State veteran benefits · NE
Nebraska Veteran Benefits
Nebraska exempts 100 percent of the homestead from property tax for veterans rated 100 percent service-connected permanent and total, or drawing 100 percent individual unemployability, with no income or home value limits.
By Mario Bailey, U.S. Air Force veteran · current Air National Guard member. Data updated 2026-07-10.
What Nebraska adds, benefit by benefit
Your federal VA benefits travel with you to any state. Everything below is the second stack: what Nebraska itself offers, each item checked against the state's own official source on the date shown.
Category 4V homestead exemption: full, uncapped
Veterans with a 100 percent service-connected permanent disability, and veterans receiving a 100 percent individual unemployability rating, get their homestead 100 percent exempted from property tax regardless of income and regardless of the home's value. The veteran must own and occupy the homestead from January 1 through August 15.
The exemption is not automatic: Form 458 goes to the county assessor between February 2 and June 30 for the first year, and Category 4V veterans then refile only in years ending in 0 or 5 (the five-year exemption period) or when their status changes. Missing a required filing can still cost the year, though the county board can extend the deadline to July 20, and separate late routes exist for a spouse's death or a medical condition.
SOURCE: Nebraska Department of Revenue · retrieved 2026-07-10
Military retirement is 100 percent excluded
For tax years beginning on or after January 1, 2022, all military retirees exclude 100 percent of military retirement benefits from Nebraska taxable income, automatically, with no election or form required. The exclusion covers retirement reported on a 1099-R from DoD or OPM, including Coast Guard, USPHS, and NOAA retirees. VA disability compensation is never taxed, by Nebraska or federally.
SOURCE: Nebraska Department of Revenue · retrieved 2026-07-10
Waiver of Tuition for dependents, 100 percent
Nebraska waives 100 percent of tuition and tuition-related fees at University of Nebraska campuses, state colleges, and community colleges for Nebraska-resident dependents of a veteran who is rated 100 percent permanently and totally disabled from service, died as a result of service, or was classified as MIA or POW during armed hostilities. Children are eligible until a bachelor's degree or age 26; spouses until a bachelor's degree.
The waiver funds one community college credential and one baccalaureate degree, in that order. Once a bachelor's degree is earned, eligibility ends with no exceptions, so students planning both should complete the community college award first.
SOURCE: Nebraska Department of Veterans' Affairs · retrieved 2026-07-10
Preference points in public hiring
Veterans who pass an examination or numerical scoring for a covered public job get 5 percent added to their passing score, and disabled veterans get an additional 5 percent on top of that. Where no exam is used, the qualifying veteran gets preference among equally qualified candidates.
SOURCE: Nebraska Department of Labor · retrieved 2026-07-10
Four state veterans homes
Nebraska operates the Eastern Nebraska Veterans' Home in Bellevue (120 beds across skilled nursing, assisted living, and skilled dementia care), the Central Nebraska Veterans' Home in Kearney (a 225-bed skilled nursing facility opened in 2019), the Norfolk Veterans' Home, and the Western Nebraska Veterans' Home in Scottsbluff. Eligibility requires active duty with an honorable or general discharge and two years of Nebraska residency at some point; spouses, surviving spouses, and Gold Star spouses and parents can also qualify.
SOURCE: Nebraska Department of Veterans' Affairs · retrieved 2026-07-10
Two state veterans cemeteries, Alliance and Grand Island
The Nebraska Veterans Cemetery at Alliance, the state's first, was dedicated in 2010 with capacity for more than 8,000 interments. The Nebraska Veterans Cemetery at Grand Island, on the grounds of the 1888 Soldiers and Sailors Cemetery, was dedicated July 12, 2025, giving central Nebraska its own state cemetery with perpetual care for veterans and dependents.
SOURCE: Nebraska Department of Veterans' Affairs · retrieved 2026-07-10
Nebraska pairs one of the most generous property exemptions in the country with one of the least forgiving filing systems, and both halves deserve equal attention. The generosity: Category 4V has no income test and no home value cap, and it explicitly includes veterans paid at the 100 percent rate for individual unemployability, who are shut out of many states’ programs. A veteran with an 80 percent schedular rating drawing IU compensation owns the same full exemption as a 100 percent P&T rating; if you are not sure which side of that line you sit on, start with how VA computes and pays the 100 percent rate.
The part that still catches people: the filing calendar. The first Form 458 goes to the county assessor between February 2 and June 30, and after that a Category 4V veteran refiles in years ending in 0 or 5, the five-year exemption period, or whenever status changes. A missed required filing can cost the year, and while the county board can extend the deadline to July 20 and narrow late routes exist for a spouse’s death or a documented medical condition, none of them is worth relying on. Set a reminder for the first week of February in every filing year and treat it like a tax deadline, because it is one.
For families, the dependents tuition waiver is the sleeper benefit, and its ordering rule is the trap. The waiver pays for one community college credential and one bachelor’s degree, but only in that sequence; earn the bachelor’s first and the community college award is gone forever. A dependent who also has transferred Post-9/11 GI Bill entitlement should usually spend the state waiver on the community college years and save Chapter 33, with its housing allowance, for the university stretch.
Since 2022 the military pension exclusion is total and automatic, no election forms, which combined with the homestead exemption makes Nebraska quietly competitive with the no-income-tax states for a retired 100 percent household. The newest piece of the stack is geographic: the Grand Island cemetery dedicated in July 2025 means a central Nebraska family no longer drives to Alliance, and the federal burial benefits apply at both grounds. Nebraska rewards the organized. Keep the folder current and the state holds up its end.
Where to apply
State benefits are administered by the state, not by VA, so the applications above run through Nebraska Department of Veterans' Affairs or the specific agency named in each source link. A free VA-accredited representative or VSO in Nebraska will know both stacks, the federal claim and the state paperwork, and charges nothing to help with either.