Nevada Disabled Veteran Property Tax Exemption Requirements

The Nevada disabled veteran property tax exemption reduces the assessed value of your home, personal property, or vehicle by $17,700 to $35,400 for the 2025–2026 fiscal year, which works out to roughly $630 to $1,415 off your annual tax bill depending on your VA disability rating.¹ You claim it by filing an affidavit with your county assessor, and it can carry over to a surviving spouse who meets the eligibility rules.

Who Qualifies

NRS 361.091 sets three requirements, and all three must be met. You must have been honorably discharged from the U.S. Armed Forces, you must have a permanent service-connected disability rating of 60 percent or higher from the VA, and you must be a bona fide Nevada resident.²

The word “permanent” is doing real work in that sentence. A temporary VA rating does not qualify, even if the percentage is above 60. The VA assigns temporary ratings when a condition is expected to improve, and those ratings face re-evaluation every two to five years. Your VA determination letter states explicitly whether the rating is permanent. After a rating has been in place for 20 years, federal regulations prevent the VA from reducing it below the lowest level held during that period, except in cases of fraud.³

Nevada defines a bona fide resident as someone who has lived in the state for at least six months, or who holds a valid Nevada driver’s license or state ID card that does not mark the holder as a seasonal resident.⁴

How Much the Exemption Is Worth

The statute sets three tiers based on your disability rating. Each tier has a base assessed-value exemption that Nevada adjusts each year for inflation. For the 2025–2026 fiscal year, the amounts are:

60 to 79 percent rating: $17,700 in assessed value (base of $10,000).
80 to 99 percent rating: $26,550 in assessed value (base of $15,000).
100 percent total permanent disability: $35,400 in assessed value (base of $20,000).²

Notice how wide the middle brackets are. A 75 percent rating gets the same exemption as 62 percent. A 95 percent rating gets the same exemption as 80 percent. Only a full 100 percent total permanent disability rating unlocks the top tier.¹

The exemption reduces assessed value, not your bill dollar for dollar. Your actual savings depend on the combined tax rate where the property sits, which varies by county and neighborhood. As a rough benchmark, $1,000 of assessed-value exemption saves around $35 on a Nevada property tax bill.⁵ Carson City estimates the 2025–2026 exemption is worth about $632 in property tax savings (or up to $708 off vehicle privilege tax) at the lowest tier, about $948 (or up to $1,062) at the middle tier, and about $1,264 (or up to $1,416) at the top tier.¹ Veterans in higher-rate districts save somewhat more per dollar of exemption.

Choosing Where to Apply It

You decide where the exemption goes. It can offset real property taxes on your home, personal property taxes on items like a mobile home, or the vehicle privilege tax you pay at registration.⁴ You can also split the amount, putting part toward the house and part toward a vehicle, for example.

On vehicles, the exemption is applied when you register or renew. On real property, it appears as a credit on your annual bill. You can claim it in only one Nevada county at a time, so if you own property in more than one county you choose where to use it.²

Documents You Need and Where to File

Applications go through your county assessor, not the state or the VA. You will need to bring:

Proof of honorable discharge. An original or certified copy of your discharge papers, certificate of satisfactory service, or separation documents. A DD-214 is the most common form, but other discharge documents work too.⁶
VA disability documentation showing your permanent service-connected disability percentage, typically the VA rating decision or determination letter.²
A valid Nevada driver’s license or state ID card that is not designated seasonal.
A completed exemption affidavit from your county assessor’s office, signed before the assessor or a notary.

Make sure your discharge papers clearly show dates of entry and discharge, and that the VA documentation reflects a permanent rating rather than a temporary or proposed one. If something is unclear or missing, the assessor’s office will usually tell you what to fix rather than deny the claim outright.

Filing Deadline and Yearly Renewal

For real property, the initial claim must be filed on or before June 15 preceding the fiscal year the taxes are due.⁷ Nevada’s fiscal year runs July 1 through June 30, so a claim filed by June 15 applies to the tax year starting the next month. If you acquire property between June 15 and July 1, you have until July 5 to file. Miss those windows and the exemption waits for the next fiscal year; there is no retroactive application.

For personal property such as a mobile home, the affidavit can be filed at any time.² For vehicle privilege tax, it’s handled when you register or renew.

After approval, the county assessor mails a renewal form each year. The renewal simply confirms your continued residency and eligibility rather than asking for full documentation again. Some counties let you receive and return the renewal electronically.²

Surviving Spouses

When a qualifying disabled veteran dies, the surviving spouse can continue the exemption at the same tier the veteran held. The provision sits inside NRS 361.091, with its own set of requirements.²

The surviving spouse files an affidavit with the county assessor declaring four things: that they were married to and living with the disabled veteran for the five years immediately before the veteran’s death, that the veteran was eligible for the exemption at the time of death, that the spouse has not remarried, and that the spouse is a bona fide Nevada resident.⁴ Remarriage permanently ends eligibility.

The five-year marriage requirement catches some families off guard. A spouse who married the veteran shortly before death does not qualify even if the veteran carried a 100 percent permanent rating for decades. The veteran also must have been eligible for the exemption at death, or would have been but for Nevada residency, so the disability and honorable-discharge requirements still have to be satisfied for the deceased.

A surviving spouse who is also a veteran may be able to claim both the surviving-spouse exemption under NRS 361.091 and the basic veteran exemption under NRS 361.090.⁴

The Separate Basic Veteran Exemption

Nevada also offers a smaller property tax exemption under NRS 361.090 to honorably discharged veterans without regard to disability. Its base is $2,000 in assessed value, adjusted annually using the same inflation formula.⁸ Eligibility is narrower in one sense: the basic exemption covers veterans who served at least 90 continuous days on active duty during specified conflict periods, or who served in a campaign for which a service medal was authorized.

If you qualify for the larger disabled-veteran exemption, check whether you also independently meet the criteria for the basic exemption. They are separate statutory provisions, and a veteran or surviving spouse may be eligible for both.

What Happens With Your Mortgage Escrow

If you have a mortgage with an escrow account, your lender collects estimated property taxes as part of your monthly payment. Once the exemption lowers your annual tax bill, the escrow account will run a surplus. Federal rules require your mortgage servicer to run an annual escrow analysis and adjust your monthly payment to match the lower tax obligation.⁹ If you get approved mid-cycle, you may need to wait for the next annual analysis, or you can contact the servicer to request an early review.

Penalty for a False Claim

Filing a false affidavit or providing false proof to obtain a property tax exemption you don’t qualify for is a gross misdemeanor under Nevada law.² Beyond the criminal exposure, a false claim brings back taxes, interest, and loss of future exemption eligibility.

1
Carson City. Personal Exemptions
2
Nevada Legislature. Nevada Revised Statutes Chapter 361 – Property Tax
3
Veterans Affairs. Current Veterans Disability Compensation Rates
4
Nevada Department of Taxation. Veterans Exemptions FAQs
5
Lyon County. Exemptions and Rebate Programs
6
Clark County. Property Tax Exemptions
7
Nevada Legislature. Nevada Revised Statutes 361.155 – Exemptions Filing of Claims
8
Nevada Legislature. Nevada Revised Statutes 361.090 – Veterans Exemptions
9
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Regulation 1024.17 Escrow Accounts