Nebraska Disabled Veteran Property Tax Exemption: 100% Exempt (2026)

In Nebraska, a 100 percent service-connected permanent disability rating can lift the property tax off your home entirely, with no income test and no cap on what the house is worth. That break is Category 4V of the Nebraska homestead exemption, written into Neb. Rev. Stat. 77-3506 and granted by your county assessor rather than by the VA.1

Nebraska runs one homestead exemption program with several categories, and Category 4V is the one for disabled veterans.1 The age-65 category turns on household income and caps what the home can be worth, sliding the exemption down as income rises.2 Category 4V doesn't. If you qualify on your rating, your household income and your home's assessed value stop mattering.1

In This Guide

• Key Takeaways
• Do You Qualify for the Nebraska Disabled Veteran Property Tax Exemption?
• What the Nebraska Disabled Veteran Property Tax Exemption Is Worth
• If You Move Into a Nursing Home or Assisted Living
• What a Surviving Spouse Keeps
• How to Apply for the Nebraska Disabled Veteran Property Tax Exemption (Form 458)
• How This Sits Alongside Your VA Benefits
• Frequently Asked Questions
• Learn More

Do You Qualify for the Nebraska Disabled Veteran Property Tax Exemption?

Two things decide this: what the VA has determined about your disability, and what your discharge paperwork says.

On the rating side, the Nebraska Department of Revenue's Category 4V has two doors into it. The first is a 100 percent service-connected permanent disability. The second is a service-connected rating below 100 percent paired with a 100 percent individual unemployability (IU) rating, which the statute describes as the assignment of a total disability rating for compensation pursuant to 38 C.F.R. 4.16.1

On the service side, the statute is specific. You must have been discharged or otherwise separated with a characterization of honorable or general (under honorable conditions), and you must be drawing compensation from the VA because of the qualifying disability.1 A rating on paper isn't enough on its own; Nebraska ties the exemption to compensation you actually receive. The rating's effective date has to be on or before January 1 of the year you apply.1

If your 100 percent rating is temporary, you have your own route. Neb. Rev. Stat. 77-3506(2) sets out six routes, not one, and subsection (2)(c) is Category 7: the same discharge and compensation test, for a veteran drawing VA compensation because of a 100 percent service-connected temporary disability.1 A temporarily rated veteran is measured against that route, not against the permanent-disability one, so a temporary rating is not a reason to skip the application.

One group is pointed somewhere better rather than into 4V. The statute writes Category 4V for a veteran "who is not eligible for total exemption under sections 77-3526 to 77-3528", the separate total exemption the Department describes as Category 5, for qualified paraplegic or multiple amputee veterans whose homestead is substantially contributed to by the VA.1 If that describes you, ask the assessor about Category 5.

The exemption is claimed on the veteran's homestead, and the Nebraska Department of Revenue and county assessors administer it, so your county assessor's office is where a question about a particular property gets answered.1

If your situation turns on age and income instead of a service-connected rating, you're looking at a different category of the same program. Our guide to Nebraska senior property tax relief covers that track.

What the Nebraska Disabled Veteran Property Tax Exemption Is Worth

Nebraska's statute states it plainly: a qualifying homestead is exempt from taxation as to 100 percent of the exempt amount.1 For a veteran who qualifies under Category 4V, the practical result is a fully exempt homestead, regardless of what you earn or what the county says your house is worth.1

Set against the age-65 category, the difference is in which tests apply.

The value cap works differently in the two categories. A senior on the age-65 track has to keep the home at or below the county's maximum value, the greater of 200 percent of the county's average assessed value for single-family homes or $95,000.2 Category 4V has no homestead value limit at all, so a reassessment that lifts your neighborhood doesn't reach you.1

If You Move Into a Nursing Home or Assisted Living

Nebraska's word "homestead" is a defined term, and the definition is a condition: "a residence or mobile home, and the land surrounding it, not exceeding one acre, in this state actually occupied by a natural person who is the owner of record from January 1 through August 15 each year."1 Read cold, that sounds like a veteran who enters care loses the exemption on the house they still own. That is not how the Department applies it.

The Department states that "if the applicant is not occupying their residence due to health reasons or legal duty, the occupancy requirement may continue to be met if owner demonstrates an intention to return to the property," and it names "a stay in a nursing or assisted-living facility" as an example of not occupying a homestead due to health reasons.1 The indicators it looks at include "whether the homestead's furnishings are left in place and the homestead has not been sold, leased, or rented."1

There is no clock on it. The Department is explicit that "there is no limitation for how long the applicant can be away from their residence for health reasons or legal duty if the above two conditions are met."1 So a veteran in long-term care who keeps the house furnished, unsold and unrented, and who intends to return, can keep claiming the exemption. Renting the house out is the move that puts it at risk.

