California veterans rated 100% disabled can exempt half of a home’s value, up to $1 million of value, from property tax starting with the Jan. 1, 2027 lien date, under SB 296, which Gov. Gavin Newsom signed Sept. 28. The Board of Equalization’s analysis of the bill describes an exemption of a fixed slice of assessed value, not a blanket waiver of a whole home’s tax. The $83,474 household-income figure that gets quoted alongside the bill belongs to a different, older tier.
What does the new SB 296 exemption actually cover?
The bill, authored by state Sen. Bob Archuleta, exempts 50% of the part of a property’s full value that does not exceed $1,000,000, according to the Board of Equalization’s Aug. 21 analysis. Half of the first $1 million works out to a ceiling of $500,000 of exempt value. A home worth more than $1 million gets no additional exemption on the value above that line.
The property must be owned by, and serve as the principal residence of, the veteran, the veteran’s spouse, or both jointly, and the veteran must be 100% disabled. The analysis says the new exemption applies “in lieu of” the existing exemption in Revenue and Taxation Code section 205.5, so it replaces that benefit rather than stacking on top of it…