Disabled Veteran Property Tax Exemption in Tennessee (2026)
Carlos Scarpero on property tax discounts for veterans receiving VA disability compensation.
Last reviewed August 26, 2026. Every figure, form and deadline on this page is re-checked against the state’s own government sources once a quarter, and the date above is updated when we do it.
Tennessee does not have a property tax exemption for disabled veterans. It has a reimbursement program. Under Tennessee Code Annotated 67-5-704, the state pays qualifying disabled veterans and certain surviving spouses back for part or all of the property tax paid on the first $175,000 of full market value of their home. You still get billed for the whole amount and pay it, or in some cases the county credits the projected amount at the time you pay if you apply early enough. Either way, the county’s assessed value on your home never changes.
A lot of sources call this an “exemption” and stop there. It matters that it isn’t one, because it changes what a lender can do with it before closing, and what it does and does not do to your escrow account. I cover both below.
This is not tax advice. Property tax relief is administered locally, and the dollar amounts are adjusted from year to year. Every figure here is dated and linked to its official source so you can check it. Confirm the current numbers, forms and deadlines with your county office before you rely on any of it.
On this page
How much is Tennessee’s benefit worth?
| Category | What is reimbursed | Income limit |
|---|---|---|
| Disabled veteran or qualifying surviving spouse | Tax paid on the first $175,000 of full market value | None |
| Elderly homeowner, 65 or older | Tax paid on the first $27,000 of full market value (indexed for inflation) | $38,470 (2025 income, for 2026 benefits) |
| Disabled homeowner (non-veteran) | Tax paid on the first $27,000 of full market value | $38,470 (2025 income, for 2026 benefits) |
Tennessee does not scale the veteran benefit by disability percentage the way some states do. The statute’s disability test is narrow and effectively requires a total service-connected disability, or one of a short list of specific conditions (paraplegia, legal blindness, loss of two or more limbs). There is no partial reimbursement at 70 percent or 90 percent under this section. If you do not meet the veteran test but you are 65 or permanently disabled and under the income limit, you may still qualify under the ordinary elderly or disabled homeowner categories, capped much lower at $27,000 of value.
The $175,000 cap is a cap on the value the reimbursement is calculated against, not a cap on your total tax bill and not a check for $175,000. The state converts that capped value to an effective assessed value using the 25 percent residential assessment ratio and the local tax rate, then pays or credits that amount. A veteran in a county with a high tax rate gets a bigger check than one in a county with a low rate on an identically valued home. Ask your county trustee for what the program is paying this year in your jurisdiction; the brochure and FAQ do not publish a statewide average because there isn’t one number that applies everywhere.
This is a reimbursement, not an exemption
Read the statute’s own language: the state “shall be paid… the amount necessary to pay or reimburse such taxpayers for all or part of the local property taxes paid.” Your county still assesses your home at its full value, still bills you for the full amount, and the tax roll itself is never reduced. What Tennessee changes is who ultimately bears the cost of part of that bill, not what the bill says.
There is one narrow exception. The statute lets the collecting official give you a credit for the projected amount of relief at the time you pay, if you already look eligible from your application and you pay the rest of the balance due. That is discretionary, requires you to apply before you pay, and still starts from the full, non-reduced bill.
Official Source
“There shall be paid from the general funds of the state to certain disabled veterans the amount necessary to pay or reimburse such taxpayers for all or part of the local property taxes paid for a given tax year on that property that the disabled veteran owned and used as the disabled veteran’s residence as provided in this section. Such reimbursement shall be paid on the first one hundred seventy-five thousand dollars ($175,000) of the full market value of such property.”
That is the statute itself. It pays or reimburses, on a value cap of $175,000, calculated through the county’s normal 25 percent assessment ratio and local tax rate. Nothing in it changes what shows up on your county’s assessment roll.
Source:
Tennessee Code Annotated 67-5-704, Disabled Veteran’s Residence (PDF download)
Who qualifies in Tennessee?
To qualify for the Tennessee disabled veteran property tax relief program you need all of these:
- Service in the U.S. Armed Forces with no dishonorable discharge.
- One of these VA determinations: a service-connected permanent and total disability rating, or a service-connected disability involving paraplegia or permanent paralysis of both legs and the lower body, or legal blindness, or the loss or loss of use of two or more limbs from a service-connected cause, or 100 percent permanent total disability as a former prisoner of war.
- Own the home and use it as your primary residence for the tax year you are claiming. The VA’s determination of your disability status is conclusive for this program; the county does not second-guess it.
There is no separate rating tier for veterans below 100 percent under this section, and no income limit for this category, unlike Tennessee’s elderly and disabled homeowner programs. You can only claim relief on one residence, for one tax year, per taxing jurisdiction.
Surviving spouses: three different qualifying paths
Tennessee’s surviving spouse rules are broader than most states’ because they cover three separate situations:
- The veteran already qualified. If your spouse was eligible for this relief at the time of death, you keep it as long as you do not remarry, and you solely or jointly own and exclusively use the home.
- Combat-related death. If your spouse’s death was service-connected and combat-related, as determined by the VA, you can qualify even if your spouse never applied for or received the benefit while living.
