State veteran benefits · TX
Texas Veteran Benefits
A Texas veteran rated 100 percent, or paid at the 100 percent rate for individual unemployability, owes zero property tax on the home: Tax Code 11.131 exempts the homestead's total appraised value.
By Mario Bailey, U.S. Air Force veteran · current Air National Guard member. Data updated 2026-07-10.
What Texas adds, benefit by benefit
Your federal VA benefits travel with you to any state. Everything below is the second stack: what Texas itself offers, each item checked against the state's own official source on the date shown.
Total homestead exemption at 100 percent, dollar tiers below it
Tax Code Section 11.131 exempts the total appraised value of the residence homestead for veterans awarded 100 percent compensation from VA, whether from a 100 percent rating or a determination of individual unemployability. An unremarried surviving spouse keeps the full exemption while the home remains the principal residence, and carries a fixed dollar amount to a new homestead. You can file as late as five years after the taxes went delinquent.
Below 100 percent, Section 11.22 exempts a slice of value on any one property the veteran owns: $5,000 for 10 to 29 percent, $7,500 for 30 to 49 percent, $10,000 for 50 to 69 percent, and $12,000 for 70 to 100 percent. A veteran 65 or older with at least a 10 percent rating, or one who is blind or lost the use of a limb, also qualifies for the $12,000 tier. An eligible veteran can hold both exemptions on different property.
SOURCE: Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts · retrieved 2026-07-10
No state income tax on anything, including retired pay
Texas has no state income tax, so military retired pay, Survivor Benefit Plan payments, and civilian wages are all untaxed at the state level. VA disability compensation is not taxed anywhere: the IRS instructs veterans not to include VA disability benefits in gross income at all.
SOURCE: Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts · retrieved 2026-07-10
Hazlewood Act: 150 credit hours tuition-free
The Hazlewood Act exempts qualified veterans from tuition and most fees at Texas public colleges and universities for up to 150 credit hours; it does not cover living expenses, books, or supply fees. Under the Legacy Act a veteran may assign unused hours to a child, and the spouse and dependents of a veteran who is 100 percent permanently and totally disabled are each entitled to their own 150 credit hours.
SOURCE: University of Texas at Austin Office of the Registrar · retrieved 2026-07-10
Military employment preference at state agencies
Texas state agencies apply a military employment preference under state law: when two or more candidates are equally qualified for a posted vacancy, the eligible veteran, veteran's spouse, active-duty spouse, or orphaned child of a service member is identified as the top candidate.
Veterans also get priority of service at every Texas Workforce Solutions office, which moves them to the front of the line for job matching, training, and dedicated veterans representatives.
SOURCE: Texas Commission on Environmental Quality · retrieved 2026-07-10
Ten state veterans homes, free at 70 percent and up
The Texas Veterans Land Board runs ten state veterans homes: Amarillo, Big Spring, Bonham, El Paso, Floresville, Fort Worth, Houston, McAllen, Temple, and Tyler. Veterans with a 70 percent or higher service-connected disability can generally live in them for free, and spouses and Gold Star parents are eligible for admission.
SOURCE: Texas Veterans Land Board · retrieved 2026-07-10
Disabled Veteran Super Combo license, free
Texas Parks and Wildlife issues the Disabled Veteran Super Combo Hunting and All-Water Fishing Package free to veterans rated 50 percent or more, or with loss of use of a foot or leg, resident or nonresident. It bundles hunting and fishing licenses with archery, freshwater, saltwater (with red drum tag), upland game bird, and migratory game bird endorsements. In-person purchase only; the federal duck stamp is still separate.
SOURCE: Texas Parks and Wildlife Department · retrieved 2026-07-10
Four state veterans cemeteries, a fifth opening
The Veterans Land Board manages state veterans cemeteries in Killeen (Central Texas), Corpus Christi (Coastal Bend), Mission (Rio Grande Valley), and Abilene, with the West Texas State Veterans Cemetery in Lubbock listed as coming in 2026. Burial benefits are identical to VA national cemeteries.
SOURCE: Texas General Land Office · retrieved 2026-07-10
VLB land loans: the only program of its kind
The Veterans Land Board lends Texas veterans up to $200,000 to buy land of at least one acre, with a minimum 5 percent down and a fixed 30-year term, described by the VLB as the only program of its kind in the nation. Eligibility starts at 90 days of active duty with an honorable, general, or medical discharge, plus Texas residency.
SOURCE: Texas Veterans Land Board · retrieved 2026-07-10
Texas is the rare state where the two biggest line items in a disabled veteran’s budget, property tax and income tax, can both be zero without a single income test. The machinery that matters is the difference between Tax Code 11.131 and 11.22. The first is the total homestead exemption, and it keys off how VA pays you, not just the combined rating: a veteran rated 70 percent but paid at the 100 percent rate for individual unemployability qualifies for the full wipeout. The second is the tiered exemption most veterans actually hold, and its ceiling is $12,000 of value, worth maybe a couple hundred dollars a year. Veterans sitting at 90 percent are one successful increase away from the single most valuable state benefit in the country, which is worth knowing before you decide an appeal is not worth the paperwork. The combined-rating math decides which side of that line you live on.
Hazlewood is the other pillar, and its best feature is the one families overlook: the Legacy transfer. A veteran who never plans to sit in a classroom again can hand 150 tuition-free credit hours to a child, and the spouse and dependents of a 100 percent P&T veteran do not split a pool, they each get their own 150 hours. Sequence it against the Post-9/11 GI Bill deliberately, because Chapter 33 carries a housing allowance Hazlewood does not, so most families burn the federal benefit first and let Hazlewood carry the second degree or the second kid.
The five-year lookback on the homestead exemption is the most commonly missed dollar amount in the state. A veteran whose 100 percent rating came through in 2023 but who never told the appraisal district can still claw back every year since, and the refund arrives as a check, not a credit. Pair that with the fact that VA compensation itself is never taxed and the effective raise from a rating increase in Texas is larger than the pay chart suggests.
Who wins here: the 100 percent or IU homeowner, obviously, but also the rural veteran, because no other state will finance bare land through a dedicated veterans program. The VLB land loan at 5 percent down is how a medically retired E-6 ends up with twenty acres outside Bonham, and the ten state homes mean the plan still works at the end of life, free at 70 percent and up. For everything federal that stacks underneath, from hiring preference to burial honors, Texas adds a state layer on top rather than a substitute.
Where to apply
State benefits are administered by the state, not by VA, so the applications above run through Texas Veterans Commission or the specific agency named in each source link. A free VA-accredited representative or VSO in Texas will know both stacks, the federal claim and the state paperwork, and charges nothing to help with either.