KSDVL Kansas Disabled Veterans Lobby

Kansas Veterans, disability benefits,and property taxes.

Kansas Veterans left 100% permanently and totally disabled by their service still pay property tax on their homes every year. 22 states, including two of our neighbors, have laws that cover all or nearly all of that tax. We're asking Kansas to do the same in 2027.

Write your lawmaker See how it adds up

Photo: Matt Phillips / Unsplash

A front porch with an American flag, a red door and rocking chairs

Photo: Thomas Park / Unsplash

Picture a Veteran who came home 100% disabled. It's permanent.

The property tax bill comes anyway. Every single year.

Same house. Same disability. The bill never stops.

Billed after 1 year

Over 30 years, starting at $3,500 and rising 4% a year, the bills add up to $196,297.

Example only: a $3,500 bill in 2027 that rises 4% a year, before any refund. If the Veteran qualifies for the state's Seniors and Disabled Veterans refund (K-40SVR) every year, it pays back the increases, but the Veteran still pays the first $3,500 every year: $105,000 over 30 years. If household income or the home's value rules them out, they pay all of it. For context, Kansas home prices rose about 4% a year on average from 1997 to 2024, by the Federal Housing Finance Agency's price index. Home prices aren't tax bills, though: bills also depend on appraisals and local tax rates, so real bills vary by home and county.

Doesn't Kansas help?

Kansas has three property tax refund programs, and a homeowner can file for only one of them each year. None of them takes the tax off the bill. With every one, the Veteran pays the bill to the county first, then files the next spring and waits months to get part of it back. And each one has limits that can rule out a Veteran rated 100% permanently disabled.

Property Tax Relief for Seniors and Disabled Veterans K-40SVR

Who it's for
Veterans rated 50% or more, and homeowners 65 and older
Paid to the county first
The full bill, in December and May*
What comes back, the next year
How much the tax has gone up since a base year
Income limit
$58,041 household income, by Kansas adjusted gross income. Social Security doesn't count.
Home value limit
$350,000, in the base year
On a $3,500 bill, still pays
$3,300 if the base-year bill was $3,300

Where it falls short for a Veteran rated 100%:

  • Ruled out if household income is over $58,041. A spouse's or caregiver's paycheck counts.
  • Ruled out if the home was worth over $350,000 in the base year.
  • Never pays back the base-year bill.

Homestead Refund K-40H

Who it's for
Homeowners 55 and older, blind or totally disabled, raising a child under 18, or disabled Veterans rated 50% or more
Paid to the county first
The full bill, in December and May*
What comes back, the next year
Up to $700, based on income
Income limit
$43,389 household income. Half of Social Security retirement benefits count; Social Security disability doesn't.
Home value limit
$350,000
On a $3,500 bill, still pays
$2,800 or more

Where it falls short for a Veteran rated 100%:

  • Ruled out if household income is over $43,389. A spouse's or caregiver's paycheck counts.
  • Ruled out if the home is worth over $350,000.
  • Pays $700 at most.

SAFESR, for low-income seniors K-40PT

Who it's for
Low-income homeowners 65 and older only. It isn't a Veterans' program.
Paid to the county first
The full bill, in December and May
What comes back, the next year
75% of the property tax paid on time. By law it's a state income tax credit: it covers any Kansas income tax owed first, and the rest is refunded.
Income limit
$25,380 household income. All Social Security retirement benefits count; Social Security disability doesn't.
Home value limit
$350,000
On a $3,500 bill, still pays
$875

Where it falls short for a Veteran rated 100%:

  • Ruled out if the Veteran is under 65.
  • Ruled out if household income is over $25,380, counting all Social Security retirement benefits.
  • Ruled out if the home is worth over $350,000.
  • Ruled out if any property tax is delinquent.

Figures are for 2025, from the Kansas Department of Revenue. VA disability pay doesn't count toward any of these income limits, but the paychecks of others living in the home do. Social Security retirement benefits are counted three different ways: all of them for SAFESR, half for the Homestead Refund and none for K-40SVR. Social Security disability payments don't count for any of them, and neither do later benefits for someone who was on Social Security disability before full retirement age. The $3,500 examples assume the Veteran qualifies. *An optional Refund Advancement Program can put part of an expected Homestead or K-40SVR refund toward the December payment, based on the refund the year before. The rest of the bill is still paid first.

A refund isn't an exemption. The Veteran pays first.

  1. Dec. 20 and May 10PayThe full bill goes to the county, in two halves.
  2. By April 15, the next yearClaimFile with the state and prove you still qualify.
  3. 20 to 24 weeksWaitThe state's normal processing time.
  4. ThenPart backHow much depends on the program, and money owed can be taken out first.

Here’s what each program sends back, and what the Veteran still pays. Move the sliders to try your own numbers.This example: a $3,500 bill, a $3,300 base-year bill, $24,000 in household income, a $250,000 home and a Veteran under 65.

