Ohio veteran benefits
- Verified veteran benefits
- 19
- plus 3 general-law and correction records
- Counties covered
- 88
- every one has its own page
- Veterans in this state
- 0.64M
- 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.
Ask about the veteran version specifically
If you were refused the ordinary homestead exemption on income, the veteran version has no income test.
File before the deadline
The deadline for the main property tax relief is: December 31. 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?
Ratings are a starting point rather than the whole answer in Ohio. Read the record for the test that actually applies — several turn on the words on your VA letter rather than on the number.
28 benefits worth checking
What you appear to qualify for — worth checking.
One question checks 16 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.
Concealed Handgun Licence Free — Until the State Has Waived $1.5 Million of Them
An Ohio sheriff waives the concealed handgun licence fee for an active or reserve member of the armed forces, and for anyone retired from or honorably discharged from active or reserve service. It applies to INITIAL AND RENEWAL applications alike. The unusual condition is a statewide budget: ONCE WAIVERS TOTAL $1.5 MILLION IN A YEAR THEY PAUSE FOR THE REST OF THAT YEAR. So this is a benefit where applying earlier in the year is materially better than applying later, which is not true of anything else in Ohio's records.
VeteransApplies statewideThe licence fee waived, on initial and renewal applications
Read it and check if you qualifyFull Tuition for the Family of a Member Killed in Iraq, Afghanistan or a Combat Zone
Ohio's Safety Officers College Memorial Fund pays 100% OF INSTRUCTIONAL AND STUDENT FEES at public institutions for the children and spouses of a member killed in the line of duty during Operation Enduring Freedom, Operation Iraqi Freedom or a Presidentially designated combat zone. At private institutions it pays $10,672 a year for 2025-26, and certificate programmes up to $8,000. Maximum four academic years. The eligibility hinge is generous: YOU MUST BE AN OHIO RESIDENT NOW, BUT THE FAMILY NEED NOT HAVE BEEN OHIO RESIDENTS AT THE TIME OF THE DEATH.
StudentsApplies statewide100% of instructional and student fees at public institutions; $10,672 a year at private ones
Read it and check if you qualifyMedal of Honor and POW Plates Free of Registration Charge — and 40 More at No Extra Cost
Ohio issues plates FREE OF REGISTRATION CHARGE to Congressional Medal of Honor recipients and to former prisoners of war. Apply on form BMV 4507 with military records or VA documentation. Worth knowing alongside it: ABOUT FORTY OTHER MILITARY SPECIALTY PLATES CARRY NO EXTRA PLATE CHARGE — so a veteran who wants a service designation is not paying a specialty premium for it, even where the registration itself is not free.
VeteransApplies statewidePlates issued free of registration charge
Read it and check if you qualifyDriver Licence and State ID Free at 100% — New, Renewal or Duplicate
Ohio issues a driver licence or state ID at NO COST to a veteran with a 100% service-connected disability rating — for new issuance, renewal AND duplicate alike, so a lost card costs nothing to replace. Proof is a VA LETTER DATED WITHIN THE PAST YEAR, or a Department of Defense ID stating '100% disabled American veteran'. It must be done IN PERSON at a deputy registrar. The one-year letter rule is what turns applications away, so order the letter first.
VeteransApplies statewideDriver licence or state ID free — new, renewal or duplicate
Read it and check if you qualifyThe Ohio GI Promise — Resident Rates With No Twelve-Month Wait
Ohio charges resident tuition at all its public colleges and universities, with no twelve-month residency wait, to veterans domiciled in Ohio as of the first day of the term. Rule 3333-1-10 has two routes: one or more years of active duty with an honorable or service-related medical discharge, OR AT LEAST 90 DAYS of active duty on the other route. A member KILLED ON ACTIVE DUTY is covered so their family is not left outside. The condition to get right is the timing — domicile AS OF THE FIRST DAY OF THE ENROLMENT TERM, not a year before it.
