Indiana veteran benefits
- Verified veteran benefits
- 17
- each with its statute
- Counties covered
- 92
- every one has its own page
- Veterans in this state
- 0.36M
- Rating thresholds that matter
- 0
- each one opens something different
How to use this, in four steps
You are on step 1. Nothing is locked — browse everything first, then check the ones that look relevant.
See what you may be entitled to
Browse every verified benefit in your state. No questions, no account — everything is open.
Check whether you qualify
Open any benefit and answer a few questions about that one. We stop as soon as we know.
Get the letter that shows the finding
A VA Benefit Summary Letter configured to show service connection and permanence satisfies most offices without disclosing any diagnosis.
File before the deadline
The deadline for the main property tax relief is: January 5. File with your county auditor.
Which of these sounds like you?
Pick one and we will narrow the list. You can change or clear it at any point.
Two things sharpen this a lot
Both optional. Your county decides where you file and what a property tax exemption is actually worth; your rating decides which thresholds you cross.
Where do you live?
We use this once to work out your county, because property tax is decided county by county. No benefit is ever matched on a ZIP code alone.
Your VA disability status
What does my rating actually unlock?
Read the record for the test that actually applies in Indiana — several reliefs across this corpus turn on the words on your VA letter rather than on the number.
17 benefits worth checking
What you appear to qualify for — worth checking.
One question checks 13 of them. You can skip it and keep browsing.
Did you serve in the U.S. armed forces?
2 more questions could resolve others. We ask them one at a time.
The Golden Hoosier Passport — $25 a Year, and Free by Post for Former POWs
A $25 annual passport giving unlimited admission to Indiana's state-owned parks, recreation areas, reservoirs and forests, for veterans who meet the Disabled Hoosier Veteran plate criteria. Former prisoners of war receive the pass AUTOMATICALLY BY POST — they do not apply. Historic sites and museums are outside it.
VeteransApplies statewide$25 a year for unlimited state park entry — free and automatic for former POWs
Read it and check if you qualifyA No-Cost High School Diploma for the War That Interrupted School
Indiana issues a state high school diploma, at no cost, to an honorably discharged veteran who attended an Indiana high school in good standing and left before graduating to serve during the Second World War (7 December 1941 to 31 December 1946), Korea (27 June 1950 to 31 January 1955) or Vietnam (5 August 1964 to 7 May 1975).
VeteransApplies statewideA state high school diploma, at no cost
Read it and check if you qualifyIndiana Veterans Memorial Cemetery — No-Cost Burial at Madison
Burial at the Indiana Veterans Memorial Cemetery in Madison carries no charge for opening and closing the plot, the outer burial container, the monument, or use of the chapel. It takes veterans separated under conditions other than dishonorable, Guard members and reservists who die while serving, and active duty line-of-duty deaths. Casket burial, in-ground cremation, a columbarium and a scatter garden are all available.
VeteransApplies statewideNo charge for opening and closing, the outer burial container, the monument or the chapel
Read it and check if you qualifyThe Indiana Veterans' Home — Nursing, Rehabilitation and Memory Care
The Indiana Veterans' Home at West Lafayette provides long-term skilled nursing, short-term rehabilitation and MEMORY CARE for honorably discharged Indiana veterans. It participates in the federal State Home Per Diem programme and in the CMS Spousal Impoverishment Program — which protects the assets of the spouse who stays at home, and is the part families most need to know about.
VeteransApplies statewideSkilled nursing, short-term rehabilitation and memory care at West Lafayette
Read it and check if you qualifyIndiana Veteran Plates — Hoosier Veteran, Purple Heart, Ex-POW and Gold Star
Indiana issues a family of veteran plates through the BMV with eligibility verified by the veterans department. The Hoosier Veteran plate is $15 on production of a DD-214 showing honorable separation, with personalisation a further $45. The Gold Star plate is free. The Purple Heart and Ex-POW plates go to recipients and former prisoners of war. Two of the plates fund veterans programmes: POW-MIA proceeds go to the Veterans Assistance Trust Fund, and Support Our Troops proceeds to the Military Family Relief Fund.
