Kansas delivers its property tax break for service-connected disabled veterans as a refund rather than as a homestead exemption, and that refund opens at a 50% rating. That refund is claimed on Form K-40SVR with the Kansas Department of Revenue, and it returns the amount your homestead property tax has climbed above a baseline year.

That distinction is worth sitting with, because it changes how you plan around the benefit. In a county where valuations keep climbing, the growth above your base year can come to real money, but only if you claim it.

In This Guide

Is There a Kansas Disabled Veteran Property Tax Exemption?

A homestead exemption lifts a slice of assessed value off the tax roll before your bill is calculated, and that's the shape of benefit most veterans expect when they start searching. Kansas takes a different route: the Kansas Department of Revenue delivers the state's break for service-connected disabled veterans as a refund of property tax rather than as an exemption from it.

What exists instead sits in the Homestead Property Tax Refund Act. A service-connected disabled veteran files a Property Tax Relief Claim for Seniors and Disabled Veterans, Form K-40SVR, with the Kansas Department of Revenue, and the state refunds the difference between the claimant's homestead property-tax amount for the current year and the amount for the claimant's base year. The computation is written into K.S.A. 79-4508a, which deducts your base-year tax amount from the tax amount for the year you are claiming.

The pool of Kansans this could reach is not small. VA's National Center for Veterans Analysis and Statistics estimates Kansas's veteran population at 177,701 for 2024, down from 184,213 in 2022, a figure produced by VA's Veteran Population Projection Model rather than a head count, while the Census Bureau's separate estimate for 2020 through 2024 runs lower at 151,597. The Census Bureau cautions that "estimates from different sources are not comparable," so the two series shouldn't be reconciled or averaged, but either way it's a substantial group, and the K-40SVR track is open to the portion of it holding a service-connected evaluation percentage of 50% or higher.

Who Counts as a Disabled Veteran Under Kansas Law

Kansas writes its own definition, and it asks for more than simply holding a VA rating. Under the Homestead Property Tax Refund Act, a disabled veteran is a Kansas resident who was discharged under an honorable discharge or a general discharge under honorable conditions and who has a service-connected evaluation percentage equal to or greater than 50%. That threshold traces to the definitions in K.S.A. 79-4502, which points at the federal rating authorities in Title 38 and Title 10.

Two money tests sit alongside the rating test. For the 2025 claim year, the claimant's household income must be $58,041 or less, and the home cannot be appraised at more than $350,000 in the base year. One wrinkle is worth flagging before you measure yourself against that income line: the governing statute, K.S.A. 79-4508a, states a household-income limit of $50,000, while $58,041 is the figure the Department of Revenue applied for 2025 claims. Because the two numbers differ, look up the limit the department publishes for the year you're actually claiming rather than assuming either figure carries forward.

If any one of those three tests fails, the disabled-veteran track closes, but Kansas has two other property-tax refunds with different doors, covered below and in our guide to Kansas senior property tax relief.

How Much the K-40SVR Refund Is Worth

The size of this refund comes out of a subtraction, which is what makes it hard to quote in advance. The refund is the difference between the claimant's homestead property tax for the current year and the amount for the base year, so what it's worth depends entirely on how much your own tax bill has grown above your base-year amount.

A worked example (hypothetical) shows the mechanic. Suppose your base-year homestead property tax was $2,400 and the tax for the year you're claiming is $2,850. The refund would be $450, the amount by which the current-year tax exceeds the base-year amount. Those figures are illustrative only, not a promise about your own claim.

Two consequences follow from that design. A veteran whose tax has barely moved gets a small refund, while one in a fast-appreciating county gets a larger one. And because the award tracks your tax history rather than your rating, a veteran rated 100% is refunded on the same formula as one rated 50%.

Kansas Disabled Veteran Property Tax Exemption vs. the State's Other Two Refunds

Since the Kansas break arrives as a refund rather than as the homestead exemption people search for, the practical question becomes which of the three Kansas refunds pays you the most. All three run through the Kansas Department of Revenue, and a homeowner may claim only one of them in a year, whichever gives the larger benefit.

