State veteran benefits · WV
West Virginia Veteran Benefits
West Virginia refunds every dollar of property tax a 90 to 100 percent permanently and totally disabled veteran pays on the homestead, through a refundable credit claimed on the state income tax return.
By Mario Bailey, U.S. Air Force veteran · current Air National Guard member. Data updated 2026-07-10.
What West Virginia adds, benefit by benefit
Your federal VA benefits travel with you to any state. Everything below is the second stack: what West Virginia itself offers, each item checked against the state's own official source on the date shown.
Disabled Veteran Real Property Tax Credit: 100 percent refunded
Veterans who are 90 to 100 percent permanently and totally disabled, and who own a homestead used exclusively as a residence, claim a refundable credit equal to 100 percent of the real property tax they paid on it, provided the taxes were paid on time. Because the credit is refundable, it pays out even with zero income tax liability. Unremarried widows and widowers of eligible veterans keep the credit while they keep the home.
Claim it by filing the IT-140 state return with form DV-1, the VA disability rating letter, and the property tax receipts. It cannot be combined with the Senior Citizen Tax Credit or the Homestead Excess Property Tax Credit in the same year, so a veteran eligible for more than one should run the numbers before choosing.
SOURCE: West Virginia Tax Division · retrieved 2026-07-10
Military retirement fully exempt since 2019
For tax years beginning on and after January 1, 2019, all military retirement income from the regular Armed Forces, Reserves, and National Guard is exempt from West Virginia income tax as a decreasing modification, and the exemption extends to Public Health Service and NOAA commissioned corps retirement. VA disability compensation is never taxed, by West Virginia or the IRS.
SOURCE: West Virginia Tax Division · retrieved 2026-07-10
Waivers for the decorated and the bereaved, stipends for the rest
West Virginia has no general veteran tuition waiver. Its public colleges waive tuition and mandatory fees for residents awarded the Medal of Honor or Purple Heart. The War Orphan Education Program waives tuition and fees at state schools for surviving spouses and children under 26 of veterans who died from service, plus up to $1,000 per semester ($2,000 a year) toward room, board, and books. Veterans themselves can claim the Veterans Re-Education Assistance stipend of up to $500 per semester in a certified post-secondary course.
SOURCE: West Virginia Department of Veterans Assistance · retrieved 2026-07-10
5 to 10 preference points on civil service exams
West Virginia adds five points to a veteran's final passing civil service examination score, and disabled veterans and Purple Heart recipients receive an additional five, to a maximum of ten. Claims require the DD-214, and the disability must be verified by a VA letter dated within the last six months.
SOURCE: West Virginia Division of Personnel · retrieved 2026-07-10
A Barboursville domiciliary and a Clarksburg nursing facility
The West Virginia Veterans Home in Barboursville is a 125-bed residential facility for veterans who are ambulatory and independent: a long-term domiciliary where residents contribute 50 percent of monthly income, plus a no-cost 60-day Project-214 program for veterans experiencing homelessness. It is housing, not nursing care.
Skilled care lives 130 miles northeast: the West Virginia Veterans Nursing Facility in Clarksburg, opened in 2008, has 120 beds including a 20-bed Alzheimer's and dementia unit, connected by breezeway to the Louis A. Johnson VA Medical Center.
SOURCE: West Virginia Department of Veterans Assistance · retrieved 2026-07-10
No license needed at total permanent disability
Under West Virginia Code 20-2-28, a resident honorably discharged veteran receiving VA benefits based on total permanent service-connected disability may hunt, trap, or fish without obtaining a license at all, subject to DNR certification and identification rules.
SOURCE: West Virginia Legislature · retrieved 2026-07-10
Donel C. Kinnard Memorial State Veterans Cemetery, Dunbar
The state cemetery in Dunbar, Kanawha County, dedicated on Memorial Day 2012, buries eligible veterans at no cost: gravesite or niche, opening and closing, a pre-set crypt, headstone or niche cover, and perpetual care. A spouse or eligible family member's interment carries a $780 fee.
SOURCE: West Virginia Department of Veterans Assistance · retrieved 2026-07-10
West Virginia built its headline benefit backwards, and the mechanics matter. The Disabled Veteran Real Property Tax Credit does not stop the county from billing you; it makes the state repay you every dollar after the fact, through the income tax return. Three consequences follow. You must pay the property tax on time, because late payments forfeit the refund for that year. You must file a West Virginia return even if the pension exemption leaves you owing nothing, because an unfiled return is an unclaimed refund. And the eligibility floor is 90 percent P&T, not 100, which quietly makes this one of the most accessible full-relief programs in the country; a veteran at 90 percent who assumed these programs start at 100 should look again, and one sitting at 80 has a concrete reason to pursue the next rating increase.
The pension side is clean: military retirement has been fully exempt since 2019, no caps and no age tests, and VA compensation is untaxed everywhere. For a retired E-7 at 90 percent P&T who owns a home in Kanawha County, the state has effectively resigned from taxing them.
Know the difference between the two facilities before a health crisis forces the lesson. Barboursville is a domiciliary: independent, ambulatory residents, half of monthly income as the fee, and a 60-day no-cost program aimed at homelessness. Clarksburg is the nursing facility, with the dementia unit and a covered walkway into the VA hospital. Families regularly apply to the wrong one, and the two are three hours apart.
Education is the stack’s weak plank for the veteran personally: $500 a semester in re-education assistance is gas money, and the meaningful waivers go to Purple Heart recipients and surviving families. A West Virginia veteran’s real education plan is the Post-9/11 GI Bill, with the state’s War Orphan program standing behind the family if the worst happens; survivors should also compare it against the federal DIC package they trigger together. The best-kept small secret is in the woods: at total permanent disability the license requirement simply disappears, no purchase, no renewal, which suits the state’s hollows better than any discount card. Dunbar then closes the ledger with a no-cost burial and the federal honors laid on top.
Where to apply
State benefits are administered by the state, not by VA, so the applications above run through West Virginia Department of Veterans Assistance or the specific agency named in each source link. A free VA-accredited representative or VSO in West Virginia will know both stacks, the federal claim and the state paperwork, and charges nothing to help with either.