State veteran benefits · AL
Alabama Veteran Benefits
Alabama exempts the homestead of a permanently and totally disabled homeowner from every ad valorem property tax, with no income cap and up to 160 acres of land.
By Mario Bailey, U.S. Air Force veteran · current Air National Guard member. Data updated 2026-07-10.
What Alabama adds, benefit by benefit
Your federal VA benefits travel with you to any state. Everything below is the second stack: what Alabama itself offers, each item checked against the state's own official source on the date shown.
Property tax relief
An Alabama homeowner who is permanently and totally disabled is exempt from all ad valorem property taxes on the homestead, with no income limitation and up to 160 acres of land. The trigger is permanent and total disability status itself, not a specific VA percentage, so a veteran rated permanent and total qualifies the same way any disabled homeowner does.
Claims run through the county, and Alabama accepts a physician's affidavit (Form PT-PA-1) as proof of permanent and total disability. Homeowners over 65 have parallel exemptions with income tests, but the disability exemption carries no income limit at all.
SOURCE: Alabama Department of Revenue · retrieved 2026-07-10
State income tax
Alabama has an income tax but exempts military retired pay from it entirely, and its exempt-income list also names disability payments and other benefits paid by the VA. A military retiree in Alabama pays state tax on a civilian paycheck but nothing on the pension or on VA compensation.
SOURCE: Alabama Department of Revenue · retrieved 2026-07-10
G.I. Dependent Scholarship Program
Children, stepchildren, spouses, and un-remarried widows or widowers of Alabama veterans rated 40 percent or more service-connected can get tuition covered at up to $400 per credit hour plus $1,000 per student for books and fees. Children get 10 semesters; spouses of 100 percent disabled veterans get 10, and spouses at 40 to 90 percent get 6.
Children must start before age 26 (up to 30 in limited cases), and the veteran must meet Alabama residency tests, including a five-year residency path reserved for 100 percent permanently disabled veterans. Students have 8 years from application to use their semesters.
SOURCE: Alabama Department of Veterans Affairs · retrieved 2026-07-10
State hiring preference
Alabama adds 5 or 10 points to the final score veterans earn on open competitive state employment tests: 5 points with a DD214 showing qualifying service, 10 points for disabled veterans who supply a VA disability letter dated within the last six months.
The points apply to open competitive examinations only, not promotional ones, and the VA letter has to stay current until the hiring register is established or the extra 5 points fall off.
SOURCE: Alabama State Personnel Department · retrieved 2026-07-10
State veterans homes
Alabama operates five state veterans homes: Bill Nichols in Alexander City, Floyd E. Tut Fann in Huntsville, William F. Green in Bay Minette, Col. Robert L. Howard in Pell City, and the Command Sgt. Maj. Bennie G. Adkins home in Enterprise, which opened in October 2024.
SOURCE: Alabama Department of Veterans Affairs · retrieved 2026-07-10
Discounted hunting licenses
Alabama sells a 100 percent Disabled Military Veteran's Appreciation Hunting License for $3.60 and a 50 percent version for $17.70, against roughly $30 for the standard all-game resident license. A $1.10 nighttime feral swine and coyote license is also reserved for 100 percent disabled license holders.
SOURCE: Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources · retrieved 2026-07-10
State veterans cemetery
The Alabama State Veterans Memorial Cemetery at Spanish Fort, run by the Alabama Department of Veterans Affairs on 107 acres in Baldwin County, provides an interment benefit that includes the grave plot, vault, excavation, headstone and inscription, a committal service, and perpetual care.
Eligibility follows National Cemetery Administration rules, and ADVA adds a state-only path for Guard and Reserve members with 24 months of service and an other than dishonorable discharge. Pre-registration is free and settles eligibility in advance.
SOURCE: Alabama Department of Veterans Affairs · retrieved 2026-07-10
Alabama is one of the few states where the property tax math is simply over once you hit permanent and total status: no dollar cap, no income test, up to 160 acres. The practical catch is that the exemption keys off disability status rather than a VA rating letter alone, so the county office may ask for the state’s own affidavit even when your VA paperwork says permanent and total. Bring both and the conversation is short.
Who gets the most out of Alabama is not just the 100 percent homeowner. The G.I. Dependent Scholarship starts at a 40 percent rating, which is unusual; most states reserve dependent tuition for 100 percent, deceased, or POW cases. A veteran at 40 percent with two kids headed to Alabama public colleges is potentially looking at twenty semesters of covered tuition across the family, a benefit that can outweigh the property tax break by a wide margin. It also stacks with a transferred Post-9/11 GI Bill entitlement rather than replacing it; see how the state and federal layers fit together in the guide to the Post-9/11 GI Bill.
The tax picture is clean at every layer. Military retired pay is exempt by name, and VA compensation was never taxable anywhere, federal or state, as covered in is VA disability taxable. If you are comparing take-home pay across state lines, run your rating through the current VA disability pay tables and remember that in Alabama the pension arrives untouched too.
What veterans commonly miss: the scholarship’s clock and calendar rules. Children must generally start before 26, applications lock in an eight-year window, and the residency tests differ for 100 percent permanently disabled veterans. Families who wait until senior year of high school to look at this leave semesters on the table. The state’s five-home network is another quiet strength; the Enterprise home only opened in late 2024, so bed availability may be better than veterans assume from old information.
State hiring preference here is exam points, which matters less than it sounds because many state jobs no longer use scored exams; the federal system works differently, and veterans’ preference for federal jobs is claimed separately. For burial planning, Spanish Fort’s pre-registration costs nothing and spares your family a records hunt during the worst week of their lives; the federal layer underneath is explained in veteran burial and memorial benefits.
Where to apply
State benefits are administered by the state, not by VA, so the applications above run through Alabama Department of Veterans Affairs or the specific agency named in each source link. A free VA-accredited representative or VSO in Alabama will know both stacks, the federal claim and the state paperwork, and charges nothing to help with either.