Program Main door Income limit What you get
Senior or Disabled Veteran, Form K-40SVR Disabled veteran with a rating of 50% or higher, or a claimant 65 or older; home appraised at $350,000 or less in the base year $58,041 or less for 2025 claims Refund of the property-tax increase above your base year
SAFESR ("Safe Senior"), Form K-40PT Homeowners 65 or older for the whole claim year; home valued at $350,000 or less $25,380 or less 75% of the property taxes actually and timely paid
Homestead Refund, Form K-40H Homeowners 55 or older, or disabled, blind, a disabled veteran, or with a dependent child $43,389 or less Maximum refund of $700

For a disabled veteran on a modest income, the comparison is rarely obvious on paper. SAFESR returns a flat 75% of taxes paid but admits only the lowest incomes, while the K-40SVR refund reaches incomes more than twice as high and pays only the increase above your base year. Run both numbers before you pick, because the choice is an annual one and you can't double up. And check each of these income limits against what the department publishes for the year you're actually claiming.

How to File Form K-40SVR

Filing is the whole mechanism here. The refund reaches a veteran through a claim submitted to the Kansas Department of Revenue on Form K-40SVR, the Property Tax Relief Claim for Seniors and Disabled Veterans. The three programs compared above are all administered by the Kansas Department of Revenue and claimed annually. Here's how that sequence generally goes.

1
Step 1

Pull your VA rating decision

Kansas asks for a service-connected evaluation percentage equal to or greater than 50%, along with Kansas residency and a discharge under an honorable discharge or a general discharge under honorable conditions, so your rating decision and discharge paperwork are the papers to have in front of you when you sit down with the form. The department's own Property Tax Relief claim form (K-40SVR) is where to confirm what it wants submitted with the claim.

2
Step 2

Gather your property-tax and income records

The refund is computed from your current-year and base-year homestead tax amounts, and your household income for the year decides whether you clear the $58,041 limit that applied to 2025 claims.

3
Step 3

File Form K-40SVR with the Kansas Department of Revenue

The form's full name on the state's paperwork is the Property Tax Relief Claim for Seniors and Disabled Veterans, and the department is where the claim is submitted. Kansas property-tax refund claims are due April 15.

On the federal side of your paperwork, the Kansas Office of Veterans Services can assist with filing VA claims, including non-service-connected pension benefits, through trained and accredited Veteran Service Representatives at field offices across the state. That office is the one to call when it's the federal paperwork you're stuck on, and two things about it are worth knowing before you dial. The Kansas Office of Veterans Services' remote and virtual claims assistance page states that all services are provided for no charge between the hours of 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM, and that claims counseling, development, and processing can be completed from the comfort of your home by video conference or telephone. That second point is the one to lean on if getting to a field office is hard. The Kansas Office of Veterans Services main line is (785) 296-3976. On cost, the VA notes separately that an accredited veterans service organization representative never charges for work on your VA benefit claims, while an accredited attorney or claims agent can charge fees.

What Happens to a Surviving Spouse

The benefit doesn't end at the veteran's death. A surviving spouse of a disabled veteran who was receiving these benefits at the time of the veteran's death remains eligible to continue receiving them until he or she remarries. That carryover is written into K.S.A. 79-4508a alongside the parallel rule for the surviving spouse of a claimant 65 or older.

The two Kansas authorities describe the carryover a little differently, and the difference matters if you're the one who's widowed. The statute frames it as continuing a benefit the veteran was already receiving when he or she died, while the Department of Revenue's K-40SVR FAQ states that surviving spouses of deceased disabled veterans are also eligible to claim the refund and remain eligible until such time as they remarry, without naming that condition. So if your spouse died without ever having filed a K-40SVR, don't rule yourself out on your own reading of the statute. The Kansas Department of Revenue administers the program and is the office to put the question to.

How It Works With Your VA Benefits

This refund is claimed on Form K-40SVR with the Kansas Department of Revenue, under the Homestead Property Tax Refund Act. Your VA disability compensation is a federal benefit you claim with the VA. Two offices, two applications, two bodies of law.

