemption is a separate application, also due to the local assessor by April 1.⁴

Surviving Spouses, Minor Children, and Trust-Held Property

The exemption doesn’t end at the veteran’s death. An unremarried surviving spouse or minor child of a veteran who would have qualified, or was already receiving the exemption, can claim the same $6,000 reduction on their own primary residence.¹ Remarriage ends the benefit. Unremarried surviving spouses of veterans who qualified for the $50,000 specially adapted housing exemption are also eligible for that larger amount.

Property held in a revocable living trust for the veteran’s benefit is covered, and so is property held in joint tenancy with the veteran’s spouse. The statute names those two ownership structures directly.¹ If your home sits in an irrevocable trust or another arrangement, check with your assessor before assuming coverage; the statute doesn’t name those.

How to Apply

File the Veteran Exemption Application with the assessor’s office in the municipality where the property is located. You can get the form from Maine Revenue Services or your town office.⁴ The deadline is April 1 of the year you want the exemption to first apply. Miss it and your application rolls to the following tax year.

Attach proof of service and, if you’re applying under a disability path, proof of disability. The application instructions generally accept a DD Form 214 (Certificate of Release or Discharge from Active Duty) together with a VA benefit summary letter. If you don’t have a benefit summary letter, a copy of VA Form 20-5455 can substitute.⁵ If you’re claiming the $50,000 specially adapted housing exemption, bring documentation of the federal housing grant.

The form asks for your entry and separation dates and then has you check the box matching your eligibility category, which maps to the paths above.⁵ The dates on the application should match your DD214 exactly. Mismatched dates are one of the more common reasons applications sit or come back.

After Approval, Moving, and Denials

Once approved, the exemption stays in place as long as the property is your primary residence. You don’t have to reapply each year. The lower assessed value shows up on the tax bill your municipality issues in the fall following the April 1 deadline.

If you move within Maine, the exemption doesn’t follow you automatically. File a new application with the new town’s assessor by that town’s next April 1 deadline.⁴

If the assessor denies your application, Maine law gives you a written appeal to your municipality’s board of assessment review within 60 days after you receive notice of the denial.⁶ If the town has no board of assessment review, the appeal goes to the county commissioners. Before appealing, ask the assessor why the application was denied. Missing documentation, a date mismatch between the DD214 and the application, or a check-box under the wrong eligibility category are the usual causes, and a corrected resubmission before April 1 can resolve the issue without a formal appeal.

1
Maine Legislature. Maine Code Title 36 – Estates of Veterans
2
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 38 USC 2101 – Acquisition and Adaptation of Housing: Eligible Veterans
3
Maine Legislature. Maine Code Title 36 – Exemption of Homesteads
4
Maine Revenue Services. Property Tax Relief
5
Maine Revenue Services. Property Tax Exemption Application For Veterans of the Armed Forces of the United States
6
Maine Legislature. Maine Code Title 36 – Appeals