Two state revenue departments have posted property-tax deadlines that fall within weeks of each other this fall. South Dakota’s cutoff for the disabled-veteran exemption is November 1, 2026, which is 11 days from today. Washington gives seniors and disabled residents until December 31 to apply for the coming year’s reduction.

Each date belongs only to its own state, and each is for the exemption that takes effect next year. Neither is a refund of taxes already paid.

Washington’s senior and disabled-person exemption closes December 31

The Washington Department of Revenue’s property tax site lists December 31 as the application due date for the Senior Citizens and Disabled Persons property tax exemption for the coming year. The rule behind it is RCW 84.36.385, the state law that sets up the exemption.

The department’s exemption page says an applicant must own and live in a primary residence in Washington and have qualifying income. Each county sets its own income limit from its median household income, so the state page gives no single dollar figure.

By December 31 of the assessment year, the applicant must also meet one of four tests. That means being at least 61, being at least 57 and the surviving spouse or domestic partner of someone who was in the program when they died, being unable to work because of a disability at any age, or being a disabled veteran rated at least 80 percent service-connected or paid at the 100 percent VA compensation rate.

Anyone in one of those groups who has not applied is the person this deadline is aimed at. The department says applications go through the county assessor, and its page links to each county’s own exemption page. The state page describes the benefit as a reduction of property taxes and does not state an amount, so the figure depends on the county.

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For a Washington homeowner who is 61 or older and wondering whether the date has already passed, it has not. December 31, 2026 is 71 days away, and the county assessor is the office that takes the application.

South Dakota’s disabled-veteran exemption closes November 1

The South Dakota Department of Revenue’s calendar page lists November 1, 2026 as the deadline for the disabled-veteran property tax exemption. The same page shows the date recurring on November 1 in 2027 and 2028.

The exemption removes up to $200,000 of assessed value from the property. That property must also be the one that qualifies for the owner-occupied classification, so a second home or rental does not count.

The department says the property must be owned and lived in by a veteran rated permanently and 100 percent disabled from a service-connected disability. An unremarried surviving spouse can also qualify. The state’s online application is linked from the calendar page, and the same form is at sddor.seamlessdocs.com/f/pt46c.

Is the break for this year’s bill or next year’s?

Both agencies frame the application as the one that sets up the coming year. A Washington resident who files by December 31 is applying for the reduction on the following year’s bill, and the South Dakota date works the same way for the exemption that follows it.

Taxes already paid for 2026 are not what these deadlines reach. The practical effect is on the bill a household will see next year, which is why both states put the cutoff at the end of the calendar year or earlier.

The two states also differ on who is eligible. Washington’s exemption covers seniors, surviving spouses, people unable to work and veterans with qualifying ratings, and it is limited by county income. South Dakota’s is limited to disabled veterans rated 100 percent permanently and their surviving spouses, and it is a flat cap of $200,000 in assessed value.

What happens after a missed filing date?

Neither state page describes a late-filing grace period, and neither says what happens to an application that arrives after the cutoff. The Washington exemption page does not address renewal either. That leaves a household to confirm its own renewal date with the county assessor in Washington or the local office that handles the exemption in South Dakota.

Washington’s own page points anyone with questions about amounts, income limits or renewal to the county assessor. For a retired homeowner, that call is the step that settles whether a December 31 filing is still ahead.

Not sure if a property-tax filing date has already passed?

A retiree on a fixed income who misses the December 31 Washington date, or South Dakota’s November 1 cutoff for a disabled-veteran household, waits another year for the lower bill while the full tax comes due. Each state and county sets its own income test and its own form, and the dates are easy to lose track of.

The Senior Property Tax & Home-Cost Relief Kit lays out the 5 kinds of property-tax relief and includes an application log and renewal calendar for tracking each filing date. Part 3 walks through what each senior program does, and Part 7 sets up the yearly routine.

Get the property-tax relief kit with the December 31 application log →

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This article was produced with AI assistance and edited for accuracy against the sources linked above.