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.

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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 veterans' refund 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. A homeowner can get only one of them each year. None of them takes the tax off the bill, and each has income and home-value limits.

Seniors and Disabled Veterans Refund K-40SVR

Pays back how much the tax has gone up since a base year. For disabled veterans and homeowners 65 and older.

Household income $58,041 or less. Home worth $350,000 or less in the base year.

Homestead Refund K-40H

Up to $700, based on income.

Household income $43,389 or less. Home worth $350,000 or less.

Senior refund (SAFESR) K-40PT

Pays back 75% of the tax. Only for homeowners 65 and older; not a veterans' program.

Household income $25,380 or less. Home worth $350,000 or less.

Figures are for 2025, from the Kansas Department of Revenue. The veterans' refund is the one built for these veterans. Here's where it falls short.

  1. A working family member can push the household over the limit.

    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 this refund, Kansas adds up the Kansas adjusted gross income of everyone who lives in the home. The veteran's VA disability pay doesn't count, but a caregiver's paycheck does. If the total is over $58,041, the veteran gets nothing from this refund.

    Example: a veteran's daughter moves in to help care for him and keeps her job as a nurse. Her paycheck can push the household over the limit, and his refund disappears.

  2. It leaves out higher-value homes.

    The home must have been worth $350,000 or less in the year before the veteran first qualifies, and no earlier than 2021. In Johnson and Miami counties, and in towns near Fort Leavenworth like Basehor and Tonganoxie, the typical home is now worth more than that. A veteran who buys there today, or who first qualifies now, 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. The limit uses the county's value for the home in the year before the veteran first qualifies, so homes bought earlier may still qualify.

  3. The veteran keeps paying the base-year bill.

    The refund pays back only what the tax has gone up since the base year: the year before the veteran first qualified, or 2021 for veterans who qualified earlier. The base-year amount is still due every year for as long as they own the home. The refund grows as taxes rise, but the veteran's own share never shrinks.

    Example: the base-year bill was $3,300 and this year's is $3,500, so the refund is $200 and the veteran still pays $3,300. If the bill later reached $5,000, the refund would be $1,700, and the veteran would still pay $3,300.

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 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 refund 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 the veterans' refund, 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

In March 2026, the Kansas House voted 124 to 0 for 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: that bill would have taken away the sales tax break veterans had just won. 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 2024. Each bill offered a partial income tax credit, not an exemption, and none became law.

2024HB 2096

A refundable income tax credit for 75% of the property tax, and a looser veterans' refund

The bill also would have changed the refund that pays back tax increases (now K-40SVR): the household income limit in the law would have gone from $50,000 to $80,000 (the law's figure is adjusted for inflation each year; it was $58,041 for 2025), the base-year home-value limit from $350,000 to $500,000, and Social Security would have been left out of household income.

It passed the House and Senate as part of a larger tax bill. Governor Kelly vetoed the whole bill on May 16, 2024, so it didn't enact any of this. In a June 2024 special session, lawmakers passed a different tax package, SB 1, which the governor signed on June 20. It left out the veterans' credit. SB 2, which would have revived it, was introduced but didn't advance. A separate 2025 law, HB 2231, later changed how the veterans' refund counts income: since tax year 2025 it uses Kansas adjusted gross income, which leaves out Social Security. The $80,000 income limit, the $500,000 home-value limit and the 75% credit have not become law. Today's limits are the ones shown above.

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.

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 in March 2026. It also would have repealed the veterans' sales tax break that started that July. The Senate didn't agree to the House version, and it died on April 10, 2026.

Legislative summary

None of these credits was a property tax exemption. Veterans would still have paid the property tax bill, then claimed the credit on their state income tax return. All three 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 the Homestead Refund or the senior refund.

On a $3,500 bill, what the veteran would still pay

Today's veterans' refund*$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: the refund pays back the $200 increase. Each row is a separate scenario that assumes the veteran qualifies. The 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, the refund 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)