New York counties, cities, towns, villages and school districts can now fully exempt the primary homes of veterans the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs rates permanently and totally disabled from military service. The exemption reaches all property tax, plus special district charges, assessments and special ad valorem levies. It is a local option, so a veteran’s home is exempt only where the local government has voted to offer it.
What the state tax department announced
The state Department of Taxation and Finance flagged the change in its October 5 assessment bulletin, which points assessors to an updated manual entry for Real Property Tax Law section 458-a. The department describes a 2026 law change that lets local governments give veterans rated permanently and totally disabled by the VA a full property tax exemption at local option.
The timing is stated in terms assessors use. The exemption applies for taxable status dates after October 1, 2026. The taxable status date is the day a local government fixes who owns what and which exemptions apply for the coming tax roll, so the first rolls to carry the exemption are the ones set after that date.
The department’s bulletin also lists the paperwork. Veterans apply on Form RP-458-a, the application for the alternative veterans and the permanent and total disability exemptions from real property taxation, with instructions in RP-458-a-I.
What the law says a locality can give
The text of section 458-a, subdivision 11, lets a county, city, town, village or school district adopt a local law or resolution. A body that does so can fully exempt the primary residence of a seriously disabled veteran, and the statute says that residence “shall be fully exempt.”
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The exemption is wider than a percentage break. It covers taxation, special district charges, assessments and special ad valorem levies. Taxable assessed value cannot be reduced below zero, and the new subdivision does not end any exemption a veteran already holds under subdivision 3 of section 458.
An adopting body must notify the state Department of Veterans’ Services within 30 days. Failing to notify does not make a local law or resolution ineffective, but the department keeps a public record of the bodies that have adopted it.
Who the veteran has to be
The veteran must meet the other requirements of section 458-a and two further tests. The first is service status: a discharge under honorable conditions, including certain National Guard service under federal orders. A veteran with a qualifying condition or a discharged LGBT veteran can also meet it with a discharge other than bad conduct or dishonorable.
The subdivision does not define a seriously disabled veteran on its own terms. The meaning comes from the two tests, with qualifying condition and LGBT veteran defined in section one of the Veterans’ Services Law.
The second test is the disability finding. The VA must consider the veteran permanently and totally disabled because of military service, and the veteran must show it with a letter, official form or other document from the VA that says so. A rating short of permanent and total does not meet this subdivision.
Because the law lets each government decide, the same veteran can face different answers on adjacent streets. A town can adopt while the county, school district or village next door does not. An exemption granted by one body does not automatically carry to the others that tax the same home.
How a town opts in, and what that means for a veteran
The Town of Chester’s board shows what an adoption looks like. A draft introductory local law, Local Law 7 of 2026, would add a section to the town code’s veterans tax exemptions article to opt in to the section 458-a(11) exemption. It would exempt the primary residence of a seriously disabled veteran from town taxes, special district charges, assessments and special ad valorem levies.
The draft repeats the statute’s tests: a qualifying discharge and a VA letter or official document finding the veteran permanently and totally disabled from military service. It takes effect on filing with the Secretary of State, and the town must notify the Department of Veterans’ Services within 30 days of adoption. It is a draft, not an adopted law, and it covers only town taxes. A veteran in Chester would still need the county and school district to act separately, since each is a separate body under the statute.
For a veteran with a permanent and total rating, the practical path starts with the local assessor, who handles Form RP-458-a. The questions to put to that office are whether the town, the county and the school district have each adopted the exemption, and which taxable status date applies to the next roll.
The state has changed the rules, but the savings depend on thousands of local votes. A veteran’s exemption exists only after every body that taxes the home has said yes. Has this home’s town, county and school district acted?
Has this home’s town and school district opted in?
A permanent and total rating does not by itself remove a tax bill. The exemption exists only where each body that taxes the home has adopted it, and a veteran who assumes it applies can miss the filing that starts it.
The Senior Property Tax & Home-Cost Relief Kit lays out the 5 kinds of property-tax relief so a household can see where a veterans exemption sits among them. It also includes an application log and renewal calendar, and Part 2 reads the tax bill line by line to show which levies a local exemption touches.
Log every exemption filing and renewal date with the property-tax relief kit →
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This article was produced with AI assistance and edited for accuracy against the sources linked above.
David M. Keller is a finance writer based in Columbus, Ohio, covering personal finance and consumer-focused economic topics. He earned his degree in journalism from Ohio University and began his career reporting on local business and economic trends for a regional media outlet. Since then, he has contributed to a variety of online publications, focusing on clear, practical coverage of topics such as cost of living, debt, and everyday financial decision-making.