VeteransApplies statewideHoosier Veteran plate $15; Gold Star free; Purple Heart and Ex-POW for recipients
Read it and check if you qualifyTuition and Fees Exempt for a Purple Heart Recipient
Indiana exempts a Purple Heart recipient from tuition and fees for up to 124 credit hours at Indiana public institutions — and pays up to $5,000 a year at private non-profits for students who graduated high school in 2023 or later. The Purple Heart is the whole gate; no disability rating is involved. Apply through ScholarTrack with a FAFSA every year.
VeteransApplies statewideTuition and fees for up to 124 credit hours, or $5,000 a year at a private non-profit
Read it and check if you qualifyMilitary Family Relief Fund — Emergency Grants up to $2,500
Indiana pays emergency grants for hardship expenses — housing, utilities, food, medical costs, transport — to a resident veteran or servicemember with an eligible discharge or separation code and demonstrated financial hardship. The LIFETIME maximum is $2,500, unless the Veterans Affairs Commission approves more. There is no disability requirement.
VeteransApplies statewideUp to $2,500 in a lifetime for hardship expenses
Read it and check if you qualifyThe County Burial Allowance — Up to $1,000, and Your County Sets the Figure
Indiana counties pay a burial allowance for a deceased Indiana-resident member of the armed forces. The statutory ceiling is up to $1,000, but the ACTUAL amount is set by county ordinance — Hamilton County publishes $500, which is itself the proof that the figure varies. Claims run through the County Veteran Service Officer to the board of commissioners. There is no disability requirement.
VeteransApplies statewideUp to $1,000 by statute — your county's ordinance sets the actual figure
Read it and check if you qualifyVeterans Preference in Indiana State Government Hiring
Indiana adds preference points in the State Merit System for a veteran applying for a merit position — and for PROMOTION, not only for initial hiring. The state veterans department's employment page does not state a disability requirement.
VeteransApplies statewidePreference points in the State Merit System, for hiring AND promotion
Read it and check if you qualifyA Vehicle Excise Tax Credit for Disabled Veterans Who Own No Qualifying Property
Indiana gives a credit against vehicle excise tax to a veteran with 90 or more days of service and an honorable discharge, holding a veterans department certificate of eligibility, who does NOT own property the disabled-veteran property tax deduction can be applied to. It exists precisely for the veteran who rents. A statute mirror shows the lesser of the excise due or $70 per vehicle, for up to two vehicles a registration year, claimed on State Form 52870 — but those figures could not be confirmed on an official page this session.
VeteransApplies statewideA credit against vehicle excise tax — a statute mirror shows $70 per vehicle, up to two
Read it and check if you qualifyIndiana Deducts Active and Reserve Military Pay
Indiana lets a resident deduct the actual amount of active or reserve military pay received. Combat-zone pay already exempt federally is not deducted twice. There is a SEPARATE deduction for Guard and reserve income earned on involuntary-order mobilisation, so a mobilised member should check both.
VeteransApplies statewideNot a veteran benefitThe actual amount of active or reserve military pay, deducted
Read it and check if you qualifyVeteran Property Tax Relief — The Whole Assessed Value at Total Disability, Credits Below It
Restructured by SEA 1-2025 for taxes payable in 2026. A totally disabled veteran with 90 days' service, an honorable discharge and a year's Indiana residence deducts the full assessed value of the principal residence. Below that tier the relief is a credit rather than a deduction: $350 for a wartime veteran rated 10% or more, and $250 for a veteran aged 62 or over with 90 days' service and a 10% rating. The two credits stack, and surviving spouses of those killed in action or who died on active duty may qualify.
VeteransApplies statewideThe full assessed value deducted at total disability; otherwise a $350 and/or $250 credit
Read it and check if you qualifyVend, Hawk or Peddle Without Paying Any Licence Fee
IC 25-25-2-1 lets an honorably discharged veteran vend, hawk or peddle goods, wares, fruits and merchandise WITHOUT paying any licence fee. There is no disability requirement and no income test. Apply through the county auditor or your local licensing authority.
