Disabled Veteran Benefits in Minnesota

Minnesota does not exempt the whole home. It runs a market value exclusion: part of your home's value is left out when the tax is figured, which may reduce the bill. With a rating of 70% or higher, $150,000 of market value is excluded. With a total (100%) and permanent rating, $300,000 is excluded.

You need an honorable discharge, and you must own and occupy the home as your homestead on December 31. Apply to your county assessor's office by December 31 to qualify for taxes payable the next year. A home with this exclusion does not also get the regular homestead exclusion.

It reaches past the veteran. The surviving spouse of a 100% permanent and total veteran may keep the $300,000 exclusion until they remarry, transfer or dispose of the property. If you meet the rating but own no homestead, the home of your VA-approved primary family caregiver can take the exclusion you would have qualified for.

Everything here turns on one definition. Minnesota law calls it a veteran with a total service-connected disability, and defines that as a 100% total and permanent rating. The definition asks for both words: total and permanent.

If you qualify, your car, one-ton pickup, motorcycle or recreational vehicle is not subject to registration taxes, filing fees, or plate and sticker fees. The exemption covers two vehicles at a time, including one registered jointly with a spouse or domestic partner. Personalized plate fees are still yours to pay.

The same rating waives the fee for a driver's license or state ID card, and buying a vehicle is exempt from the motor vehicle sales tax. You can also ask for the Veteran 100% T&P designation on your license or ID.

Minnesota lets you subtract military retirement pay, including pensions, from your Minnesota taxable income. It covers retirement pay for service in the active and reserve components and Survivor Benefit Plan payments. A pension earned only as a dual-status technician does not qualify.

There is a second route for smaller incomes: the Credit for Past Military Service, a nonrefundable credit of up to $750. Your Minnesota adjusted gross income must be less than $37,500, and one of three things must be true: you served at least 20 years, you are rated 100% total and permanent, or you were honorably discharged and receive a military pension. So a 100% total and permanent veteran with no military pension can still claim it.

You cannot take both. VA disability compensation is also left out of household income when you apply for the Minnesota property tax refund.

The park permit has the lowest bar on this page. Minnesota issues an annual park permit at no charge to a veteran with any level of service-connected disability. Show your VA determination letter or VA health care ID and a photo ID at a staffed state park ranger station or the DNR license center in St. Paul. You show it again each year.

Fishing and hunting need 100%. A resident veteran with a 100% service-connected disability gets a permanent fishing license without a fee, plus free licenses to take deer and small game.

Camping goes by a different test, not your VA rating. The half-price campsite rate, Sunday through Thursday nights, is for Minnesota residents with physical disabilities, and to qualify you need a Federal Access Pass or a Minnesota disability plate or hang tag.

This is state law, not a city program, and it has no percentage in it. A veteran certified as disabled rides free, and the law defines that as certified in writing by the VA or the state commissioner of veterans affairs as having a permanent service-connected disability.

It applies in two places. In the Twin Cities metro, the Metropolitan Council must provide regular route transit free of charge. Outside the metro, a system that receives state operating assistance must provide fixed route service free on the same terms. The word that matters is permanent.

For the veteran, the state program is the Minnesota GI Bill. It pays what is left of your cost of attendance after the Pell Grant, the state grant and federal veterans education benefits are subtracted, on a funds-available basis. The cap is $5,000 per state fiscal year and $15,000 in a lifetime. A veteran who served honorably and is a Minnesota resident can apply, and VA disability pay is not subtracted.

Your rating matters for your family. The spouse or child of a veteran with a total and permanent service-connected disability is eligible in their own right if they are eligible for federal education benefits under chapter 33 or chapter 35.

State colleges and universities must also treat a veteran as a Minnesota resident for undergraduate tuition. The children and spouse of a veteran who died as a result of military service are admitted to Minnesota public institutions free of tuition and get a $750 yearly stipend, both until they have a bachelor's degree.

The preference works differently for state and local jobs. For a state job, applicants who meet the minimum qualifications and claim disabled veteran's preference are listed ahead of all other applicants; other veterans come next, ahead of nonveterans. For a county, city, town or school district job, points are added to a passing score on a competitive open examination: ten points for a nondisabled veteran and 15 points for a disabled veteran.

In both cases a disabled veteran means a veteran with a compensable service-connected disability, with no higher percentage to reach. On a local promotional exam, five points go to a veteran with a permanent disability rated 50% or more who is applying for a first promotion.

The rating that opens a different door is 30%. When a classified state job is vacant, the agency may appoint a disabled veteran on a noncompetitive basis if the veteran is rated at least 30%, meets the minimum qualifications, and has federal certification of the disability issued within the year before the appointment. It is the agency's choice, not a guarantee, so ask for it by name.