State veteran benefits · CT
Connecticut Veteran Benefits
Since the October 1, 2024 assessment year, Connecticut has required every town to fully exempt the primary residence of a veteran with a 100 percent permanent and total VA rating from property tax.
By Mario Bailey, U.S. Air Force veteran · current Air National Guard member. Data updated 2026-07-10.
What Connecticut adds, benefit by benefit
Your federal VA benefits travel with you to any state. Everything below is the second stack: what Connecticut itself offers, each item checked against the state's own official source on the date shown.
Property tax relief
Public Act 24-46 created a mandatory, statewide exemption that fully removes the primary residence of a veteran with a 100 percent service-connected permanent and total rating from the property tax, effective for assessment years starting October 1, 2024. A veteran who owns no dwelling can exempt one motor vehicle instead, and on the veteran's death the exemption continues for an unmarried surviving spouse or minor child.
Claimants apply annually to the town assessor by January 1 with proof of the qualifying rating, and late filers can recover up to three years of abatement or refund. Veterans rated at least 10 percent who do not hold a P&T rating keep the older exemption, at least $10,500 or $5,250 of assessed value for a 100 percent rating depending on income, but cannot take both.
SOURCE: Connecticut General Assembly, Office of Legislative Research · retrieved 2026-07-10
State income tax
Connecticut lets a retired member of the armed forces or National Guard subtract 100 percent of federally taxable military retirement pay from state income, and survivor benefits paid to a beneficiary are covered by the same subtraction. Disability pensions and other veteran benefits that are excludable from federal gross income are not subject to Connecticut tax.
SOURCE: Connecticut Department of Revenue Services · retrieved 2026-07-10
Wartime veteran tuition waiver
Connecticut waives 100 percent of tuition for credit courses at the Connecticut State Universities and community colleges for veterans who were honorably discharged, served at least 90 cumulative days of wartime active duty, and are domiciled in Connecticut at acceptance. Books, student activity and course fees, parking, and room and board stay on the student.
Guard members activated under Title 10 count, and veterans separated early by a VA-rated service-connected disability can qualify below the 90-day mark. Charter Oak State College offers a 50 percent course fee waiver.
SOURCE: Connecticut State Colleges and Universities · retrieved 2026-07-10
State exam preference points
On state classified service examinations, a wartime veteran who is eligible for or receiving VA disability compensation gets 10 points added to a passing score, and other wartime veterans get 5 points. A veteran entitled to a campaign badge or expeditionary medal who is not otherwise eligible also gets 5 points.
SOURCE: Connecticut General Assembly, Office of Legislative Research · retrieved 2026-07-10
Veterans home and healthcare campus
The Rocky Hill campus run by Connecticut Veterans Affairs combines a residential facility offering temporary supportive housing with case management and employment help, the Patriots Landing furnished family homes for veterans who are homeless or at risk, and the Sgt. John L. Levitow Healthcare Center, a skilled nursing facility holding CMS's 5-star rating.
Eligibility keys to honorable or under honorable conditions service plus Connecticut residency now or at enlistment.
SOURCE: Connecticut Department of Veterans Affairs · retrieved 2026-07-10
State veterans cemetery
The State Veterans Cemetery on Bow Lane in Middletown is the largest state-operated veterans cemetery in Connecticut, and Connecticut Veterans Affairs charges eligible veterans nothing for burial, with government grave markers also provided at no charge. Spouses and eligible minor children can be interred, and living veterans can pre-certify eligibility.
SOURCE: Connecticut Department of Veterans Affairs · retrieved 2026-07-10
Connecticut rewrote its value proposition in 2024, and the legislature did it unanimously. Before PA 24-46, a 100 percent veteran in a high-mill-rate town like Hartford or Waterbury got a few hundred dollars off a five-figure tax bill; now the house comes off the roll entirely, and in the towns where Connecticut taxes hardest that swing can clear $10,000 a year. No other New England state pairs a full mandatory exemption with a full pension exclusion, which quietly makes Connecticut one of the strongest states in the country for a 100 percent P&T retiree who owns a home, its cost of living notwithstanding.
The mechanics have teeth. The exemption is annual-application, due to your assessor by January 1, with the disability proof attached and an attestation that you are not claiming it in another town. The law anticipates VA’s paperwork lag: if your P&T decision letter arrives after the deadline, you can file late and recover up to three years of taxes. Veterans below P&T should not walk away empty-handed either; the older rating-based exemption starts at 10 percent, and towns layer optional additions on top of it.
Renters and younger veterans lean on different pieces. The wartime tuition waiver is one of the older and broader in the nation, 90 days of wartime service and an honorable discharge, and because it waives tuition but not fees, the sharp move is sequencing it with Chapter 33 so federal entitlement covers the semesters the waiver cannot; the trade-offs live in the Post-9/11 GI Bill guide. Exam points still matter for classified state jobs and are a separate track from the federal rules in veterans’ preference for federal jobs.
What veterans commonly miss is that the vehicle option exists: a 100 percent P&T veteran who rents can exempt one motor vehicle instead of a dwelling, a consolation worth a few hundred dollars a year that almost nobody claims. On the money you never see taxed, VA compensation stays invisible to both the IRS and Hartford, per is VA disability taxable, with current amounts in the VA disability pay tables. And Middletown’s no-cost burial sits on top of the federal package described 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 Connecticut Department of Veterans Affairs or the specific agency named in each source link. A free VA-accredited representative or VSO in Connecticut will know both stacks, the federal claim and the state paperwork, and charges nothing to help with either.