Connecticut veteran taxes

Military retired pay in Connecticut

Exempttax year 2025Source 1

Connecticut fully exempts military retirement pay: a retired member of the U.S. armed forces or the National Guard subtracts it to the extent included in federal adjusted gross income (Form CT-1040, line 44). Payments to a former spouse under a divorce, dissolution, annulment or legal separation decree or property settlement do not qualify.

Survivor Benefit Plan annuities

ExemptSource 2

The same subtraction applies to a beneficiary receiving survivor benefits under an option or election made by a deceased retired military member (Form CT-1040 instructions, line 44).

Property tax relief for disabled veterans

Exemption or creditSources 3, 4

Under Conn. Gen. Stat. § 12-81(83), the primary residence (including a condominium, common interest community unit or mobile manufactured home) of a resident veteran determined by the VA to be permanently and totally disabled based on a 100% service-connected rating is exempt from property tax; lacking a residence, one motor vehicle garaged in the state is exempt instead. This applies to assessment years from October 1, 2024. Veterans rated 10% or more below that level receive a smaller exemption under § 12-81(20), from $2,000 to $3,500 of assessed value depending on the rating or age 65. Proof of the VA determination goes to the town assessor.

• Full exemption: 100% permanent and total service-connected (§ 12-81(83)); from assessment year October 1, 2025 a town may limit the exempt land to two acres and may cap the exemption at the town’s median residential assessed value.
• Rating-based exemption (§ 12-81(20)): $2,000 for 10% to 25%, $2,500 for more than 25% to 50%, $3,000 for more than 50% to 75%, $3,500 for more than 75% or at age 65; towns may instead give the full exemption to veterans with individual unemployability (§ 12-81pp).
• Severe disabilities (paraplegia, hemiplegia, total blindness, double amputation): additional $10,000 of the dwelling’s assessed value (§ 12-81(21)).

Vehicle registration for disabled veterans

Fee waiver or discountSources 5, 6

Connecticut charges no registration fee to a resident disabled veteran for up to three passenger, camper or passenger and commercial motor vehicles owned or leased and not used for hire (Conn. Gen. Stat. § 14-49(o)). A disabled veteran here is a wartime veteran with a VA-certified service-connected amputation or loss of use of one or both legs or arms, blindness, paraplegia or hemiplegia, or traumatic brain injury (§ 14-254). Such a veteran also receives special number plates without charge.

• Up to three vehicles, no registration fee (§ 14-49(o)).
• Special disabled veteran number plates issued without charge; the surviving spouse may keep the registration and plates without charge for life or until remarriage (§ 14-254).