- Deployed service member’s death. If your spouse died while deployed away from any home base of training in support of combat or peace operations, you can qualify under the same conditions.
All three require the surviving spouse to not remarry and to own and use the property as a home. The widow or widower files form F-16S instead of F-16.
Official Source
“For the purposes of this section, a “disabled veteran” means a person who has served in the armed forces of the United States, and who has: (1) Acquired in connection with such service a disability from paraplegia or permanent paralysis of both legs and lower part of the body resulting from traumatic injury or disease to the spinal cord or brain, or from legal blindness, or from loss or loss of use of two (2) or more limbs from any service-connected cause; (2) Acquired one hundred percent (100%) permanent total disability, as determined by the United States veterans’ administration, and such disability resulting from having served as a prisoner of war; or (3) Acquired service-connected permanent and total disability or disabilities, as determined by the United States department of veterans’ affairs.”
That is the full statutory definition of who qualifies. Note it does not include a partial rating tier; option (3), the one most veterans use, requires a total disability determination.
Source:
Can the benefit be used before closing?
In Tennessee, a lender has nothing to project. Other states cut your assessed value, which gives a lender a lower tax figure it can choose to use for qualifying, subject to its own overlay. Tennessee never touches your assessed value. It reimburses or credits you after you owe and, in most cases, after you already paid. There is no reduced tax bill for a lender to project forward, whether you are buying or refinancing.
Ask the lender question anyway, because it is worth asking. A handful of states do force the taxing authority to give a qualifying veteran a written determination before they own the home, and lenders differ widely on how they treat any veteran tax benefit in a file. Tennessee’s program does not lower the assessed value, so there is no reduced bill to project here, but the escrow and documentation questions below still decide how your file gets built.
Where an escrow waiver fits
Because this benefit never lowers the bill your servicer pays, an escrow waiver does not solve the same problem it solves in a state with a true assessed-value exemption. There is no shrinking future bill to work around. VA does not require escrows, so waiving one is a lender and investor decision, and it can still be worth asking about on a tight file. Just understand the tradeoff: with no escrow account, you pay the taxing authority directly and on time yourself, and the credit or reimbursement still arrives later, separately, on the state’s own schedule.
Official Source
“VA does not require the lender to establish escrow accounts for the collection and payment of property taxes, hazard insurance premiums, and similar items.”
This is the VA rule, from Chapter 9 of the VA Lender’s Handbook. It is the reason an escrow waiver is even on the table. Waiving escrow is a lender and investor decision, not a VA requirement, and it means you are responsible for paying the taxing authority yourself when the bill comes.
Source:
One more VA rule to know, because it runs the other way. On estimating taxes, Chapter 4 says “If taxes are expected to increase, use the increased amount.” There is no matching VA instruction that lets an underwriter write down your taxes, which is why the reduction is always a lender option and never a VA entitlement. The Chapter 4 text is here if you want to read it.
Plan for the gap between closing and approval
These programs run on a yearly cycle, and the taxing authority bills on its own calendar. You are the owner from the day you close, so those bills are yours, in full, including any portion attributable to the period the prior owner held the home. The credit or reimbursement shows up afterward, sometimes a year later, and it does not reach back to pay a bill you let go delinquent. One lender’s VA guide makes the responsibility explicit and requires a signed letter of explanation from the veteran borrower stating they are solely responsible for the property taxes owed for the prior owner. Keep the money set aside and pay the bill when it comes.
How to apply in Tennessee, step by step
- Wait for your property tax bill. You apply for the current tax year after your county or city mails your bill, not before.
- Get form F-16, the consent form that lets the state pull your VA disability and income status. A surviving spouse files F-16S instead. Both forms are issued by your county trustee’s office, or by your city collecting official if you are inside city limits and your city separately taxes property. They are not posted for download on the comptroller’s own site; ask your county trustee or city office for a copy and they will also tell you what county-specific documents they want alongside it.
- File it with your county trustee (or city collecting official). Use the County Technical Assistance Service’s directory of Tennessee county trustees, linked directly from the comptroller’s own tax relief page, to find contact information for all 95 counties.
- Watch the deadline. You must apply within 35 days of your county’s tax delinquency date for that tax year. There is no general late-filing allowance for missing this window, so do not wait.
- You do not requalify from scratch every single year, but you do have to reapply each time you get a new bill; the program is not a one-time filing. Watch for the state’s annual notices and your voucher.
- Check your status anytime on the comptroller’s Tax Relief Application Status Search.
The full statute governing the whole program, Tennessee Code Annotated 67-5-701 through 67-5-704, is available as a PDF download from the Comptroller of the Treasury. The state’s current year overview, income limits and value caps are in the 2026 Property Tax Relief brochure (PDF download).
Can you get a refund of prior year taxes?
Tennessee’s whole program already works like a refund, so there is not a separate “back taxes” process layered on top of it the way some exemption states have. What happens depends on timing:
- If you apply before you pay and the collecting official finds you look eligible, the official can credit the projected relief amount against what you owe, and you pay only the balance.
- If you have already paid in full when your application is approved, the state issues your relief as a payment or voucher for that tax year rather than as credit against a bill.
