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Veterans Business Certificate of Exemption — Ten Years, No Local Occupation Tax

A certificate exempting a disabled veteran from any occupation tax, administrative fee or regulatory fee a local government charges for peddling, conducting a business, or practising a profession — for ten years. The gate is a 10% rating.

Verified August 22, 2026

What this benefit is

A certificate exempting a disabled veteran from any occupation tax, administrative fee or regulatory fee a local government charges for peddling, conducting a business, or practising a profession — for ten years. The gate is a 10% rating.

What it's worth: Ten years free of local occupation tax and of local administrative and regulatory fees

  • The amount saved depends on your city or county — occupation tax schedules are local and vary widely, so we carry no figure.
  • The exemption runs for ten years from issue.

Who is entitled to it

  • You were discharged under honorable conditions.
  • Your service-connected rating is 10% or more.
  • Your home is in Georgia.

Not sure whether that describes you?

Answer a few questions about this benefit specifically — we only ask what this one actually depends on, and we stop as soon as we know.

How to claim it

  1. 1Complete VS Form 40-025 and take it, with your ID card, your DD-214 and your VA Summary of Benefits letter, to your county probate court.
  2. 2Some counties also ask for VS Form 40-026 — ring the probate court before you drive over.
  3. 3The clerk of the probate court provides a notarised letter or affidavit from the judge; register that with your county tax commissioner.
  4. 4Budget for state licence taxes separately. The exemption removes local occupation tax and local administrative and regulatory fees; it is not a state professional licence.
Form
VS Form 40-025 — Application for a Veterans Business Certificate of Exemption
File with
Your county probate court
Documents you will need
dd214 · va benefit summary letter
Periodic recertification
Confirmed at intervals rather than annually.
CorrectionThis is not a licence fee discount. It is an exemption from the local occupation tax and from the administrative and regulatory fees a city or county charges to trade there — the recurring cost of being in business, removed for ten years. A veteran who reads "certificate of exemption" as a licensing thing and files it with a state board will get nowhere; it goes to the probate court.
Worth knowingThe rating gate is low by the standards of this corpus. Ten percent, with a discharge under honorable conditions, is the whole test — no wartime period, no age, no income limit.
Known gapThe official Georgia code is published behind a commercial platform we could not read this session, so §§43-12-1 to 43-12-3 are cited as the veterans department names them rather than quoted. The department’s pages carry the eligibility and the ten-year term in terms.

Sources

This finder provides an informational match, not a government eligibility determination. The responsible agency decides your application.