VeteransApplies statewideNo licence fee at all to vend, hawk or peddle
Read it and check if you qualifyIndiana Deducts Military Retirement in Full
From tax year 2022 the deduction equals the entire amount of military retirement income and survivor benefits.
VeteransApplies statewideThe whole of your military retirement and survivor benefits, deducted
Read it and check if you qualifyTuition and Fee Exemption — Children of Disabled Veterans, POWs, MIAs and Purple Heart Recipients
Up to 100% of tuition and fees for 124 credit hours — but if your parent enlisted after 1 July 2011 the coverage is 20% plus their disability rating. Eligibility is wider than disability alone: children of veterans with hazardous peacetime duty carrying a service or campaign medal and a service-connected rating, children of POW or MIA service members, children of Purple Heart recipients, and former students of the Indiana Soldiers' and Sailors' Children's Home all qualify. Apply through ScholarTrack, with a FAFSA every year.
VeteransApplies statewideUp to 100% of tuition and regularly assessed fees, for up to 124 semester credit hours
Read it and check if you qualifyDisabled American Veteran Hunting and Fishing Licence
$2.75 for a year, or $27.50 for ten years, for a resident veteran with a service-connected disability — fishing and small game. No minimum percentage is stated: any service-connected rating reaches it, and so does disability retirement through the Department of Defense.
VeteransApplies statewide$2.75 a year, or $27.50 for ten years
Read it and check if you qualifyDisabled Hoosier Veteran Plate — Free Metered Parking Statewide
A veteran rated at least 50% — or one with service-connected loss of sight, loss of use of hands or feet, or a rating for a condition that precludes walking without pain — displays the Disabled Hoosier Veteran plate, and the statute forbids charging that vehicle a fee in any metered parking space.
VeteransApplies statewideDisabled Hoosier Veteran plate on any non-commercial vehicle class; no fee may be charged in metered parking spaces
Read it and check if you qualify
Does my county change the answer?
For the statewide records, no — the same law applies in all 92 counties. What changes is the office you file with and the rate your bill is calculated at, and we do not yet hold Indiana rates.
- Adams County
- Allen County
- Bartholomew County
- Benton County
- Blackford County
- Boone County
- Brown County
- Carroll County
- Cass County
- Clark County
- Clay County
- Clinton County
- Crawford County
- Daviess County
- Dearborn County
- Decatur County
- DeKalb County
- Delaware County
- Dubois County
- Elkhart County
- Fayette County
- Floyd County
- Fountain County
- Franklin County
- Fulton County
- Gibson County
- Grant County
- Greene County
- Hamilton County
- Hancock County
- Harrison County
- Hendricks County
- Henry County
- Howard County
- Huntington County
- Jackson County
- Jasper County
- Jay County
- Jefferson County
- Jennings County
- Johnson County
- Knox County
- Kosciusko County
- LaGrange County
- Lake County
- LaPorte County
- Lawrence County
- Madison County
- Marion County
- Marshall County
- Martin County
- Miami County
- Monroe County
- Montgomery County
- Morgan County
- Newton County
- Noble County
- Ohio County
- Orange County
- Owen County
- Parke County
- Perry County
- Pike County
- Porter County
- Posey County
- Pulaski County
- Putnam County
- Randolph County
- Ripley County
- Rush County
- St. Joseph County
- Scott County
- Shelby County
- Spencer County
- Starke County
- Steuben County
- Sullivan County
- Switzerland County
- Tippecanoe County
- Tipton County
- Union County
- Vanderburgh County
- Vermillion County
- Vigo County
- Wabash County
- Warren County
- Warrick County
- Washington County
- Wayne County
- Wells County
- White County
- Whitley County
Every benefit here was checked against the statute or rule behind it, and each page shows the date. This is an informational match, not a government eligibility determination — the responsible agency decides your application.