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Gold Star Parents and Spouses Pay No Plate Fee — and the Licence Designation Is Free

Surviving spouses and parents of a servicemember killed during a recognised war period do not pay the specialty plate fees on the Gold Star Family plate. Adding the veteran designation to a new or renewed driver licence costs nothing; a duplicate costs $15.

Verified August 27, 2026

What this benefit is

What it's worth: No specialty plate fee for a Gold Star surviving spouse or parent; no charge for the licence designation, $15 for a duplicate

Idaho Code 49-403 sets the disabled veteran plate threshold as 100% service-connected compensation, or the loss or permanent loss of use of feet or hands, or blindness.
That section also gives free registration of one vehicle — which is worth more than the plate itself and is the part most often missed.
The thresholds are alternatives: loss of use or blindness qualifies without a 100% rating.

Who is entitled to it

Veterans take the designation; surviving spouses and parents take the plate without the specialty fee.
Your home is in this state.

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

1Pick the right form. The division publishes separate forms for standard military plates, for disability veteran and Purple Heart plates, for Purple Heart alone, and for the military specialty plates that include Gold Star Family, National Guard and reservist.
2If you are a Gold Star surviving spouse or parent, say so explicitly — the fee waiver is written for those two relationships and not for Gold Star relatives generally.
3Time the veteran designation with a renewal. It is free on a new or renewed licence and $15 on a duplicate, so asking early costs money for nothing.
4Bring discharge documentation for the designation and for the branch or campaign plates.

Form: The transportation department’s military plate forms, by plate category
File with: The transportation department, through a county assessor’s motor vehicle office
Documents you will need: dd214
At each renewal: Claimed again whenever the underlying licence or registration renews.

CorrectionThe Gold Star plate fee waiver is narrow. It is published for surviving spouses and parents; other immediate family can hold the plate but pay for it, with part of the fee going to veterans programmes.

CorrectionThe waiver reaches STEPPARENTS as well as parents. §49-403B(4) names the spouse, parent or stepparent. Summaries that stop at "spouses and parents" leave a stepparent paying $35 to start and $25 a year for a plate the subsection gives them free.

Worth knowingThe verification form is submitted to the Division of Veterans Services, not to the transportation department, and it is division staff who sign the eligibility attestation before the plate can be ordered.

Worth knowingThe free designation is free only at the right moment. On a new or renewed licence it costs nothing; requested between renewals it is a $15 duplicate.

Known gapThe statutory citation and the Gold Star fee figures were filled in on 23 August 2026 from the division's own verification form, which quotes §49-403B(4) and (5). Still open: the disability threshold for the disability veteran plate, and the transportation department's full special-plate fee table. The legislature's own host remains unreachable, so §49-403B has not been read in its official text.

Sources

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