An Indiana veteran planning a move needs to check both the changes to state property-tax benefits and the claim on the next home. The deduction, credit and application requirements differ, so an existing line on a tax bill is not enough to establish future eligibility.
The changes and the new application
Indiana's two long-standing veteran property tax deductions were rewritten for the January 1, 2026 assessment date, which first shows up on the 2026 pay 2027 bill. The deduction for a veteran with a service connected disability is repealed.
The deduction for a totally disabled veteran now pays 100% of the assessed value and has no assessed value ceiling, but only a total disability qualifies. Everyone who used to qualify on age and a partial rating gets a flat credit instead. And none of it moves with you: when you sell and buy another Indiana house, you file again with the auditor of the county the new house sits in, on or before January 15.
What the benefit used to be
Two sections of the Indiana Code did the work. IC 6-1.1-12-13 took $24,960 off the assessed value of the veteran's Indiana residence for a veteran who served during a war, received an honorable discharge, and had a service connected disability rated at 10% or more. IC 6-1.1-12-14 took $14,000 off for a veteran who served at least 90 days, received an honorable discharge, and either had a total disability or was at least 62 with a disability of at least 10%.
The second one carried an assessed value ceiling, which the statute set at $175,000 for 2017 through 2019, $200,000 for 2020 through 2023, and $240,000 from the 2024 assessment date forward. Some veterans qualified for both, which the state veterans agency fact sheet prints as a combined $38,960.
What changed, and when
House Enrolled Act 1210 of 2026 rewrote all of it, retroactive to January 1, 2026, first applying for taxes due and payable in 2027. Section 46 repeals IC 6-1.1-12-13, which the state's own guidance puts plainly: that deduction "only applies to property taxes imposed for an assessment date before January 1, 2026." Section 47 amends IC 6-1.1-12-14 so that, in the state's words, "the deduction is now available only to veterans who have a total disability," and "the deduction amount has been increased to 100% of the assessed value of the real property." The assessed value ceiling is gone.
In its place the veteran must use the property as a principal residence and must have resided in Indiana for at least one year before the assessment date for which the deduction is claimed.
Sections 96 and 97 add two credits. One is a maximum of $250 for a veteran at least 62 years old with a disability of 10% or more, who served at least 90 days and was honorably discharged. The other is a maximum of $350 for a veteran with a service connected disability of at least 10% who was honorably discharged after serving during one of the nation's wars.
A veteran who takes the 100% deduction cannot take either credit. Neither credit carries forward: the statute added at section 94 says a recipient "may not carry any excess credit amount over to the following taxable year" and "is not entitled to any carryback or refund of any unused credit."
The difference between a deduction and a credit is not a detail
A deduction comes off assessed value before the rate is applied. A credit comes off the bill after it. So a $14,000 deduction and a $250 credit are not two versions of the same thing, and which one is worth more on a particular bill depends on that parcel's rate and that year's other deductions.
That arithmetic belongs to the county auditor, who has the actual rate and the actual bill in front of them, and the state's guidance says as much: "County auditors are the best point of contact for questions regarding deductions or credits and eligibility." This is not the place to guess at your number.
The conversion year, and the trap inside it
For 2026 pay 2027 only, veterans who had been receiving the $14,000 deduction are moved automatically onto the $250 credit. That is convenient and it is also the trap. A veteran who actually has a total disability and would now qualify for 100% of assessed value does not get moved there automatically.
The state's guidance is explicit that former recipients must apply to receive the 100% deduction. Nobody writes to tell you that the thing you are being handed is the smaller of the two.
For the repealed $24,960 deduction, the statute does not provide for an automatic move to the new $350 credit at all. The Department recommends that counties transfer those taxpayers anyway. A recommendation is not a statute, and a veteran who assumes it happened and never checks the bill is relying on a courtesy.
So what happens when you move
The benefit sits on a parcel. It does not sit on the veteran, and it does not travel in the deed. Once you are receiving a deduction, you do not refile every year while you stay eligible, and the auditor keeps applying it. The state's deduction guidance states it in two sentences: "Taxpayers do not need to reapply for deductions or credits annually." And then: "Reapplication should only occur if the property is sold or the title is changed."
A move is both of those at once. So the sequence on the next house is: close, then file with the auditor of the county where the new property is located, on or before January 15 of the year the taxes on it are first due and payable. The state's example of that deadline uses a homeowner who completes an application "on or before January 15, 2026" and sees it "applied to their 2025 Pay 2026 tax bill." Miss the date and the benefit does not appear retroactively; it appears a cycle later.
There is also a notice running the other way: a recipient of either new credit who becomes ineligible must tell the county auditor "not later than 60 days after the individual becomes ineligible."
One piece of good news for an in-state move. The one year residency condition on the 100% deduction is residence in Indiana, not residence in that particular house. Moving from one Indiana county to another does not restart that clock.
A late-December purchase can leave a short period before the January 15 filing deadline described here. Ask the new county's auditor what is required before closing, rather than waiting until February to review the issue.
This law has also changed twice in two years. Senate Enrolled Act 1 of 2025 briefly converted both veteran deductions into credits, and House Enrolled Act 1427, signed in May 2025, eliminated those credits and reinstated the deductions back to January 1, 2025. The state's summary of that round was that "for practical purposes, these particular deductions remain unchanged by the 2025 legislative session." Then the 2026 session changed them for real.
Anything you were told about this before this year is probably out of date, including by people who were right when they said it.
Whether your rating qualifies as a total disability, what your bill will be, whether the $250 credit or the 100% deduction is better on your parcel, and what any of it does to your income taxes are not mine. Rating questions go to the Department of Veterans Affairs or a county veteran service officer. The bill and the forms go to the county auditor where the property sits.
Tax consequences go to your CPA.
If you are weighing whether to move at all, the stay, change or move page is where that conversation starts, and the homestead deduction when you move covers the filing every Indiana owner has to redo, veteran or not.
Sources, read October 13, 2026: Indiana Department of Local Government Finance memorandum of May 27, 2026, "Legislation Affecting Deductions, Credits, and Exemptions," on HEA 1210-2026 sections 46, 47, 94, 96 and 97; DLGF memorandum of June 12, 2025 on SEA 1-2025 and HEA 1427-2025; the DLGF property tax deductions page for the reapplication rule and the January 15 example; Indiana Department of Veterans Affairs disabled veteran property tax deduction fact sheet for the prior amounts and State Form 12662; and IC 6-1.1-12-13, 6-1.1-12-14, 6-1.1-12-15 and 6-1.1-12-17.8 as reproduced on law.justia.com, which carries the 2025 code and therefore the pre-2026 text. State Form 12662 itself could not be read at its source in this session; the form number is given as the state veterans agency fact sheet prints it.
This note is general information, not legal or tax advice, and the 2026 changes are recent. Confirm your own situation with the county auditor and your attorney or CPA before relying on it.