A California homeowner with a 100 percent disabled-veteran rating will have the first $185,889 of a home’s assessed value exempt from property tax on the Jan. 1, 2027 lien date, or $278,836 if household income is $83,474 or less. State Board of Equalization Deputy Director David Yeung set those amounts in a May 22 letter to county assessors. Both are exemptions of value, not payments.
What the May 22 letter changed for 2027
The Board of Equalization’s Letter to Assessors 2026/019, titled “Disabled Veterans’ Exemption Increases for 2027,” gives three figures. The basic exemption rises to $185,889 from $180,671 in 2026, the low-income exemption to $278,836 from $271,009, and the household income limit to $83,474 from $81,131.
The increases are $5,218, $7,827 and $2,343 in that order, and each works out to a rise of roughly 2.9 percent by simple division. The letter lists the figures and nothing more about how they were derived, and the board’s exemption page says only that income limits are updated annually.
For a veteran, the working question is which of the two exemptions applies. The basic amount needs no income test. The larger low-income amount does, and the $83,474 ceiling is the line that decides which number a county applies to a given home in 2027.
California veterans with a service-connected 100 percent rating who own and live in a home should find their county’s 2027 amount in that letter, since each assessor applies the state figures. A veteran who already receives the basic exemption is not asked to file again for it, but the low-income version has a yearly form.
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The letter is aimed at assessors, not veterans. It says the claim forms BOE-261-G and BOE-261-GNT have been updated and will be available to assessors for the Jan. 1, 2027 lien date, and it sends assessors with questions to the County-Assessed Properties Division at 916-274-3350.
Basic and low-income: two exemptions, two filing rhythms
The board’s disabled veterans’ exemption page says no annual filing is required for the basic exemption. For the low-income exemption, the claim form “must be filed annually between January 1 and on or before February 15.”
Late claims still count, at a discount. A low-income claim filed after Feb. 15 and through Dec. 10 earns 90 percent of the eligible exemption, and one filed after Dec. 10 earns 85 percent. A veteran who misses the February window therefore loses a tenth of the larger exemption, not the whole benefit.
A first-time claim has its own rule. To get 100 percent of the exemption for the first qualifying year, the claim has to be filed between the date of the eligibility event and the following Jan. 1, or within 90 days of the event, whichever is later. Later first claims get 85 percent.
The two-tier structure puts the $83,474 figure to work at each annual filing. The low-income exemption is the one with a yearly form, so the income test is the part of the process that gets repeated.
Who the exemption is written for
The board’s page says the veteran must be rated 100 percent disabled by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs or the military branch, or have compensation rated at 100 percent because of being unable to secure or follow a substantially gainful occupation. The discharge must be under conditions other than dishonorable, and the home must be the claimant’s principal place of residence.
An unmarried surviving spouse may also claim the exemption under the page’s rules. Changes in eligibility are reported on form BOE-261-GNT, which the assessor must mail every year to prior-year recipients.
The board’s own exemption page still uses 2018 as its worked example, when the basic exemption was $134,706 and the low-income exemption was $202,060 with a $60,490 income limit. It points readers to the Letters to Assessors for current figures, and the board’s 2026 letters index lists Letter 2026/019 among 35 issued so far this year. A veteran reading only the exemption page would see 2018 numbers, and the 2027 basic exemption is $51,183 higher than that 2018 example.
The filing and surviving-spouse rules are not new. The page lists them under a 2012 letter, 2012/014, and ties the totally-disabled standard to older guidance, including Letter 2001/002 and a document known as 85/20. The 2027 letter changes the amounts, while those older letters keep governing who can claim and when.
The amounts apply to value, so the tax saving depends on the county
An exemption of $185,889 does not mean a veteran saves $185,889. It removes that much from the assessed value on which the tax rate is applied, so the actual saving depends on the home’s assessed value and the local rate.
The letter does not estimate savings, and neither does the board’s page. Each county assessor administers the exemption and applies the figures, which is why the board addresses the guidance to them.
What stays open for 2027 is mostly mechanical: the updated forms reach assessors for the lien date, and county offices will run the February low-income filing window as usual. Veterans near the $83,474 line are the group for whom a single year of income can change which exemption applies.
What will the exemption knock off a home on Jan. 1, 2027?
The cost of a mistake here is a tenth of the larger exemption, or more, if the low-income form misses the Feb. 15 window or if a veteran assumes the basic exemption never needs a second look.
The Senior Property Tax & Home-Cost Relief Kit includes Part 2, Reading the Tax Bill, Line by Line, plus an application log and renewal calendar, so the exemption amount, the form and the February date are written down against the actual bill.
Get the tax-bill guide and application log for a disabled veteran’s 2027 exemption →
This article was produced with AI assistance and edited for accuracy against the sources linked above.
