Section 1 [Homestead of Disabled Veteran or Family Caregiver] makes changes beneficial to a spouse of a disabled veteran or service member killed in active service with respect to property taxes.
Under current law, the surviving spouse of a veteran with a total (100 percent) and permanent disability rating or the surviving spouse of a member of the U.S. armed forces who dies due to a service-connected cause while serving honorably in active service, can exclude a specified amount of the market value of the homestead from the property’s taxable market value. Under current law, that spouse may make the exclusion for the current taxable year of the veteran’s or service member’s death and for eight additional years or until the spouse remarries or sells, transfers or disposes of the property.
This section eliminates the eight-year limit on the spouse’s use of this exclusion, so that the exclusion is available until the spouse sells, transfers, or disposes of the property. This section also expands the availability of this exclusion to the surviving spouse of a veteran with a disability rating of 70 percent or more. This change is effective beginning with taxes payable in 2018.
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