State veteran benefits · MD
Maryland Veteran Benefits
Maryland fully exempts the dwelling and yard of a veteran rated 100% permanently and totally disabled from real property tax, and the exemption carries to surviving spouses.
By Mario Bailey, U.S. Air Force veteran · current Air National Guard member. Data updated 2026-07-10.
What Maryland adds, benefit by benefit
Your federal VA benefits travel with you to any state. Everything below is the second stack: what Maryland itself offers, each item checked against the state's own official source on the date shown.
Full exemption for 100% P&T veterans
Veterans with a VA disability determined to be 100% service-connected, permanent, and totally disabling receive an exemption from real property taxes on the dwelling house and surrounding yard, with surviving spouses able to retain it. Some local jurisdictions layer their own partial exemptions for lower ratings on top of the state exemption.
The exemption is claimed through the State Department of Assessments and Taxation with the VA rating letter; refunds may be available for taxes paid while the application was pending.
SOURCE: Maryland Department of Veterans and Military Families · retrieved 2026-07-10
Income tax on military retired pay
Maryland taxes military retired pay but allows a subtraction of up to $12,500 for retirees under age 55 and up to $20,000 at age 55 or older; income above the subtraction is taxed as ordinary income, including county piggyback tax. VA disability compensation is never taxed, by Maryland or any state.
SOURCE: Comptroller of Maryland · retrieved 2026-07-10
Conroy and Cryor scholarships
The Edward T. and Mary A. Conroy Memorial and Jean B. Cryor Memorial Scholarship covers tuition and mandatory fees, capped at $13,689 for 2025-2026, the equivalent of resident undergraduate tuition and fees at a four-year Maryland public institution. Eligible groups include veterans with a service-connected disability of 25% or greater who have exhausted federal education benefits, and children and unremarried surviving spouses of service members who died in service or are 100% permanently disabled.
Awards can be held for five years of full-time study or eight years part-time.
SOURCE: Maryland Higher Education Commission · retrieved 2026-07-10
Charlotte Hall Veterans Home
Charlotte Hall Veterans Home in St. Mary's County, Maryland's only state veterans home, has operated since 1985 with a 126-bed assisted living program, a 318-bed skilled nursing program, and secure memory care. VA per diem subsidies reduce costs for every veteran resident, worth $4,535.66 per month for nursing care as of October 1, 2025, and veterans rated 70% or greater may qualify for fully covered nursing home care.
SOURCE: Maryland Department of Veterans and Military Families · retrieved 2026-07-10
Free licenses and park entry
Maryland residents who are 100% service-connected disabled veterans, former POWs, or deemed unemployable by VA receive a complimentary lifetime hunting and fishing license. Separately, day-use entrance charges at Maryland state parks are waived year-round for all veterans, resident or not.
SOURCE: Maryland Department of Natural Resources · retrieved 2026-07-10
State veterans cemeteries
Maryland operates five state veterans cemeteries: Cheltenham in Prince George's County, Crownsville in Anne Arundel County, Garrison Forest in Owings Mills, Eastern Shore near Hurlock, and Rocky Gap in Flintstone, together handling thousands of interments of veterans and eligible dependents each year.
SOURCE: Maryland Department of Veterans and Military Families · retrieved 2026-07-10
Maryland’s offer depends heavily on which veteran you are. For the 100% permanent and total homeowner, it is elite: the entire property tax bill on house and yard vanishes, in a high-tax state, and the exemption outlives the veteran for an unremarried surviving spouse. On a typical Montgomery or Howard County assessment that is five figures a year, every year, which is why the SDAT filing should happen the same week the P&T letter arrives; retroactive refunds exist but are not something to count on. Veterans between 50% and 99% should also check their county, because state law lets local jurisdictions grant their own partial exemptions and several do, a layer most benefit summaries skip.
For the working-age military retiree, Maryland is harder to love. The retirement subtraction, $12,500 under 55 and $20,000 after, leaves most of an O-5 pension exposed to state plus county piggyback tax, a structural disadvantage against Pennsylvania next door, which taxes none of it. The countervailing fact: VA disability compensation is untaxed here as everywhere, see is VA disability taxable, so a Maryland retiree’s effective tax picture improves with every point of rating that converts taxable pension into untaxed compensation. That is worth understanding precisely, starting with the combined rating calculator.
The Conroy scholarship rewards a specific and overlooked veteran: the one rated 25% or higher who has run out of federal education benefits. Most state aid ignores veterans who already burned their Post-9/11 GI Bill; Maryland funds their second act up to resident tuition and fees at a four-year public. Dependents and surviving spouses of the 100% disabled and the fallen qualify on their own track.
Around the edges, Maryland does the small things at scale. Five state cemeteries put a dignified burial within an hour of nearly every resident, complementing the federal package in the burial and memorial guide. Park gates open free for every veteran, even visitors from out of state. And Charlotte Hall, the state’s single veterans home, pairs VA per diems with a 70%-plus rating to make skilled nursing effectively free for the most disabled. The pattern to act on: Maryland pays best at 100% P&T, so claim accordingly.
Where to apply
State benefits are administered by the state, not by VA, so the applications above run through Maryland Department of Veterans and Military Families or the specific agency named in each source link. A free VA-accredited representative or VSO in Maryland will know both stacks, the federal claim and the state paperwork, and charges nothing to help with either.