Disabled Veteran Benefits in Hawaii

Property tax in Hawaii is a county matter. The state veterans office says the benefit varies by island and sends you to your local real property tax office. It describes the benefit as a tax exemption on a home owned and occupied by a totally disabled veteran or their widow or widower. The cut-off and the small bill you still owe depend on the county.

On Oahu, Honolulu defines totally disabled as a 100% disability rating from the VA for injuries on active duty, and a permanent and total rating qualifies. Your home is exempt from all property tax except special assessments and the $300 minimum levied on every taxable parcel. File Form E-8-10.5 with a physician's certificate of disability by June 30 for the first payment or December 31 for the second. The exemption starts with the next tax payment date after you file, and past payments are not refunded. An unmarried widow or widower keeps it; children who inherit do not.

Kauai sets the bar lower. A veteran rated at least 80% for injuries on active duty has the home exempted from all property tax except the $150 minimum tax, and files Form P-6 with the home exemption claim (Form P-3) by September 30. This page has no confirmed figure for Maui County or Hawaii County. Ask those real property tax offices for their cut-off and minimum before you count on a number.

A Hawaii resident with a 100% service-connected rating and a discharge other than dishonorable is exempt from the state's $46 annual registration fee on one noncommercial vehicle. That is the whole benefit: the state veterans office says you must still pay the balance due.

It is not automatic. Each year you send the Office of Veterans' Services a copy of your driver's license, your current car registration and your current VA 100% letter, and they mail you an original exemption letter. The DMV accepts only the original, and not a letter from a previous year.

Hawaii's veteran plates (Veteran, Combat, Combat Wounded, Former POW and others) cost the same as a regular plate; none on the state veterans office's list is free or tied to a disability rating. Separately, a passenger car the federal government furnished to you because of a service disability, certified by the VA, is exempt from the annual vehicle weight tax, for one noncommercial vehicle. Any veteran with a discharge other than dishonorable can add a veteran designation to a license or state ID; outside your renewal period the regular duplicate fee applies.

Hawaii excludes from income any compensation received as a pension for past services, and the state's own tax instructions name the military pension as an example of a government retirement system whose qualifying distributions Hawaii does not tax. The statute sets no rating condition.

VA disability compensation is a tax-free payment under federal rules, and Hawaii law excludes income that federal law puts beyond state tax.

If you still drill, Hawaii also lets you exclude up to $8,636 of military reserve or Hawaii National Guard duty pay.

This is a federal benefit, not a state one. Veterans with any VA-documented service-connected disability rating are eligible for Defense Department and Coast Guard commissary, exchange and MWR retail privileges. The Defense Department says that covers MWR recreational lodging such as RV parks, cottages and cabins and military resorts and hotels, and official lodging for travelling service members on a space-available basis. Purple Heart recipients and former prisoners of war are eligible too.

There is no minimum percentage: the Defense Department counts ratings from 0% to 90%. Veterans rated 100%, or with a 100% unemployability rating, were already authorized a DoD-issued ID card and broader access.

The fact sheet names no individual property or rate. Our travel page maps the military lodging in Hawaii and shows who can stay at each one.

Hawaii's hunting fees have no rate for a VA rating. State law sets the license at $10 for anyone who has lived in Hawaii a year or more, and makes it free only for residents 65 or older and for residents of Kalaupapa with Hansen's disease. A rating does not appear in the fee schedule.

Fishing works the same way. The recreational marine fishing license is required of nonresidents, not residents. The freshwater game fishing license is $5 for residents and military 16 and over, and free for seniors 65 and over.

State parks cost residents nothing, veteran or not: the Division of State Parks says parking and entrance fees to all state parks are free for Hawaii residents. None of these pages lists a separate disabled veteran pass.

The University of Hawaii's policy on exemptions to non-resident tuition names the military-connected students who pay the resident rate. For veterans and their families the list runs on federal education benefits; the page describes no state tuition waiver.

You get the resident rate if you live in Hawaii and are eligible for the Post-9/11 or Montgomery GI Bill, for transferred Post-9/11 benefits, for the Fry Scholarship, or for Chapter 35 survivors' and dependents' assistance. Veterans with service-connected disabilities who are eligible for Veteran Readiness and Employment (Chapter 31) are on the list too. So are members of the Hawaii National Guard and Reserves.

For questions about the exemption, the university sends you to the Residency Officer at your home campus. To use VA education benefits, contact the VA School Certifying Official at the campus where you will enroll.

Hawaii law provides for preference in state hiring for veterans, disabled veterans, spouses of disabled veterans and unremarried surviving spouses, with the detail left to rules. The state's job announcements spell out how it works: 5 Veterans Preference Points for a DD-214 showing honorable service, and 10 points with an official letter from the VA or your armed service, dated within the past 12 months, confirming you qualify for the 10-point preference.

The points apply to open competitive recruitments only, and you have to submit the paperwork to get them.

For the job search itself, the state's American Job Centers employ veteran staff, including Disabled Veterans Outreach Program specialists, and veterans and eligible spouses get priority over non-veterans for employment, training and placement services.