Disabled Veteran Benefits in Idaho

Idaho does not wipe out property tax for disabled veterans. What it gives is a fixed cut: as much as $1,500 a year off the taxes on your home and up to one acre, or your whole tax bill if it is smaller than that. You qualify with a 100% service-connected disability, or if the VA pays you at the 100% rate for individual unemployability. It must be the Idaho home you own and live in as your primary residence. The law names no lower rating.

Two things make it better than it sounds. There is no income limit, and it comes on top of Idaho's separate, income-tested Property Tax Reduction. That one is worth $250 to $1,500 for homeowners who are 65 or older, widowed, disabled or in another listed group, and whose 2026 income after medical expenses was $40,030 or less. The two together cannot exceed your actual tax. Neither cut touches solid waste, irrigation or other fees on the bill.

County assessors and the Tax Commission run the program, and for 2027 taxes you apply between January 1 and April 15, 2027. If your disability is permanent and total you apply once and it renews by itself; otherwise you apply every year. After the veteran dies, a surviving spouse keeps the reduction on that home until they remarry, but cannot move it to a new property.

Fish and Game lists no free license for disabled veterans. What it has is the Disabled American Veterans (DAV) license, open to any resident whose VA letter shows a service-connected rating of 40% or greater. The fee table lists the combined hunting and fishing license at $5.75, and a fishing-only version at the same price. Residents who have held a license every year since 2017 keep the locked price of $5.00.

The license also unlocks reduced tags. The current fee table lists deer at $12.50, elk at $18.75 and black bear at $7.75. The lower prices on Fish and Game's DAV page (deer $10.75, elk $16.50, bear $6.75) are the locked ones. You show your VA rating letter once, on your first application, and not again.

Nonresidents rated 40% or higher are covered too: a hunting license with three-day fishing is $31.75, with reduced tags limited to 500 deer and 300 elk a year. Separately, Idaho makes five special big game tags available each year for disabled veterans sponsored by a qualifying nonprofit.

Idaho law charges no registration fee on a vehicle owned by a veteran who is paid for a 100% service-connected disability. The "D.V." plates that come with it carry no plate fee either, and the vehicle gets the same parking privileges as a disability plate. It covers one vehicle at a time.

There is one route in below 100%. The same law covers a veteran compensated for the loss, or permanent loss of use, of one or both feet or hands, or for loss of sight or virtual blindness in both eyes. It names no other rating.

The plates come from the Idaho Transportation Department, not the county: apply on form ITD 3397 with a 100% rating letter from the VA. The form describes the plate as for a 100% service-connected permanent disability, so ask ITD before you apply if you are paid at 100% through unemployability. Any current or former service member can instead buy the special veterans plate, which costs $25 to start and $15 a year on top of normal registration and the plate fee.

The Idaho State Parks Veteran Pass waives the motor vehicle entrance fee for one personal vehicle and the camping fee for one campsite. It is a lifetime pass and it is not transferable.

The bar is higher than for the property tax benefit. You must be an Idaho resident with a service-connected disability and a VA evaluation of 100% permanent and total. The application says plainly that being compensated at 100% does not qualify: a lower rating paid at the 100% rate through individual unemployability does not meet the requirements.

Camping is limited to 14 nights in a 30-day period, and the pass does not cover group sites, cabins, yurts or lodges. You still pay the reservation fee. Apply to the Department of Parks and Recreation with a letter from the VA stating your eligibility.

Idaho does not exempt military retirement pay outright. It offers a retirement benefits deduction that retired service members can claim if any one of these is true: you are classified as disabled, you are 62 or older, or you are under 62 and worked enough during the year to have to file a federal return.

The Tax Commission is direct about the limits. Even if you qualify, you generally cannot deduct the full amount, and the state recalculates the maximum each year. A surviving spouse who receives the pension and has not remarried can claim it on the same terms. The details, including what counts as disabled, are in the instructions for Form 39R.

The Armed Forces and Public Safety Officer Dependent Scholarship is generous but hard to reach. It lets a spouse or child attend an Idaho public college without paying tuition and fees, adds up to $750 per semester for books and supplies, and provides on-campus housing and subsistence while enrolled full-time, for up to 36 months of undergraduate study.

A rating by itself is not enough. The service member must have entered service as an Idaho resident and be a prisoner of war or missing in action, or have died of, or been found unemployable because of, injuries from active duty or training. Unemployable means a VA finding of individual unemployability, or a Social Security finding of total and permanent disability based on those injuries. The child must be an Idaho resident who finished high school in Idaho.

For veterans themselves the benefit is residency. Anyone separated under honorable conditions after at least two years of service who makes Idaho home counts as a resident student for tuition at Idaho's public colleges.

Idaho's veterans' preference covers jobs with the state and with counties, cities and local districts. Where applicants are scored, a qualifying veteran gets five percentage points added to the rating they earned.

A rating raises that. With a 10% service-connected disability the increase is ten percentage points. With a 30% service-connected disability you are entitled to an interview if you meet all the qualifications for the position, though an employer may cap those interviews at ten.

It does not apply to promotions, transfers or reassignments. Claim it on the application: you can only appeal a missed preference if you told the employer you were claiming it.