K-40SVRSeniors and Disabled VeteransOnly if household income is $58,041 or less and the home was worth $350,000 or less in the base year.Pays back only the increase over the base-year bill.
Pays the county
$3,500
Gets back
$200
Still pays
$3,300
Homestead RefundK-40HOnly if household income is $43,389 or less and the home is worth $350,000 or less. The refund shrinks as income rises.20% of the first $700 of tax, based on household income.
Pays the county
$3,500
Gets back
$140
Still pays
$3,360
SAFESRK-40PT, low-income seniorsOnly if the Veteran is 65 or older, household income is $25,380 or less, the home is worth $350,000 or less and no property tax is delinquent. It’s legally a state income tax credit: it pays any Kansas income tax owed first, and only the rest comes back as a check.Ruled out: the Veteran is under 65.
Pays the county
$3,500
Gets back
$0
Still pays
$3,500
ExemptionWhat we're asking forFor Veterans rated 100% permanently and totally disabled or unable to work. No income test and no home-value cutoff.
Pays the county
$0
Gets back
Nothing to wait for
Still pays
$0
These are estimates, not an eligibility check. A homeowner can get only one of the three. The check may be smaller than shown: through the state's setoff program, Kansas can keep part or all of it to pay a debt owed to the state, a city or county, or a court. A K-40SVR refund goes first to any property tax still owed to the county, and SAFESR isn't paid at all if property tax is delinquent. Kansas also has an optional program that can apply an expected refund to the next December bill, but it is still a refund the Veteran must qualify for each year. Dates and processing time from the Kansas Department of Revenue and Kansas Legislative Research Department.

SAFESR pays back the most, but only to homeowners 65 and older. Here's where it falls short.

SAFESR is only for homeowners 65 and older. A Veteran under 65 is left with the other two. K-40SVR, the one named for disabled Veterans, pays back only what the tax has gone up since a base year, so the base-year bill is still paid every year. The Homestead Refund pays $700 at most. Each has its own income and home-value limits, shown above.

  1. SAFESR is closed to every Veteran under 65.

    SAFESR was created in 2008 for low-income seniors, not for disabled Veterans. The homeowner must be 65 or older for the whole year, whatever the VA rating. A Veteran rated 100% permanently disabled at 45 would pay the full bill for 20 years before SAFESR is even an option.

  2. SAFESR's income limit is $25,380 for the whole household.

    A 100% rating is the VA's highest. VA ratings are based on how much a disability typically cuts into a person's ability to earn a living, and some of these Veterans are also rated unable to work. Many live with a spouse, a grown child or another relative who helps care for them. For SAFESR, Kansas adds up the income of everyone who lives in the home. The Veteran's VA disability pay doesn't count, but a caregiver's paycheck does, and so do all of the Veteran's Social Security retirement benefits. If the total is over $25,380, the Veteran gets nothing from SAFESR. Social Security retirement benefits of more than $2,115 a month are enough by themselves to rule him out. Social Security disability doesn't count, including later benefits for a Veteran who was on it before full retirement age.

    Example: a Veteran is 66 and gets $1,500 a month in Social Security retirement benefits, or $18,000 a year. His wife's part-time job pays $8,000 a year. Together that's $26,000, over the limit, so SAFESR pays nothing.

  3. SAFESR leaves out higher-value homes.

    For SAFESR, the county's appraised value of the home must be $350,000 or less. The Homestead Refund has the same cutoff, and K-40SVR applies it in the base year. In Johnson and Miami counties, and in towns near Fort Leavenworth like Basehor and Tonganoxie, the typical home is now worth more than that, so a Veteran there is likely to be over the limit. Most Wichita homes are under it, though a few Wichita ZIP codes already had typical values around $400,000 in 2023.

    All of Kansas$246,000
    Miami County$379,000
    Shawnee$433,000
    Olathe$440,000
    Basehor$449,000
    Johnson County$458,000
    Overland Park$481,000
    $350,000 limit
    Typical home values from the Zillow Home Value Index, June to September 2026 (the latest month available for each place). Zillow's figures are market estimates, not official appraisals. SAFESR and the Homestead Refund use the county's value for the claim year. K-40SVR uses the value in its base year, so a home bought earlier may still qualify for that one.

  4. Even with SAFESR, the Veteran still pays a quarter of the bill, and pays all of it first.

    SAFESR is not an exemption. The Veteran pays the whole bill to the county, on time; only tax paid on time counts, and a Veteran with any delinquent property tax can't file at all. The next year, 75% comes back. By law it's a credit against Kansas income tax. It pays any Kansas income tax the Veteran owes first, Kansas can keep it to cover other debts through the setoff program, and only what's left arrives as a check. The other 25% is the Veteran's to pay every year, and it grows as the tax goes up.

