Property Tax Relief — a Reimbursement, Not an Exemption, and Four Routes Into It
Tennessee pays you back rather than taking you off the roll, and only on the first $175,000 of market value. Four routes reach it: the service-connected disability route; paraplegia or permanent paralysis of both legs and lower body from traumatic spinal cord or brain injury or disease, legal blindness, or loss or loss of use of two or more limbs from any service-connected cause; 100% permanent total disability resulting from service as a prisoner of war; and a surviving spouse, at the same cap. Apply on receipt of the tax bill, and no later than 35 days after the delinquency date.
Verified August 27, 2026
What this benefit is
Tennessee pays you back rather than taking you off the roll, and only on the first $175,000 of market value. Four routes reach it: the service-connected disability route; paraplegia or permanent paralysis of both legs and lower body from traumatic spinal cord or brain injury or disease, legal blindness, or loss or loss of use of two or more limbs from any service-connected cause; 100% permanent total disability resulting from service as a prisoner of war; and a surviving spouse, at the same cap. Apply on receipt of the tax bill, and no later than 35 days after the delinquency date.
What it's worth: Reimbursement of tax on the first $175,000 of market value
- We do not hold Tennessee county tax rates, so we cannot convert this into a dollar figure for your county.
- The $175,000 cap is confirmed current for 2026.
- A second veteran route covers service-connected paraplegia or permanent paralysis of both legs and lower body from traumatic injury or disease to the spinal cord or brain, legal blindness, or the loss or loss of use of two or more limbs from any service-connected cause.
- A third covers 100% permanent total disability resulting from service as a prisoner of war.
- A surviving spouse qualifies at the same $175,000 cap where they were married to the veteran at death, have not remarried, and own and use the home — and where either the veteran met one of the disability routes, OR the veteran's death resulted from a service-connected combat-related cause, OR the soldier died while deployed away from home base in support of combat or peace operations.
- That last survivor gate does not depend on the veteran having had any disability rating.
- The forms are F-16 for the veteran and F-16S for the surviving spouse.
- Apply on receipt of the tax bill, and no later than 35 days after the delinquency date, with the taxes paid by that date. This is not an annual-return deadline and it catches people out.
Who is entitled to it
- You served in the U.S. armed forces.
- The VA has rated you 100% service-connected, permanent and total.
- You own and occupy the home as your principal residence.
- Your home is in Tennessee.
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
- 1Get a VA letter showing the finding this relief turns on, and file it with your county trustee.
- 2Ask what happens if your rating or occupancy changes — that is what ends most granted reliefs.
- Form
- Tax Relief application
- File with
- Your county trustee
- Documents you will need
- va benefit summary letter · dd214
- Re-file every year
- Entitlement is retested annually. Missing a year costs that year.
Sources
- authority · statuteTenn. Code Ann. §67-5-704
- operating · published policyTennessee Comptroller — Property Tax Relief
This finder provides an informational match, not a government eligibility determination. The responsible agency decides your application.