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Motor Vehicle Excise Tax — Exempt on Two Vehicles at 100%

A separate exemption from the plate benefit, and worth more. A resident disabled veteran rated 100% service connected — including by individual unemployability — pays no motor vehicle excise tax on TWO vehicles. A surviving spouse drawing Dependency and Indemnity Compensation keeps it on one.

Verified August 23, 2026

What this benefit is

A separate exemption from the plate benefit, and worth more. A resident disabled veteran rated 100% service connected — including by individual unemployability — pays no motor vehicle excise tax on TWO vehicles. A surviving spouse drawing Dependency and Indemnity Compensation keeps it on one.

What it's worth: No motor vehicle excise tax on two vehicles for a 100% service-connected disabled veteran; one vehicle for an un-remarried surviving spouse receiving DIC

  • Extra-schedular ratings and individual unemployability that equal 100% total disability are named alongside a straight 100% schedular rating.
  • Residency in this state is stated as a condition.
  • The exemption is taken at titling and registration by entering exemption code 14 on form SFN 2872.

Who is entitled to it

  • Your rating reaches the 100% level this exemption is written around.
  • You are 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

  1. 1Write exemption code 14 on the title and registration application. That code IS the claim; a title processed without it charges the tax, and unwinding it afterwards is a refund request rather than an exemption.
  2. 2Bring the VA letter that states your combined evaluation, or the unemployability decision. The office is matching you to a 100% total figure, not to a diagnosis.
  3. 3If you are on individual unemployability rather than a 100% schedular rating, say so at the counter. IU is named in the exemption and is the case a clerk is most likely to query.
  4. 4Count your vehicles. Two is the ceiling for a disabled veteran — so if you already hold the exemption on two, a third purchase is taxed, and it may be worth taking the exemption off the least valuable one first.
  5. 5A surviving spouse should bring the DIC award letter. The exemption survives the veteran for one vehicle, and it ends on remarriage.
  6. 6This is separate from the disabled veteran plate and its registration fee treatment. Claim both; neither substitutes for the other.
Form
Application for Certificate of Title & Registration of a Vehicle (SFN 2872), exemption code 14
File with
The Motor Vehicle Division, or the deputy registrar handling the title
Documents you will need
va benefit summary letter
At each renewal
Claimed again whenever the underlying licence or registration renews.
CorrectionExcise tax and registration fees are two different charges, and veterans routinely think the plate exemption already covered both. It did not. The excise tax is levied on the purchase price at titling and is by far the larger number on a newer vehicle.
Worth knowingTwo vehicles is generous and is the detail most often lost. A household with a truck and a car can hold the exemption on both, provided both are titled to the qualifying veteran.
Known gapThe department's page does not say whether the exemption must be re-established at each subsequent title transfer or whether the office carries it forward, and it publishes no minimum residency period. Ask the Motor Vehicle Division before buying on the assumption it is automatic.

Sources

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