Disabled Veteran Benefits in Maryland

The state exemption is all or nothing. If the VA has declared you to have a permanent 100% service-connected disability, your dwelling house and the yard around it are exempt from real property tax. It covers the home that is your legal residence, and when you die your surviving spouse keeps the exemption for as long as they own and live in the home and do not remarry.

Three details are worth money. You can apply at any time; the usual September 1 deadline does not bind veterans. If you paid tax in years when you already qualified, you can claim a refund, as long as you apply within the 3-year period that starts the year you first became eligible. And if you are house-hunting, the state will review an application for a specific home before you buy it and answer within 15 business days.

Below 100%, state law leaves it to local government. A county or city may pass a credit against its own property tax for a veteran with a permanent rating of at least 50%: 25% off from 50% to 74%, and 50% off at 75% or higher if you do not qualify for the full exemption, with a $100,000 income ceiling. The law lets local governments do this but does not make them, so check yours; the state veterans department links to the counties it knows have a program and warns its list may not be complete.

Your VA compensation is safe. The VA describes it as a tax-free payment, and Maryland works out its tax starting from your federal adjusted gross income, so the money never enters the calculation.

Military retired pay is different: only part of it is sheltered. You may subtract up to $12,500 of military retirement income if you are under 55 on the last day of the tax year, and up to $20,000 if you are 55 or older. The subtraction stops at those amounts. It is also open to spouses of military retirees who receive military retirement income, and you claim it on Maryland Form 502.

Maryland draws two lines. A veteran rated 100% gets Disabled Veteran plates free of charge, pays no other fees, and receives permanent registration, so there is nothing to renew. The plate comes with or without the wheelchair symbol. State law puts the fee exemption in terms of a veteran the VA classes as totally disabled or as having lost the use of a hand, arm or leg, and extends it to the surviving spouse of a disabled veteran.

A veteran with a service-connected rating or unemployability rating of 50-99% also gets the plates free, in recognition of the injury, but still pays the annual registration fees and surcharge.

Other military plates can be ordered online, but for Disabled Veteran plates you need an appointment at the MVA. Bring a letter on state veterans department letterhead showing your rating. Separately, a veteran with an honorable or general discharge can add the Veteran designation to a driver's license or ID at no cost, as long as nothing else on the card is being changed.

People search for this often, and we found no veteran toll benefit in what the state publishes. The fee exemption in state law for disabled veterans covers vehicle registration, and the toll authority's page of discount plans lists nothing for veterans.

What that page does list is open to drivers with a Maryland E-ZPass: discount plans for the Baltimore region, the Bay Bridge, the Nice/Middleton Bridge and the Hatem Bridge. They are available for all two-axle vehicles, and if you cross one of those often they are worth a look.

The licenses are for Maryland residents who are 100% service-connected disabled veterans, former prisoners of war, or deemed unemployable by the VA, so a TDIU award counts. Both are complimentary and for life. The fishing license bundles the non-tidal license, trout stamp, Chesapeake Bay sport fishing license and recreational oyster license. The hunting license includes the bow, muzzleloader and sika deer stamps and the furbearer permit; the migratory game bird stamps are not part of it and are needed each year. You apply with a letter of disability or certification from the VA; the hunting license is issued only at a DNR Licensing and Registration Service Center.

Below that the state lists one discount: a Maryland veteran with a Purple Heart gets 50 percent off Maryland hunting and fishing licenses.

State parks ask for no rating at all. All day-use entrance charges are waived for every veteran, resident or not. The waiver covers you alone unless the park charges per vehicle, in which case the per-vehicle fee is waived. To bring the family everywhere, the annual State Park and Trail Passport is $75 for residents and covers everyone in the vehicle. Visitors with a disability can also apply for the Universal Disability Pass, a free lifetime pass that covers one companion.

The Edward T. and Mary A. Conroy Memorial Scholarship is the one to know. You qualify yourself with a service-connected disability of 25% or greater, once you have exhausted or are no longer eligible for federal veterans' education benefits. Your son, daughter or stepchild qualifies if you have a 100% permanent service-connected disability, and so does a surviving spouse who has not remarried. You must be a Maryland resident when you apply.

The maximum award for 2025-2026 was $13,689, and it cannot exceed tuition and mandatory fees. Awards depend on available funds, and for 2026-2027 the state gives each college its own allocation, so apply through your school's financial aid office by July 15. It can be held for five years of full-time study.

Two more are open without a rating. An honorably discharged veteran who lives in Maryland is exempt from nonresident tuition at public colleges. And the Veterans of Afghanistan and Iraq Conflicts Scholarship helps Maryland residents who served there, and their spouses and children, with an undergraduate award capped at 50% of tuition, mandatory fees and room and board at the costliest University System of Maryland campus the rule counts. Funds may not stretch to every eligible student.

A veteran with an honorable discharge gets 10 points added to the score on a state selection test, provided the score is already passing. The same 10 points go to the spouse of a veteran with a service-connected disability and to a veteran's surviving spouse. Former prisoners of war get two more. Current state employees, and veterans convicted of a crime after leaving the service, do not get the credit.

The stronger benefit is for veterans the VA rates at a compensable 30% or higher. If a manager elects to hire from the state's certified list of disabled veterans, you may be selected without a competitive selection process. You need to be minimally qualified for the job and able to do it with or without a reasonable accommodation, and it is not open to someone who already holds a permanent state appointment. Apply through the state's online employment center under Certified Disabled Veterans.