StudentsApplies statewideResident tuition at Ohio public institutions with no twelve-month wait
Read it and check if you qualifyCDL Skills Test Waived — and the Written Tests Too on Even Exchange
Ohio waives the CDL skills test for an active-duty servicemember, or one separated WITHIN 12 MONTHS, who was employed in the last 12 months in a military post operating a vehicle equivalent to a commercial motor vehicle, and who holds a valid Ohio driver licence. MILITARY EVEN EXCHANGE goes further and waives the KNOWLEDGE TESTS as well. Two limits: it is for INITIAL CDL ISSUANCE ONLY, and SCHOOL BUS (S) AND PASSENGER (P) ENDORSEMENTS ARE EXCLUDED.
VeteransApplies statewideThe CDL skills test waived; knowledge tests too under Even Exchange
Read it and check if you qualifyThe Diploma, Including for Women Who Left School During the War
Ohio Rev. Code §3313.616 lets a school district board or a chartered nonpublic school grant a high school diploma to an honorably discharged veteran of WWII, Korea or Vietnam who left before graduating and holds no prior diploma. Two things widen it beyond the usual version of this benefit. It covers leaving school DUE TO FAMILY CIRCUMSTANCES as well as to serve. And it expressly reaches WOMEN WHO LEFT SCHOOL DURING THE WAR — a group most states' wording quietly excludes. Apply through the county veterans service office; you need Ohio residency OR prior enrolment in an Ohio high school.
VeteransApplies statewideA high school diploma granted by the district board or chartered nonpublic school
Read it and check if you qualifyEnhanced Homestead Exemption for Disabled Veterans — and It Continues for the Surviving Spouse
$50,000 of true value exempted in the Revised Code — $56,000 as adjusted for tax year 2024, collected 2025 — with no income test at all, where the ordinary Ohio homestead exemption is both smaller and income-limited. The reduction continues for the surviving spouse through the tax year in which they die or remarry, with no age condition.
VeteransApplies statewide$50,000 of true value in the Code — $56,000 as adjusted for tax year 2024
Read it and check if you qualifyOhio Deducts Military Retirement Pay in Full — and Survivor Annuities With It
Retired pay for service in the uniformed services, the reserves or the National Guard comes out of Ohio adjusted gross income entirely. So does a survivor benefit plan annuity: R.C. 5747.01(A)(23) deducts amounts received by the surviving spouse or the former spouse of such a taxpayer under the survivor benefit plan on account of that taxpayer's death, on the same terms and with no cap.
VeteransApplies statewideThe whole of your military retired pay — or your SBP annuity — deducted from Ohio income
Read it and check if you qualifyWar Orphans and Severely Disabled Veterans' Children Scholarship
Tuition assistance for the child of an Ohio wartime veteran — and it opens at a 60% disability, not at 100%.
StudentsApplies statewide77% of tuition and general fees at an Ohio public institution, or $6,330 a year at a private one (AY 2025-26)
Read it and check if you qualifyDisabled Veteran Plates — Registration, Service Fee and Local Tax All Waived
Ohio waives more than the registration. The local permissive motor vehicle tax goes too, which in some counties is the larger number.
VeteransApplies statewideRegistration, service fee, local motor vehicle tax and transfer fee all waived
Read it and check if you qualifyFree Hunting and Fishing Licences — and a Separate Route for Former POWs
Free licences for a permanently and totally disabled Ohio veteran, and separately for any former prisoner of war, on an annual, multi-year or lifetime basis.
VeteransApplies statewideHunting licence, fishing licence, fur taker permit and wetlands habitat stamp, free
Read it and check if you qualifyVeterans' Examination Credit
Twenty per cent of your total examination grade added as credit — a proportional preference, not a handful of points, and the largest in this corpus.
VeteransApplies statewideTwenty per cent of your total examination grade, added as credit
Read it and check if you qualifyNo-Fee Temporary Licence for Servicemembers and Their Spouses
An Ohio licensing board issues a temporary professional licence to an applicant on active duty in Ohio, or to the spouse of one, and charges no fee for it. The temporary military spousal licence runs up to six years.
Serving membersApplies statewideNo fee to issue the military or military spouse licence; the spousal temporary licence lasts up to six years
Read it and check if you qualifyOhio Veterans Homes — Wartime Service and a Disabling Condition
Two state homes, at Sandusky and Georgetown, offering nursing, skilled and memory care and (at Sandusky) an independent-living domiciliary. What a resident pays is an assessment set on verified income, and it assumes the home receives the federal VA per diem for that resident.
