Disabled veterans who own a home in Waterford Township, Michigan have until Dec. 31, 2026, to get a first affidavit for the state’s disabled veterans property tax exemption into the township assessor’s hands. The filing is a one-time job, not a yearly renewal. Once the township approves it, the exemption stays in place until the owner rescinds it or the assessor revokes it.
That detail matters because the Dec. 31 date is easy to read as a recurring annual deadline. It is not. The date marks the last day the township will accept an affidavit for a given exemption year, and it is the only date a veteran who has never filed needs to watch. Veterans already approved do not file again.
The question for each household is simple. Has an affidavit ever been approved on the home, and does the veteran meet the state’s Veterans Affairs tests? A veteran with no approval on file has about two months left to get one in for 2026. A veteran with an approval on file has nothing new to submit.
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Who has to file, and who can skip it?
The township assessor’s page says an affidavit filed for a given year “remains in effect, without subsequent reapplication” until it is rescinded, citing Michigan law at MCL 211.7b(2). The township page describes the form as the Affidavit for Disabled Veterans Exemption, and a separate request-to-rescind form sits beside it. In plain terms, one approved filing covers every later year.
A Waterford Township Assessing Department page sets out the timing. Nothing can be filed until Jan. 1 of the exemption year, and the affidavit must be received by Dec. 31 of that same year. A veteran who qualified this year files in 2026, not later.
What does the Dec. 31 date actually control?
The date controls one thing: whether the exemption applies to that year’s property tax bill. It does not start a yearly cycle. A veteran who files by Dec. 31, 2026, has the exemption on record for 2026, and the same filing carries into 2027 and beyond with no new paperwork.
The state Treasury Department explains in its bulletin on the exemption that the affidavit goes in after Jan. 1 and before Dec. 31 of the year the exemption is requested. The bulletin says the exemption applies to the property taxes for the current year, and it adds that the filing goes to the local assessor. It tells owners not to send the form to the state Treasury Department or the State Tax Commission.
The same Michigan Treasury bulletin, dated Nov. 14, 2023, says the no-reapplication rule takes effect Jan. 1, 2025. Veterans who filed in earlier years under the old rules should confirm with the assessor that the township treats the approval as continuing.
Which disabled veterans meet Michigan’s tests?
The bulletin lists three ways to qualify, all tied to Department of Veterans Affairs records. A veteran who was honorably discharged and is permanently and totally disabled from service, entitled to benefits at the 100 percent rate, qualifies. So does a veteran who has received a VA grant for specially adapted housing, and so does one the VA rates as individually unemployable.
An unremarried surviving spouse of a qualifying veteran can also keep and claim the exemption. The bulletin states that the statute “does not require the disabled veteran to have already received the benefit.” The home has to be the owner’s homestead, meaning the property the owner lives in.
What goes in with the affidavit?
The affidavit needs official VA documentation showing the veteran meets one of the three tests. The Treasury bulletin says a letter from a county veterans affairs office does not satisfy that requirement.
The state form is numbered 5107. The Waterford assessing office, at 5200 Civic Center Drive, takes questions at 248-674-6270, and the township’s main site carries its assessing forms and contact page. The township says inquiries get an answer within seven business days, so a call or email sent this week leaves little slack before year’s end.
Anyone who stops owning and using the home as a homestead, or who no longer meets the tests, must tell the assessor. The bulletin says the owner files a rescind form, numbered 6054, within 45 days. That rule is the other half of the one-time system: because the exemption renews itself, the duty to end it falls on the owner.
Is a missed form fixable later?
Neither the township page nor the Treasury bulletin describes a late-filing remedy for a missed Dec. 31 date. That leaves a plain reading: the affidavit has to be received by the township by the end of the exemption year. The township page ties each filing to the exemption year in which it is received.
The practical step is to ask the assessing office now whether an affidavit is already approved on the parcel. A spouse, a child holding power of attorney or a veteran who bought the home recently may not know. The office can confirm in one call whether the parcel already carries the exemption.
First affidavit for a Waterford home still unfiled?
The only date that matters for the first filing is Dec. 31, 2026.
A disabled veteran who thinks the exemption is already on the parcel, and finds in January that it never was, has paid a full year of tax that did not have to be paid. The Waterford rule is the clearest case: one filing, one date, no second chance written on the township page.
The affidavit is only one of several property-tax breaks open to older homeowners, and The Senior Property Tax & Home-Cost Relief Kit covers the rest: the 5 kinds of property-tax relief, with an application log and renewal calendar to record which ones have been filed and when. The kit also walks through heating, cooling and home-repair help.
Log Waterford’s Dec. 31 veterans affidavit and every other property-tax filing in the relief kit →
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.
