Disabled Veteran Benefits in Indiana

This is new, and it replaces a much smaller benefit. Before the 2026 law, a totally disabled veteran got $14,000 off assessed value, and a $240,000 assessed value limit applied. The amended law deducts 100% of the assessed value of the home you own, or are buying on contract, and live in. For a house assessed as real property there is no maximum assessed value; a mobile or manufactured home not assessed as real property has a separate limit.

You need at least 90 days of service, an honorable discharge, a total disability, and one year of Indiana residency before the assessment date. Wartime service is not required. Proof of the total disability is a VA pension certificate or award of compensation, or a certificate of eligibility from the Indiana Department of Veterans Affairs. The state's guidance notes the law does not say the total disability must be service-connected, and that a 10% rating by itself does not meet it. An unremarried surviving spouse can keep the deduction.

If you had the old deduction, you must file again. For taxes payable in 2027, counties move old-deduction holders onto a $250 credit unless they apply for the new one. File State Form 12662 with your county auditor or County Veteran Service Officer by January 15 of the year the taxes are first due.

The 2026 law replaced Indiana's older partial deductions with credits, which come off the property tax bill itself. The $350 credit is for a veteran who served during a war, was honorably discharged and has a service-connected disability of at least 10%. It takes the place of the former $24,960 deduction.

The $250 credit is for a veteran with at least 90 days of service and an honorable discharge who is 62 or older with a disability rating of at least 10%; war service is not needed. Meet both tests and you get both credits, but neither can be combined with the 100% deduction.

A disabled veteran who owns no property the deduction could apply to may get a credit against vehicle excise tax instead, if they meet that law's requirements: the lesser of the tax or $70 per vehicle, on up to two vehicles. It needs an affidavit from the county auditor.

Indiana's Tuition and Fee Exemption covers the biological or adopted child of a veteran who served during a war, or did equally hazardous duty recognized by a service or campaign medal, and who has a service-connected disability as determined by the VA. The state's page sets no minimum rating. The parent must have listed Indiana as home of record at enlistment or lived in Indiana at least five years before the student applies.

The enlistment date decides the amount. If the parent enlisted before July 1, 2011, the exemption covers 100% of tuition and regular fees. On or after that date, it covers 20% plus the parent's VA disability percentage. At private, non-profit Indiana colleges the award is up to $5,000 a year, and only for students who graduated high school on or after January 1, 2023.

The student must first apply before turning 33 and has eight academic years to use it. The benefit is for children, not spouses. For the veteran personally, the state's programme list shows one exemption: 100% of tuition and regular fees for Indiana veterans who are Purple Heart recipients.

Indiana has a state income tax, but military retirement is out of it. The Department of Revenue states that military retirement pay received by an Indiana resident is deductible in full, and the deduction is open to a surviving spouse too. You do not need to have been an Indiana resident while you served.

VA disability compensation needs no deduction at all. The VA pays it tax-free, so it is not in your federal adjusted gross income, and the Indiana return begins with that federal figure.

Indiana's Disabled Hoosier Veteran plate is tied to mobility, not to how high your rating is. State law lists five ways in. The one most veterans ask about is a VA rating of at least 50% with service-related compensation, where at least 60% of that rating is attributable to a mobility disability. A VA-rated physical condition that keeps you from walking without pain or difficulty also qualifies.

The plate and its placard allow free parking at metered spaces in Indiana. The privilege belongs to the veteran, not to anyone else using the vehicle. You can get a plate or a placard for each registered vehicle you own. You apply through the Indiana Department of Veterans Affairs, then take the approved, stamped application to a BMV branch.

Any honorably separated resident can buy the Hoosier Veteran plate for $15. A veteran indicator on your driver's license costs nothing when added at a new issuance or renewal; bring your long-form DD-214.

The license has no minimum rating. An Indiana resident who served and has a documented service-connected disability can buy the DAV license for $2.75 a year, or $27.50 for ten years. It covers fishing and small game hunting, not deer or turkey, and stamps cost the regular price.

State parks are stricter. The state says plainly that veterans typically do not receive free admission. A veteran eligible for the Disabled Hoosier Veteran plate can buy an annual pass for $25, against $50 for the standard annual pass. Indiana residents who are former prisoners of war, and their surviving spouses, get a free pass.

The Indiana Veterans Memorial Cemetery is in Madison. A veteran separated under conditions other than dishonorable is eligible; the eligibility list does not mention a disability rating. So is a surviving spouse, and a child who is under 21 or a permanent dependent.

For eligible veterans and spouses there is no cost for the opening and closing of the plot, the outer burial container, the monument and the chapel. You can apply ahead of time for a pre-need determination of eligibility.