VeteransApplies statewideLong-term care at an income-based assessment rather than a market rate
Read it and check if you qualifyVeteran-Friendly Business Enterprise — 5% Bid Preference
State certification that lets a bid come in up to 5% higher, or a proposal score up to 5% lower, than an uncertified competitor and still win the award. The gate is veteran-FRIENDLY, not veteran-owned — 10% veteran employees is one of four routes in.
VeteransApplies statewideBids may exceed an uncertified competitor by up to 5%, or proposal scores fall up to 5% lower, and still win
Read it and check if you qualifyCounty Veterans Service Commission Financial Assistance
Every county runs a veterans service commission that pays short-term emergency assistance — rent or mortgage, food, utilities, a car payment or insurance — funded from local property taxes. The amount and the menu are set county by county; who may apply is not. R.C. 5901.08 sets a statewide rule: three months' bona fide residence in the county, and applicants may be veterans, active-duty members, spouses, surviving spouses, dependent parents, minor children or wards.
VeteransApplies statewideShort-term help with rent or mortgage, food, utilities, a car payment or insurance — the amount set by your county
Read it and check if you qualifyMilitary Injury Relief Fund — $500, Up to Three Times, and PTSD Counts
A tax-exempt $500 grant to a service member injured in a combat action after 7 October 2001, and to someone diagnosed with post-traumatic stress related to a combat action in the same period. Since a 2023 rule change it can be claimed up to three times, once per state fiscal year.
VeteransApplies statewide$500 a grant, up to three grants, one per state fiscal year
Read it and check if you qualifyOhio Veterans Bonus — Closed. Applications Ended 30 August 2024
The bonus that most guides still list for Ohio service after 7 October 2001 is no longer available. The department’s own application portal states the programme officially ended on 30 August 2024 and applications are no longer being accepted. The earlier Persian Gulf and Iraq bonus deadlines have expired too.
VeteransApplies statewideNothing to claim — the application window closed on 30 August 2024
Read it and check if you qualifyBurial in Ohio — There Is No State Veterans Cemetery, and the Department Points to National Ones
Expanded in full, the veterans department’s military burials page lists national cemeteries — Dayton, Ohio Western Reserve, Arlington — and the federal gravesite locator, and no state-run veterans cemetery. Burial benefits for an Ohio veteran run through the national system, with a headstone or marker in a private cemetery as the alternative.
VeteransApplies statewideNo state veterans cemetery — burial runs through the national cemetery system
Read it and check if you qualifyIndigent Veteran Burial or Cremation — Paid by the County, Capped by the County
Every county veterans service commission in Ohio runs an indigent veteran burial programme, and it reaches the veteran’s family members as well as the veteran. There is no statewide figure: the ceiling is set county by county, and the one commission that publishes a maximum publishes $500 with the rest of the funeral left to whoever arranges it.
VeteransApplies statewideA county-set payment toward burial or cremation — $500 at the one commission that publishes a maximum
Read it and check if you qualifyOhio’s 6% Interest Cap on Deployment — Wider Than the Federal One, and It Covers the Spouse
The federal cap holds interest at 6% only on debts taken on before military service. Ohio’s own provision limits interest and finance charges to 6% for a service member deployed at least 180 days, and for the spouse, and the Ohio judiciary’s own bench aid states plainly that Ohio law does not limit coverage to pre-service loans.
Serving membersApplies statewideInterest and finance charges held to 6% while deployed — on debt taken on during service as well as before it
Read it and check if you qualifyEnding a Mobile Phone Contract or a Vehicle Lease on Deployment — Ohio Asks Less Than the Federal Rule Does
Federal law lets a service member drop a mobile phone plan only on orders to relocate for at least 90 days somewhere the plan is not supported, and a vehicle lease mainly on an overseas move. Ohio’s own provisions drop both tests: a mobile phone contract can go on deployment, and a vehicle lease on a deployment of 180 days or more with no requirement that it be outside the continental United States. Both reach the spouse.
Serving membersApplies statewideOut of a mobile phone contract on deployment, and out of a vehicle lease on a 180-day deployment
Read it and check if you qualifyThe Patriot Plan — No Gas or Electric Disconnection While Deployed, and Deployment-Length Time to Catch Up
Ohio’s natural gas and electric utilities may not disconnect the residential service of a military reservist or National Guardsman deployed on active duty for nonpayment. On return, the company must offer a period equal to the length of the deployment to pay off whatever built up, and may charge no late fee and no interest across either period. The regulator says in terms that it does not apply to career active-duty personnel serving their regular tour.
