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Disabled Veteran Plates — 60%, and the 60% Has to Be About Walking
Disabled veteran plates go to a resident veteran who is the primary owner of a registered passenger vehicle and meets three conditions together: eligibility for permanent disabled parking privileges, a minimum 60% service-connected rating on the disability breakdown letter, and disabilities making up that 60% that affect ambulation.
Verified August 19, 2026
What this benefit is
Disabled veteran plates go to a resident veteran who is the primary owner of a registered passenger vehicle and meets three conditions together: eligibility for permanent disabled parking privileges, a minimum 60% service-connected rating on the disability breakdown letter, and disabilities making up that 60% that affect ambulation.
What it's worth: DV plates on one registered passenger vehicle the veteran is primary owner of
- The Registry requires the veteran to be the PRIMARY owner of the registered passenger vehicle.
- The plate itself opens the excise and sales tax exemptions the Registry publishes alongside it, which are worth far more than the plate.
Who is entitled to it
- Your service-connected rating is 60% or more, which is the first of the three conditions.
- Your home is in Massachusetts.
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
- 1Ask the federal veterans department for the Service-Connected Disability Breakdown letter, not just the rating letter. The Registry works from a document that lists each condition with its own percentage, because it has to see which conditions affect walking.
- 2Check that the conditions adding up to 60% are ambulation conditions. The Registry states that conditions which do not affect ambulation may not be considered for that test — so a 100% rating built from conditions that do not affect walking does not open this plate.
- 3Establish the disabled parking side first: the first condition is eligibility for PERMANENT disabled parking privileges, and the Registry publishes the Application for Disabled Parking alongside the plate applications.
- 4Be the primary owner. The Registry restricts the plate to a veteran who is the primary owner of the registered passenger vehicle.
- 5Motorcyclists: the veteran emblem route exists for a VETERAN plate on a motorcycle — ask for it rather than assuming plates are car-only.
- 6Get the plate before buying the car if you can. The sales tax exemption on one passenger vehicle or pick-up truck requires the veteran to obtain DV plates for that vehicle.
- Form
- Application for Disabled Parking, with the Service-Connected Disability Breakdown letter
- File with
- The Registry of Motor Vehicles
- Documents you will need
- va benefit summary letter
- Annual
- Claimed once a year.
CorrectionThis record used to say the plate had two doors — 60%, or a loss-of-use or vision test at any percentage. The Registry’s own eligibility statement, read 23 August 2026, does not run it that way. It sets three conditions that must all hold together: permanent disabled parking eligibility, a minimum 60% rating on the disability breakdown letter, and disabilities within that 60% that affect ambulation. The record has been changed to follow the agency that issues the plate.
Worth knowingThe percentage is necessary but not sufficient, and that is the trap. A veteran rated 100% for conditions that leave walking unaffected does not meet the third condition; a veteran rated exactly 60% for an ambulation condition does.
Worth knowingThe plate is the gate to the sales tax exemption rather than the prize in itself. The Registry states that to get the sales tax exemption on one passenger vehicle or pick-up truck the veteran must obtain DV plates for that vehicle.
Known gapRE-SOURCED 23 August 2026. This record previously cited a secondary mirror of the General Laws, which this corpus does not accept. The section text could not be re-read: malegislature.gov refused the connection to the browser and to curl at https://malegislature.gov/Laws/GeneralLaws/PartI/TitleXIV/Chapter90/Section2. Whether the statute still carries a loss-of-use or vision route that the Registry’s summary omits could not be checked, so that route is not published here.
Sources
- authority · published policyRegistry of Motor Vehicles — Disabled veteran fee and tax exemptions: Disabled Veteran plates issued only to a qualified Massachusetts resident veteran who is the primary owner of a registered passenger vehicle and meets three conditions — qualifies for permanent disabled parking privileges, holds a minimum 60% service-connected rating as determined by the federal veterans department and listed on the disability breakdown letter, and one or a combination of those listed disabilities totalling 60% affects ambulation and would qualify for disabled parking privileges (implementing M.G.L. c.90 §2)
- operating · published policyExecutive Office of Veterans Services and Registry of Motor Vehicles — Veteran Status Licenses and Specialty Plates: the Disabled Veteran plate listed among the veteran and military passenger plates, the Application for Disabled Parking as the accompanying form, and the differing eligibility requirements by plate type
This finder provides an informational match, not a government eligibility determination. The responsible agency decides your application.