What a Surviving Spouse Keeps

The exemption can carry past the veteran's death, and the statute is more generous here than most families expect. Neb. Rev. Stat. 77-3506(2) provides four surviving-spouse routes, which the Department groups as Category 4S: the unremarried surviving spouse, or a surviving spouse who remarried after attaining the age of 57, of a Category 4V veteran; of "any veteran ... who died because of a service-connected disability"; of a servicemember "whose death while on active duty was service-connected"; and of a servicemember who died while on active duty during the periods described in section 80-401.01.1

The last three of those need no disability rating on the veteran at all.1 A widow whose husband died of a service-connected illness, or on active duty, does not have to show that he ever held a 100 percent rating or ever claimed this exemption himself.

Remarriage is the line that costs it, and it carries a deadline. A surviving spouse granted the exemption who "remarries before attaining the age of fifty-seven years ... shall lose the homestead exemption" and "shall notify the county assessor of such remarriage within thirty days after the remarriage."1 A spouse who remarries on or before August 15 of the year of application, before turning 57, is ineligible for that year.1 If you have remarried, or expect to, the date belongs in the conversation with your county assessor's office.

How to Apply for the Nebraska Disabled Veteran Property Tax Exemption (Form 458)

You claim the exemption yourself: the veteran files the Nebraska Homestead Exemption Application, Form 458, together with a VA certification of disability.1 The filing goes to your county assessor.2

You probably don't refile every year, and which rule applies depends on your category. The statute provides that an application "shall not be required in any subsequent year" for the Category 4V route and for three of the four surviving-spouse routes, while the temporary-disability route in subsection (2)(c) requires an annual application plus VA certification.1 The Department's guide puts the same point in operational terms: a Category 4V applicant "does not need to file a 2026 Form 458 unless there is a change in status or it is the first time a category 4V applicant applies," while Category 4S and Category 7 file annually.1 Ask your assessor which of these you are filing under before you skip a year.

You don't have to assemble this alone. The Nebraska Department of Veterans' Affairs State Service Office helps veterans and family members apply for state, federal, and other benefits through its accredited veterans service officers, including reviewing service records, determining benefit eligibility, and assisting with the accurate completion of forms, and the department states it will help you through the entire benefit process at no cost to you or your family.3 Separately, County Veterans Service Officers operate throughout the state, providing information on benefits and assisting with filing claims; they're employed by their respective counties rather than by the state, and the department publishes a directory and interactive map with each office's location, hours, and contact information.3

How This Sits Alongside Your VA Benefits

Where does Category 4V sit next to the money the VA already sends? Nebraska's own rules settle the structure. The Nebraska Department of Revenue and county assessors administer the homestead exemption, not the federal VA.1 It reduces what your county can tax on your home. It isn't a payment from the VA, and it sits alongside VA disability compensation and pension rather than replacing either.

The question gets sharper for veterans who also receive, or are weighing, VA Aid and Attendance, the pension add-on for veterans who need help with daily activities. In 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.4

Those are ceilings, not payments, and the difference catches families out. The VA bases the payment on the difference between your income for VA purposes and that maximum rate, so a veteran with countable income receives the maximum less that income rather than the full figure.4 Income for VA purposes is not gross income either: the VA may subtract deductible expenses, including medical expenses you are not reimbursed for, before it counts what you have.5 That subtraction is why a veteran paying out of pocket for care can have real income and still qualify.

Aid and Attendance is needs-based, with a 2026 net worth limit of $163,699 and a requirement that you need help with activities of daily living such as bathing, dressing, or feeding.5 That net worth figure counts your assets and your income together, and it includes your spouse's, but it leaves out the home you live in, your car, and basic home items, and it counts your property minus any mortgage against it.5

The practical note that follows is that the two benefits are tested on different things: the Nebraska exemption turns on your service-connected rating, your discharge, and your homestead,1 while a VA pension turns on wartime service, age or permanent and total disability, and net worth.5 Because pension is needs-based, a veteran drawing or applying for one should confirm their own case with the VA or an accredited service officer rather than reasoning from the property tax side.

For the federal side in detail, our Nebraska Aid and Attendance guide covers eligibility, rates, and filing, and our overview of VA benefits for senior care in Nebraska shows how these pieces fit with VA health care and the state's veterans homes. If you're comparing states, the national disabled veteran property tax exemption by state directory lines them up.

Learn More

Find personalized help claiming the Nebraska 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.