Mississippi Disabled Veteran Property Tax Exemption: No Cap in 2026

A Mississippi veteran who qualifies owes no ad valorem property tax on the homestead at all: the state's disabled veteran exemption clears the full assessed value, not a capped dollar amount. Mississippi writes that eligibility test as a service-connected, total disability rather than as a printed rating percentage.1

Timing decides as much as eligibility does. The Mississippi disabled veteran property tax exemption is claimed by applying for homestead exemption, and applications are taken at your county Tax Assessor's office only between January 1 and April 1 of each year, so a veteran whose rating decision arrives in May waits for the next window to open.1

In This Guide

• Key Takeaways
• Who Qualifies for the Mississippi Disabled Veteran Property Tax Exemption
• What the Mississippi Disabled Veteran Property Tax Exemption Actually Removes
• Filing Between January 1 and April 1
• Surviving Spouses and the Mississippi Veteran Property Tax Exemption
• How This Sits Alongside Your Federal VA Benefits
• Frequently Asked Questions
• Learn More

Who Qualifies for the Mississippi Disabled Veteran Property Tax Exemption

Mississippi's test has three parts, and each is worth reading in the state's own words rather than in the shorthand people use for it.

First, the disability. The statute and the Mississippi Department of Revenue homestead exemption rules both describe the qualifying applicant as having a "service-connected, total disability as an American veteran."1 Notice what that phrasing does and does not say. Mississippi writes the eligibility standard as total disability, not as a printed rating percentage, which is why comparison charts that reduce every state to a single number can mislead you here. If you carry a total service-connected rating from the VA, your rating decision is the document that speaks to that condition.

Second, the discharge. The veteran must have been honorably discharged from military service.1 That is a second, separate condition in the statute, sitting alongside the disability test rather than folded into it. If you aren't sure how your own discharge is characterized, or what your county will want to see as proof of it, a Mississippi Veterans Affairs Service Officer can look at your paperwork before the filing window opens, free of charge.2

Third, the property. This is a homestead exemption: the statute exempts ad valorem taxes on the assessed value of homestead property, and you claim it by applying for homestead exemption with your county Tax Assessor.1 Which property the county recognizes as your homestead is decided by that office under the state's homestead rules.

Plenty of Mississippi households have reason to run this test. Mississippi counted 179,985 veterans as of FY2024, and 41.3% of them are age 65 and over, per the VA's National Center for Veterans Analysis and Statistics.3 That older share is exactly the group most likely to be on a fixed income and living in a home they have owned for decades.

What the Mississippi Disabled Veteran Property Tax Exemption Actually Removes

Mississippi's ad valorem property tax is charged on a property's assessed value. Under Section 27-33-67 the qualifying homeowner is exempt from all ad valorem taxes on the assessed value of the homestead property, a complete exemption on the qualifying homestead rather than a capped dollar amount.1

Two practical consequences follow from that structure.

The savings are proportional, not flat. Because the exemption clears the whole assessed value of the homestead instead of a set number of dollars, it is worth more on a home with a higher assessed value than on a modest one. That is also why no single statewide dollar figure describes it: the amount is whatever ad valorem tax the homestead would otherwise carry.

And the benefit does not shrink as your home appreciates. A capped exemption erodes over time as values rise. A total exemption on the homestead does not, which makes it one of the more durable pieces of financial relief a disabled Mississippi veteran can hold.

Mississippi's homestead exemption sorts applicants into classifications, and the service-connected, totally disabled veteran classification described here is one of them.1 A separate homestead break covers Mississippi homeowners who are 65 or older, or who are totally disabled, and are otherwise eligible for homestead exemption: it exempts the first $75,000 of true value on the home, and because residential property is assessed at 10 percent of true value, that $75,000 of true value corresponds to $7,500 of assessed value.4 Read against the veteran classification, which clears the assessed value of the homestead in full, $7,500 of assessed value is a fixed slice. If a VA rating isn't part of your situation but age or total disability is, our guide to senior property tax relief in Mississippi covers that path instead.

Filing Between January 1 and April 1

You claim this exemption by applying for it. Homestead exemption applications are accepted in the county Tax Assessor's office during normal business hours, and only between January 1 and April 1 of each year.1

If you're unsure how to document a rating, or which office to walk into, Mississippi Veterans Affairs has trained Service Officers located throughout the state to help veterans and their families find and apply for benefits under federal, state, and local laws, and all of their services are provided free of charge.2 The agency's main office is the War Memorial Building at 120 North State Street in Jackson, with Veterans Benefits Offices in its Northern and Southern districts and county listings running from Adams County to Yazoo County.2

There is a quality check built into that network. County Veterans Service Officers must be certified by Mississippi Veterans Affairs, which requires annual training and a written examination, and none is entitled to compensation for their service unless annually certified.2 The person helping you file has to re-earn that certification every year.

Surviving Spouses and the Mississippi Veteran Property Tax Exemption

The exemption does not die with the veteran. Mississippi extends it to the unremarried surviving spouse of a qualifying veteran, and the Department of Revenue lists unremarried surviving spouses alongside veterans in the same classification of applicants.1

The modifier is not decoration. The carryover runs to the unremarried surviving spouse, so remarriage is the event that ends it, and a family planning years ahead should know that before it becomes a surprise.

The filing calendar is worth planning around here too. The same January 1 to April 1 window applies at the county Tax Assessor's office,1 so for a family widowed in June, the next application window opens the following January.

How This Sits Alongside Your Federal VA Benefits

Families ask, reasonably, how a state tax break sits with what the VA pays them. Start with what the two things are. Mississippi's exemption is created and administered under state law and is a separate program from the federal VA's disability compensation and Veterans Pension benefits; it is claimed by applying for homestead exemption with your county Tax Assessor.1 It removes ad valorem tax you would otherwise owe on your homestead rather than paying you a federal benefit.

Be careful about generalizing from there, though, because the VA's disability compensation and the VA's pension are different benefits with different rules. Pension has financial eligibility tests of its own, including a net worth limit and a review of assets transferred in the three years before a claim.5 If a needs-based benefit is part of your household's picture, that is a question to put to a Mississippi Veterans Affairs Service Officer, whose services are provided free of charge, about your own circumstances rather than to settle from a general rule.2

VA Aid and Attendance is a higher pension rate for veterans who need another person's help with daily activities like bathing, dressing, or feeding. VA sets it as the highest of three maximum annual pension rates, above the basic pension rate and the Housebound rate, rather than as an amount added on top of them.6 Because it is paid as part of a pension claim, it carries the pension eligibility rules above, plus wartime service and a need for aid and attendance under the criteria at 38 CFR 3.352(a).5

The property tax exemption, by contrast, turns on a service-connected total disability, an honorable discharge, and a homestead, and it is claimed with the county Tax Assessor under Mississippi law.1 Different government, different rules, different office.

For the federal side in full, our Mississippi Aid and Attendance guide covers eligibility, the current rates, and how to file, and our overview of VA benefits for senior care in Mississippi shows how the pieces fit together with VA health care and the state's veterans homes.

If you're comparing what different states offer a disabled veteran, the national disabled veteran property tax exemption by state directory lines them up side by side, and Mississippi's complete exemption on the qualifying homestead is a useful benchmark to read the others against.

Learn More

Find personalized help claiming the Mississippi disabled veteran property tax exemption 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.