What property tax exemption do disabled veterans get in Colorado?

Colorado's benefit is a constitutional one, and it is the same exemption the state gives to seniors: half of the first tier of a home's value is removed from the tax base. It reaches fewer veterans than Texas's or Florida's tiered systems, but it has been expanding — Gold Star spouses were added in 2023 and veterans rated at least 70% who are compensated at the 100% rate because of individual unemployability were added by voters in November 2024. Colorado has no state veteran mortgage program; the loan side is the federal VA benefit.

The exemption

Article X, Section 3.5 of the Colorado Constitution, implemented at C.R.S. § 39-3-201 and following, exempts 50% of the first tier of actual value of an owner-occupied primary residence from property tax for a qualifying veteran. The tier is capped at an amount set in statute, and value above the cap is fully taxed.

Who qualifies:

• A veteran with a 100% permanent and total service-connected disability rating, honorably discharged.
• Since the 2024 ballot measure (Amendment G), a veteran rated at 100% for individual unemployability, effective for property tax year 2025.
• A Gold Star spouse — the surviving spouse of a service member who died in the line of duty or of a veteran who died from a service-connected condition — since the 2023 implementation.
• The surviving spouse of a veteran who was receiving the exemption, as long as they continue to occupy the home.

Requirements that trip people up: the veteran must have owned and occupied the home as a primary residence, and ownership must be in the veteran's name (or a trust or spouse arrangement the statute permits). A home bought after the application deadline in a given year qualifies the following year.

Colorado veteran benefits at a glance

Filing and escrow

The application goes to the county assessor where the home is, in a window that runs from 1 January to 1 July for that year's exemption. (Applications used to be routed through the Colorado Division of Veterans Affairs; they are not any more, and the state asks that you not send them there.) Applications received after 1 July are not held — you re-apply when the window reopens. The exemption, once granted, continues without annual re-filing as long as you own and occupy the home.

Military retirement pay

Colorado taxes military retirement pay as income but allows a subtraction: a capped amount for retirees under 55, and the general pension and annuity subtraction from 55 on, both set in the Colorado income tax statutes and adjusted by the legislature from time to time. It is not a full exemption the way Texas (no income tax) or Florida works, so confirm the current subtraction with the Colorado Department of Revenue before counting on it.

For everyone else

Colorado's exemption does not reach veterans below 100% P&T or IU. For them the picture is the federal VA benefit: the VA loan guidelines, a funding fee waived at any compensable rating, and — relevant on the Front Range, where price points have climbed — the fact that full entitlement carries no VA loan limit. Colorado Springs is one metro fed by four installations, which is why the Fort Carson guide covers Peterson, Schriever and the Air Force Academy in the same page, and why it is the one Colorado base guide in Phase 1. If you are arriving on orders, the PCS Home Buying Guide has the timeline.

Colorado base guides

• Buying Near Fort Carson: The Colorado Springs VA Loan Guide