    Example: on a $3,500 bill, SAFESR sends back $2,625 and the Veteran still pays $875. If the bill reached $5,000, SAFESR would send back $3,750, and the Veteran would still pay $1,250.

What would it add up to?

Move the sliders to try your own numbers. Property tax bills don't stay flat, so the last slider lets you set how fast yours grows.

Total property tax over 30 years, before any refund $196,297

The bill in the last year: $10,915

Estimated still paid if the Veteran qualifies for the Seniors and Disabled Veterans refund (K-40SVR) every one of those years: $105,000

Under the full exemption we're asking for: $0

Three separate scenarios, not three results for the same Veteran. The K-40SVR estimate assumes the Veteran stays under the household income limit and the base-year home-value limit the whole time, with the first year as the base year. A Veteran who doesn't qualify pays the full total. The $0 applies to general property tax and leaves out special assessments, such as charges for street or sewer work. Whether a future exemption would cover them is up to lawmakers.

Just across the state line, it's different.

Two of our neighbors, Oklahoma and Nebraska, charge a 100% disabled Veteran nothing on their home. Here's how Kansas compares.

NebraskaNorth$0 on the home

No property tax on the home of a Veteran rated 100% for a service-connected disability, whatever the home's value or the family's income.

ColoradoWestHalf off, up to a point

Half of the first $200,000 of the home's value isn't taxed. The state pays counties back.

KansasNo exemption

Only the refunds above, with income and home-value limits. Even with K-40SVR, the base-year bill is still paid every year.

MissouriEastNot yet

Only former prisoners of war get a full break. Missouri's House voted 152 to 2 in 2026 to change that.

OklahomaSouth$0 on the home

No property tax on the home of a Veteran rated 100% permanent and total.

In all, 22 states have laws that cover all or nearly all of the property tax on the home for Veterans rated 100% or totally disabled. Most take it off the bill; a few pay it back as a credit. The details differ from state to state. Indiana, Arizona, Connecticut and West Virginia were added in the last three years.

See all 50 states

Kansas trains thousands of soldiers. Very few stay.

Every year, thousands of soldiers finish their service at Fort Riley and Fort Leavenworth and decide where to put down roots. At Fort Riley, almost all of them leave Kansas.

Some leave the Army with injuries that will last the rest of their lives. When a family compares Kansas with Oklahoma or Texas, the yearly tax bill on a home can be part of the math.

The Army's report doesn't say why soldiers leave, and jobs and family pull many of them elsewhere. But housing costs are one thing families weigh when choosing where to settle, and a Veteran who can't work isn't moving for a paycheck.

48of 2,400 stayed

Soldiers who left the Army at Fort Riley in the year ending September 2025, and how many stayed in Kansas. That's 2%, or about 1 in 50.

About 3,000service members return to civilian life in Kansas each year. The state's Commerce Department says only about 10% stay.

More than 700military leaders retire or leave active duty at Fort Leavenworth each year, by a 2016 count.

Sources: Fort Riley economic impact summary, fiscal year 2025 · Kansas Department of Commerce, 2025 · KSHB, 2016 · Fort Riley transition office, 2017

The Kansas State Capitol in Topeka. Photo: Nils Huenerfuerst / Unsplash

The Kansas House voted unanimously for property tax relief.

124–0

124 voted yes1 absent0 voted no

On March 18, 2026, the Kansas House voted 124 to 0 for a bill with a state income tax credit that would have paid back half of these Veterans' property taxes each year. Not one member voted no.

Then time ran out. The House and Senate never agreed on a final version before the session ended in April, so it didn't become law.

There was also a catch: the same bill would have taken away the sales tax break Veterans had just won, so that vote was for both changes together. Veterans shouldn't have to give up one to get the other.

What Kansas lawmakers have proposed

Lawmakers have taken this up several times since 2023. The first bill was a real property tax exemption. The later ones offered partial income tax credits instead. None became law.

2023–24HB 2036

A property tax exemption, graduated by disability rating

The House passed it 123 to 1 on March 29, 2023. It would have taken the home off the property tax rolls for Veterans rated above 70%, and some others, and exempted 60% to 90% of the home’s assessed value for Veterans rated 30% to 60%. In March 2024, the Senate tax committee replaced it with a sales tax exemption, and the bill number was later used for an unrelated tax package. The property tax exemption never came back.

Full history of HB 2036

2024HB 2096

A refundable income tax credit for 75% of the property tax, bundled with other tax changes

The final bill also would have expanded K-40SVR: the household income limit in the law from $50,000 to $80,000 (the law’s figure is adjusted for inflation each year; it was $58,041 for 2025), and the base-year home-value limit from $350,000 to $500,000. It also carried unrelated property tax changes, including rebates for some health clubs, restaurants and child care centers that compete with city or county facilities, exemptions for boats, off-road vehicles and some trailers, and a rule on which commercial sales count in appraisals.