Serving membersApplies statewideNo disconnection while deployed, time equal to the deployment to clear arrears, and no late fees or interest across either
Read it and check if you qualifyPIPP Plus — a Gas and Electric Bill Set at 5% or 10% of Household Income
Ohio’s percentage of income payment plan sets the monthly bill at 5% of household income for electric and gas service, or 10% in an all-electric home, with a $10 minimum. It is income-tested at 175% of the federal poverty level and carries no veteran route — which is worth knowing before spending time looking for one.
VeteransApplies statewideNot a veteran benefit5% of monthly household income for electric and/or gas, 10% in an all-electric home, $10 minimum
Read it and check if you qualifyA Ride to the VA Hospital from Your County Veterans Service Commission — and the Ambulatory Rule Nobody Warns You About
Ohio county veterans service commissions run transport to VA medical facilities. County commissions describe it as a programme they are required to promulgate under Title 59 of the Ohio Revised Code. Terms are set county by county: one publishes 24 hours’ notice for Columbus and 48 for Chillicothe, and requires riders to be ambulatory and able to get in and out of the van without the driver’s help.
VeteransApplies statewideTransport to VA medical facilities run by your county veterans service commission — terms set county by county
Read it and check if you qualifyHomegrown by Heroes for Ohio Farmer Veterans — Promoted by the State, Certified by Someone Else
Ohio Proud is the Ohio Department of Agriculture’s marketing programme, created in 1993 for food and agriculture made and grown in Ohio. It partnered with Homegrown by Heroes on Veterans Day 2014, so a farmer veteran can carry both labels — but the Homegrown by Heroes certification is applied for at hgbh.org and administered by the Farmer Veteran Coalition, not by the State of Ohio.
VeteransApplies statewideA label on your products identifying you as a farmer veteran, alongside the Ohio Proud label
Read it and check if you qualifyWomen Veterans in Ohio — an Advisory Committee, and Plates the BMV Issues Only to Women Who Served
The Ohio Department of Veterans Services runs a Women Veterans Advisory Committee of appointed women veterans that assesses needs, provides information and plans events. Alongside it, the department states the Bureau of Motor Vehicles offers specialty licence plates dedicated to women veterans, available to women veterans and to women currently serving.
VeteransApplies statewideA committee seat, an events and information programme, and a women veterans licence plate
Read it and check if you qualify
Does my county change the answer?
For the statewide records, no — the same law applies in all 88 counties. What changes is the office you file with and the rate your bill is calculated at, and we do not yet hold Ohio rates.
- Adams County
- Allen County
- Ashland County
- Ashtabula County
- Athens County
- Auglaize County
- Belmont County
- Brown County
- Butler County
- Carroll County
- Champaign County
- Clark County
- Clermont County
- Clinton County
- Columbiana County
- Coshocton County
- Crawford County
- Cuyahoga County
- Darke County
- Defiance County
- Delaware County
- Erie County
- Fairfield County
- Fayette County
- Franklin County
- Fulton County
- Gallia County
- Geauga County
- Greene County
- Guernsey County
- Hamilton County
- Hancock County
- Hardin County
- Harrison County
- Henry County
- Highland County
- Hocking County
- Holmes County
- Huron County
- Jackson County
- Jefferson County
- Knox County
- Lake County
- Lawrence County
- Licking County
- Logan County
- Lorain County
- Lucas County
- Madison County
- Mahoning County
- Marion County
- Medina County
- Meigs County
- Mercer County
- Miami County
- Monroe County
- Montgomery County
- Morgan County
- Morrow County
- Muskingum County
- Noble County
- Ottawa County
- Paulding County
- Perry County
- Pickaway County
- Pike County
- Portage County
- Preble County
- Putnam County
- Richland County
- Ross County
- Sandusky County
- Scioto County
- Seneca County
- Shelby County
- Stark County
- Summit County
- Trumbull County
- Tuscarawas County
- Union County
- Van Wert County
- Vinton County
- Warren County
- Washington County
- Wayne County
- Williams County
- Wood County
- Wyandot 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.