House Bill 552 Summary

• Expands eligibility for special property tax reductions to veterans with 100% service-connected disabilities or individual unemployability ratings compensated at the 100% disability rate, as certified by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.

• Establishes a special property tax or occupancy tax reduction of $1,320 or the actual amount of taxes owed, whichever is less, for qualified disabled veterans on their homesteads beginning in tax year 2020.

• Allows combined tax reductions from both the standard reduction (Section 63-705) and the special disabled veteran reduction (Section 63-705A) not to exceed the veteran's actual property or occupancy taxes.

• Eliminates income documentation requirements for applicants seeking the special disabled veteran tax reduction while maintaining all other procedural requirements.

• Permits surviving spouses of qualified veterans to continue receiving the special tax reduction in the year of the veteran's death and subsequent years until the spouse remarries, dies, or no longer has property taxes levied on the homestead.

• Declares the act an emergency measure effective retroactively to January 1, 2020.