It passed the House 91 to 26 and the Senate 23 to 11 on April 30, 2024. Governor Kelly vetoed the whole bill on May 16. The tax deal passed in the June 2024 special session, SB 1, left the credit out, and attempts to add it failed. A separate 2025 law, HB 2231, later changed how K-40SVR counts income, but the $80,000 limit, the $500,000 limit and the 75% credit never became law. Today’s limits are the ones shown above.

Full history of HB 2096 · The special session · Bill as passed

2025HB 2005

A refundable income tax credit: started at 75%, cut to 50%

Introduced as a 75% credit. The House tax committee cut it to 50%. It never got a final vote, and in 2026 its contents moved into SB 434.

Full history · Bill page

2026House Sub. for SB 434

A refundable income tax credit for 50%, and the end of the sales tax break

The House passed it 124 to 0 on March 18, 2026. The same bill would have repealed the Veterans' sales tax break, which was set to start that July, so the vote was on both together. The bill had started in the Senate as a fix to who qualifies for the sales tax break. The Senate didn't agree to the House version, and it died on April 10, 2026.

Full history · Legislative summary

What did become law: a sales tax exemption for these Veterans (HB 2098, 2024), which lawmakers passed over the governor’s veto and which started July 1, 2026, and the 2025 change to how K-40SVR counts income (HB 2231). See the full legislative history, vote by vote, including what else was in each bill.

None of the three credits was a property tax exemption. Veterans would still have paid the full property tax bill to the county first, then claimed the credit on the next spring's state income tax return. All three credits were for Veterans rated totally disabled or unable to work. Because the credit was refundable, Veterans who owe no income tax would still have gotten it. There was no household income test or home-value limit, and a Veteran who took it couldn't also get SAFESR or a refund under the Homestead Refund law, which covers both the Homestead Refund and K-40SVR, for the same home and year.

On a $3,500 bill, paid in full first, what the Veteran would still pay

Today's K-40SVR refund, $3,300 base-year bill*$3,300
2026 bill: 50% income tax credit$1,750
2024 bill: 75% income tax credit$875
What we're asking for: exemption$0
*If the base-year bill was $3,300: K-40SVR pays back the $200 increase. Each row is a separate scenario that assumes the Veteran qualifies. The K-40SVR refund and the credits come back after the bill is paid; an exemption takes the tax off the bill. None of the credits became law.

What we're asking for in 2027

  1. No property tax on one home

    For Veterans the VA rates 100% permanently and totally disabled, or unable to work because of their service disability. No household income test, and no home-value cutoff.

  2. The state covers the cost

    So schools, cities and counties aren't left short, and the cost isn't passed on to other homeowners.

  3. Keep what Veterans already won

    The sales tax break that started in July 2026 stays.

We'd also like lawmakers to look at partial relief for Veterans with lower ratings.

Fair questions

Straight answers to what people ask us most.

Have a question we didn't cover? Ask us.

Will my taxes go up?

Not your property tax, if the state pays for it as we're asking. State payments would keep counties and school districts whole, so they wouldn't need to raise property taxes to cover it. The money would come from the state budget, so we want the law to spell out exactly how it's paid for.

Why these Veterans, and not everyone?

Because the VA has confirmed their disability came from serving our country, and that it's permanent. Kansas already gives them a sales tax break. Their home is the piece that's missing.

Can't a disabled Veteran just work?

Some do, and that's their right. A 100% rating measures how severe a service-connected disability is, not whether someone has a job. Some of these Veterans are also rated unable to work, and many depend on family who live with them and help. A Veteran shouldn't lose help because the people caring for him have jobs.

What would it cost?

Nobody knows exactly yet, which is why we want an official estimate. In 2025, the state estimated that a credit for 75% of these Veterans' property taxes would cost about $11 million to $13 million a year. The state hasn't estimated a full exemption, which would cost more.

What about Veterans who rent?

This helps homeowners. Renters need a different fix, and we'd support looking at one.

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Your message

Dear Representative or Senator Name, I live in your district, in your town. Please support property tax relief for Kansas Veterans who are 100% permanently and totally disabled from their service. Today's refunds can leave these Veterans out. They count the income of everyone living in the home, including family caregivers, and they cap the home's value at $350,000, less than a typical Johnson County home is worth today. Even when a Veteran qualifies, these refunds come back after the bill is paid, and the Seniors and Disabled Veterans refund (K-40SVR) only pays back increases over a base year. In 2026 the Kansas House voted 124 to 0 for relief, but it never became law. In 2027, please pass a bill that: • takes the property tax off one home for these Veterans, with no household income test, • has the state cover the cost, so our schools and counties aren't left short, and • keeps the sales tax break Veterans already have. Thank you, Your name

Where these facts come from (checked November 10, 2026)