Where the two do touch is VA Aid and Attendance, the pension add-on for veterans who need help with daily activities. From December 1, 2025 through November 30, 2026, the maximum Aid and Attendance pension is $29,093 a year for a veteran with no dependents and $34,488 a year for a veteran with one dependent, paid in monthly twelfths. Those maximums are ceilings, not payments: VA pays the difference between your income for VA purposes and that limit, so a household with countable income receives less than the maximum. Aid and Attendance is needs-based: over that same December 1, 2025 through November 30, 2026 window the net worth limit is $163,699, counted across your assets, your annual income, and a spouse's net worth, and you have to need another person's help with activities such as bathing, dressing, or feeding. What doesn't count toward that limit: your primary residence, one personal vehicle, and basic household goods. The house you live in doesn't push you over it, and a mortgage comes off the asset side. The Kansas refund turns on your rating, your residency, your household income, and your homestead tax history. Because Aid and Attendance is needs-based on income and net worth, the careful move is to ask the VA or an accredited representative how a state property-tax refund is treated in your own pension calculation rather than assume it makes no difference.

Our Kansas Aid and Attendance guide covers the federal side in full, and VA benefits for senior care in Kansas shows how these pieces fit with health care and the state veterans homes. If you are weighing a move, the national disabled veteran property tax exemption by state directory surveys what other states offer.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does Kansas exempt 100% disabled veterans from property tax?

Kansas's relief for service-connected disabled veterans arrives as the K-40SVR refund rather than as a homestead exemption, and that holds at a 100% rating just as it does at 50%. That refund opens at a service-connected evaluation percentage of 50% or higher and is computed from the growth in your homestead tax above a base year, so the size of the refund turns on your tax history rather than on how high your rating is.

Can I claim SAFESR and the disabled veteran refund in the same year?

No. A Kansas homeowner may claim only one of the three property-tax refund programs per year, whichever gives the larger benefit. Compare them before you file: SAFESR returns 75% of taxes paid but caps household income at $25,380, while the K-40SVR refund allowed income up to $58,041 for 2025 claims and pays the increase above your base year. Check the SAFESR cap the department publishes for the year you're claiming rather than assuming $25,380 still holds.

My rating is below 50%. Is there anything for me?

Not on the disabled-veteran track, which requires a service-connected evaluation percentage equal to or greater than 50%. Kansas's other two refunds reach homeowners through different doors, including age 55 or older for the Homestead Refund and 65 or older for SAFESR, so check whether one of those fits your household.

Where do I file, and by when?

Form K-40SVR, the Property Tax Relief Claim for Seniors and Disabled Veterans, goes to the Kansas Department of Revenue. Kansas property-tax refund claims are filed with the department by April 15, on the same annual rhythm as your income tax return.

Who do I ask about the K-40SVR, and who helps with VA claims?

Form K-40SVR is filed with the Kansas Department of Revenue, so the department is the office to put questions about the refund to. Federal VA claims go through a different door: the Kansas Office of Veterans Services assists veterans with those, including non-service-connected pension benefits, and the Kansas Office of Veterans Services main line is (785) 296-3976. The filing section above has the rest of the detail on that office.

Learn More

VA BenefitsVA Aid and Attendance in KansasVA Aid and Attendance in Kansas for 2026: who qualifies, monthly rates up to $2,874, how to apply, and free help from the Kansas Office of Veterans Services. VA BenefitsVA Benefits You Can Use for Senior Care in KansasA complete guide to VA senior care benefits in Kansas: home care, nursing homes, Aid and Attendance, state veterans homes, and how to access them in 2026. FinancialKansas Senior Property Tax Relief: SAFESR and HomesteadKansas seniors 65+ with income under $25,380 get 75% of property taxes back through SAFESR. The Homestead Refund has six routes in, two with no age test at all. VA BenefitsDisabled Veteran Property Tax Exemption by StateMost states fully or partially exempt a service-connected disabled veteran's home from property tax. See how the three models work and find your state. VA BenefitsVA Benefits for Senior Care: A Complete GuideA complete guide to VA benefits for senior care: long-term care, Aid and Attendance, pensions, DIC, and home grants for older veterans and surviving spouses.

Find personalized help with Kansas disabled veteran property tax relief at brevy.com.

The information on Brevy.com is for educational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional legal, financial, or medical advice. Rules vary by state and program and change frequently. Always verify with the relevant agency or a qualified professional. Brevy is not a law firm, financial advisor, or healthcare provider.

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