Disabled Veteran Benefits in Connecticut

This is the benefit that moves real money, and it is recent: it applies to assessment years starting on or after October 1, 2024. The home of a veteran the VA has determined to be permanently and totally disabled based on a 100% service-connected rating is exempt from property tax. It covers a house, condo or mobile home that is your primary residence, counted by the share you own.

No home in your name? Then one motor vehicle garaged in Connecticut is exempt instead. Any part of the building you rent out or use for business is not covered. From the October 1, 2025 assessment year your town may vote to limit the exempt land to two acres, or to cap the exemption at the town's median residential assessed value. The exemption carries over to a surviving spouse who has not remarried.

TDIU is different. The state exemption is written for a 100% rating. A veteran rated totally disabled through individual unemployability gets the same treatment only where the town has voted to offer it, so ask your assessor.

Below a 100% permanent and total rating, Connecticut's exemption is modest. It comes off your assessed value, not your tax bill: $2,000 at 10% to 25%, $2,500 above 25% up to 50%, $3,000 above 50% up to 75%, and $3,500 above 75%. At 65, any rating of 10% or more gets the $3,500.

Wartime veterans with no rating get a basic $1,000 exemption, and you receive one of these, not both. If your income is under the state limits you can apply for an additional exemption of up to 200% of the basic one. Above the limits, state law still adds half. Towns may vote to add more on top for veterans under an income limit, so ask what yours has adopted.

Two filings make it happen. Your DD-214 must be recorded in your town's land records before October 1, and your rating proof goes to the assessor. The income-based addition needs an application every two years, between February 1 and October 1.

Connecticut follows the federal rule for veterans' disability benefits. If a payment is excluded from your federal gross income, it is not subject to Connecticut income tax. That covers disability pensions and other benefits paid for the relief of disabled veterans.

Military retirement pay is taxed federally, so it has its own rule. A retired member of the armed forces or the National Guard subtracts 100% of that pay on the Connecticut return. A former spouse receiving a share of it under a divorce decree does not get the exclusion.

Connecticut's free registration is not tied to a rating percentage. It goes to a wartime veteran who has lost a limb or the use of one, is blind, paraplegic or hemiplegic, or has a traumatic brain injury, with the VA certifying the disability as service-connected. If that is you, three vehicles a year register for no fee, whether new, renewed or transferred. Title, lien and clean air fees still apply.

The plates come with an overtime parking card. It does not open handicapped spaces. Your first application goes in person to the DMV's Wethersfield office with a VA approval letter, and a surviving spouse may keep the plate for life or until remarriage.

Two smaller things are open to every veteran. Apply within two years of separation, having been a Connecticut resident at induction, and one license or registration period is free. And the veteran flag on your license costs nothing extra at renewal, or $30 if you add it early.

The Connecticut veteran tuition waiver covers 100% of tuition for credit courses at the four Connecticut State Universities, and state-funded tuition at the community colleges. Charter Oak State College waives 50% of course fees. You need an honorable discharge, 90 days of active duty in time of war, and Connecticut domicile when you are accepted, even if you moved here less than a year ago.

Your disability matters in one place: if you were separated early because of a VA-rated service-connected disability, the 90-day rule does not apply. The waiver also picks up tuition the Post-9/11 GI Bill leaves uncovered. Books, fees, parking and housing are on you.

For families the rules are narrow. The waiver reaches children and surviving spouses of members killed in action since September 11, 2001, and children of the missing and prisoners of war. Children aged 16 to 23 of wartime veterans rated totally and permanently disabled can get a separate need-based state grant, capped at $400 a year.

The Disabled Veteran Pass is free, good for life, and open to Connecticut residents with a service-connected disability. No percentage is set. It admits the holder to Gillette Castle, Dinosaur and Fort Trumbull state parks, and it does not cover camping. Parking is already free at every state park for any Connecticut-registered vehicle. Apply at the listed park offices, or by mail with proof of residency and your VA card or benefits letter.

Hunting and fishing work differently, and this trips people up. Connecticut has no free license based on a VA rating. A free lifetime hunting, fishing or trapping license goes to anyone who has lost a limb or permanently lost the use of one. A free lifetime fishing license goes to anyone who is blind, and for a veteran the VA supplies the proof. Permits and stamps are not included.

On an open competitive state exam, a wartime veteran who is eligible for VA disability compensation or pension has 10 points added to a passing score. No minimum rating is set. Wartime veterans without compensation get 5 points, and so do veterans who earned a campaign badge or expeditionary medal.

The points extend to family. The spouse of a disabled veteran who cannot work because of the veteran's disability, and an unmarried surviving spouse, can claim the same points. They are added only after you pass. You claim them on form CT-HR-19 with your DD-214 and a VA statement dated within the past six months.