Either way, you have to apply within 35 days of the delinquency date for that specific tax year. Missing the window makes you ineligible for that year; the statute does not give the disabled veteran category a one-year lookback the way it allows narrow good-cause deadline waivers in other parts of the law. Do not assume you can catch up next year for a bill you already missed.
If you believe you were denied in error, or your voucher never arrived, start with your county trustee and then the state’s Tax Relief section directly: 615-747-8871, toll-free 1-800-221-9927, or [email protected].
Official Source
“All taxpayers otherwise eligible for tax relief under §§ 67-5-702 — 67-5-704, but who fail to apply for a refund or present a credit voucher for credit on their taxes within thirty-five (35) days from the date taxes in the jurisdiction become delinquent for that year, shall be deemed ineligible for such relief for that tax year.”
That is the statute’s hard deadline rule, and it applies to the disabled veteran category the same as the elderly and disabled homeowner categories. There is a narrow good-cause deadline waiver elsewhere in the statute that a state official can grant, but do not plan around it.
Source:
Other Tennessee programs for disabled veterans
The property tax relief program is the one most veterans ask about, but Tennessee runs a few other programs worth knowing.
- Elderly and disabled homeowner tax relief (state). The same law, different sections. Tennesseans 65 or older, or permanently disabled, with 2025 income up to $38,470, get relief on the first $27,000 of full market value. Not for veterans specifically, but worth checking if you do not meet the narrower disabled-veteran disability test.
- Property Tax Freeze (county option). A separate program lets some counties freeze the tax due on your home at the amount owed in the year you first qualify, for homeowners 65 or older under a county-set income limit. It is not offered in every county. Check with your county trustee whether your county participates and its current income cap.
- VA disability compensation and Tennessee income tax. Tennessee has no state income tax on wages or VA disability compensation, so this is not a separate filing concern the way it is in states with an income tax.
- County-level programs. Some counties and cities layer additional relief funded locally on top of the state program, under Tenn. Code Ann. 67-5-701(j). Ask your county trustee whether your county does this; it is not universal.
This page does not cover VA benefits like Specially Adapted Housing grants or the VA funding fee exemption for disabled veterans; those are federal VA benefits, not Tennessee programs, and can be used alongside anything above.
Tennessee disabled veteran property tax FAQs
How much is Tennessee’s disabled veteran property tax benefit worth?
Tennessee reimburses part or all of the property tax you paid on the first $175,000 of your home’s full market value. It is not a flat dollar amount and not a percentage off your bill. The exact reimbursement depends on your county and city tax rates and the state’s assessment ratio, so two veterans with identically valued homes in different counties get different checks.
Is Tennessee’s veteran benefit really an exemption?
No, and this is where most summaries of Tennessee get it wrong. Tennessee Code Annotated 67-5-704 pays or reimburses the taxpayer. You still get a full tax bill, you still owe it, and the state pays you back afterward, or in some cases credits the amount toward what you owe. Your assessed value on the county roll never changes.
Do I need a 100 percent VA rating in Tennessee?
Yes, in effect. The statute qualifies you if the VA rates you permanently and totally disabled from a service-connected cause, or paraplegic, or legally blind, or missing the use of two or more limbs from a service-connected cause, or a 100 percent P&T former prisoner of war. There is no partial-rating tier the way there is for Tennessee’s ordinary elderly and disabled homeowner programs.
Is Tennessee’s disabled veteran benefit income tested?
No. The elderly homeowner and disabled homeowner categories under the same law are income tested, capped at $38,470 of 2025 income for the benefits paid in 2026. The disabled veteran category has no income limit.
What is form F-16?
F-16 is the consent form that lets the state pull your disability rating and status from the VA. A widow or widower of a disabled veteran files F-16S instead. Both forms come from your county trustee’s office or your city collecting official, not from a download on the comptroller’s website.
What is the deadline to apply in Tennessee?
You apply after you receive your property tax bill for the year, and the deadline is 35 days after your county’s tax delinquency date. Miss it and you are ineligible for that tax year, there is no automatic late filing the way some other states allow.
Can a surviving spouse keep the Tennessee benefit?
Yes, under three different fact patterns in the statute. An unremarried surviving spouse of a veteran who already qualified keeps the benefit. A surviving spouse of a veteran whose death was service-connected and combat-related qualifies even if the veteran never applied. And a surviving spouse of a soldier who died while deployed in support of combat or peace operations qualifies too. All three require the spouse to not remarry and to own and use the home.
Does this reduce my property tax bill?
No. Tennessee pays you back after the fact instead of cutting your assessed value, so the bill stays the full amount and the relief arrives separately, through the voucher the state issues.
Where to go next
- Disabled Veteran Property Tax Exemption Guide, every state’s exemption, form and deadline in one directory
- The complete guide to VA home loans
- Property tax discounts for veterans on VA disability, the national overview
- Bad credit VA loans in Tennessee
- Funding Fee Waivers and Refunds Guide, the fee is waived outright at a 10 percent rating or higher, and can be refunded if you already paid it
- Tennessee Comptroller, Property Tax Relief program page
- Directory of all Tennessee county trustees
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