Disabled veterans in Detroit who want their home exempt from property tax for 2026 have to file a one-page form, Form 5107, with the city before December 31. The same deadline applies to a veteran’s unremarried surviving spouse and to a legal designee who files on the veteran’s behalf. The exemption is for a home the veteran owns and lives in, and it does not happen automatically.
That leaves about ten weeks from Monday, October 19, 2026. The city’s own page and Michigan law spell out the deadline, the paperwork and who counts.
What Detroit says has to be filed, and where
The City of Detroit’s Board of Review page says the disabled veteran, their unremarried surviving spouse, or their legal designee must complete and file Form 5107, the Affidavit for Disabled Veterans Exemption, with the Detroit Assessor’s Office. The documents “must be submitted before December 31 during the year in which the exemption is requested.”
Filing is in person or by drop box at the Detroit Taxpayer Service Center, Suite 130 of the Coleman A. Young Municipal Center, 2 Woodward Avenue, or by mail to Suite 804 at the same address, Detroit, MI 48226. Applications sent by email are not accepted. The page asks for both sides of a driver’s license showing the property address and a copy of the current disabled veterans letter from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.
For a Detroit veteran or widow, the question is simple. Anyone who owns and lives in a home in the city, has a qualifying VA rating, and has never filed Form 5107 is the person this December 31 date is written for, and a filing missed this year means the whole year’s tax bill stays.
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Detroit’s page adds that the exemption is for property “owned and used as a homestead.” A principal residence exemption is not required, only that the veteran owns and uses the home as a homestead. A neighboring parcel next to the home is not covered.
Who counts as a disabled veteran under Michigan law
The rule comes from Michigan law, MCL 211.7b. A veteran is someone who served in the U.S. Armed Forces, including the reserves, was discharged under honorable conditions and is a Michigan resident. A disabled veteran meets one of three tests set by the statute.
- Permanently and totally disabled as a result of military service and entitled to veterans’ benefits at the 100 percent rate.
- Receiving, or having received, assistance from the VA for specially adapted housing.
- Rated by the Department of Veterans Affairs as individually unemployable.
A surviving spouse qualifies if the veteran was eligible immediately before death. The exemption lasts while the spouse does not remarry, and the spouse must hold the title alone. For a veteran, title must be held alone or jointly with a spouse.
What the exemption is worth, and whether it must be renewed
A Michigan State Tax Commission bulletin dated November 14, 2023, hosted by Detroit, says the exemption covers the current year’s property taxes on a home owned and used as a homestead. If the home was not a homestead for the full year, the amount is prorated. The form goes to the local assessor, not to the state Treasury Department.
The bulletin lists the proof the assessor wants. For a 100 percent rating, that is a VA letter showing a 100 percent service-connected disability and entitlement to benefits. A letter from a county veterans office is not enough. The VA says it lets veterans download their VA benefit summary letter online, which is the document most filers will need.
One change affects who has to worry about the deadline. For taxes levied on or after January 1, 2025, the statute says the exemption “remains in effect, without subsequent reapplication” until the owner rescinds it or the assessor denies it. A veteran already approved does not refile each December. The bulletin says an owner who stops using the home as a homestead, or who no longer qualifies, must file Form 6054 with the assessor within 45 days.
What to know before December 31
The statute says the filing must come after January 1 and before December 31 of the year for which the exemption is claimed. That rules out waiting for a letter that arrives in January. The Detroit page lists exact cutoffs for 2025: documents dropped off or delivered in person by 4:30 p.m. on December 23, 2025, and a postmark of December 30, 2025 for mail. It does not list matching 2026 times, so the safe move is to file well before the last week of December.
The Michigan Department of Treasury’s property tax exemptions page lists the Disabled Veteran Exemption among its homeowner programs. It does not carry the details, so Detroit’s page and the statute are the working documents.
Detroit’s page also lists a separate program with its own date. The deadline for 2026 applications to the city’s HOPE poverty exemption is 4:30 p.m. on November 6, 2026. That is a different exemption for homeowners with limited income, and Form 5107 does not substitute for it.
The page says the December Board of Review convenes on the Tuesday after the second Monday in December, which in 2026 falls on December 15. It does not say which session decides disabled veterans requests, so the date does not extend the December 31 filing deadline.
Is the Detroit property-tax filing the only VA paperwork waiting?
A veteran racing to file Form 5107 is already holding a VA letter, which is the same starting point for other VA benefits. Wartime veterans and surviving spouses with limited income can go years without ever filing for a VA pension or Aid & Attendance, simply because nobody pointed them to it.
The Veterans Benefits Action Kit moves from the property-tax form to that bigger question. It lays out the three VA pension levels including Aid & Attendance, and it explains how to file for free with VA Form 21P-527EZ, so a veteran or widow does not pay a middleman for a form that costs nothing to file.
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This article was produced with AI assistance and edited for accuracy against the sources linked above.
