New Hampshire Veteran Benefits 2026: Complete State Guide

• New Hampshire Veteran Benefits by Disability Rating
• New Hampshire Taxes for Veterans and Military Retirees
• Veterans’ Property Tax Credits
• Education Benefits
• Employment Benefits
• Driver’s Licenses, Registration and Plates
• State Parks, Hunting and Fishing
• New Hampshire Veterans Home
• New Hampshire State Veterans Cemetery
• Surviving Spouse and Family Benefits
• War Bonuses, Dental Care and Records
• How to Claim New Hampshire Veteran Benefits, Step by Step
• Frequently Asked Questions

New Hampshire doesn’t tax wages or retirement income, so the state’s biggest benefit for veterans is the one you don’t have to apply for. Most of the rest is handled by your city or town: property tax credits are set by local vote, which means the same veteran can save $50 in one town and $750 in the next, and a 2025 law lets towns raise the credit for totally disabled veterans to $5,000 starting this year. This guide covers each benefit, who qualifies, what your town controls, and where to apply.

New Hampshire Veteran Benefits by Disability Rating

Many benefits depend on your VA rating. This is what each level unlocks, using the rules covered below:

Several of these depend on a permanent and total rating, not just 100%. If you’re not sure which you have, our 100% VA disability guide explains the difference.

New Hampshire Taxes for Veterans and Military Retirees

New Hampshire doesn’t tax earned income or retirement income. The only personal income tax it had, the Interest and Dividends tax, was repealed for taxable periods beginning after December 31, 2024. For veterans and service members, that means:

• Military retired pay is free of state income tax
• Active-duty, Guard and Reserve pay is free of state income tax
• TSP withdrawals, Survivor Benefit Plan annuities and VA disability pay are free of state income tax
• There’s no state return to file

New Hampshire also has no general sales tax. The trade-off is property tax, which is among the highest in the country, so the property tax credits below matter more here than in most states. Our military pension calculator shows what your retired pay will be, and none of it goes to Concord.

Veterans’ Property Tax Credits

Credits come off your tax bill, and the amount depends on what your city or town has voted. The state sets a standard amount and a range; each town can adopt a higher amount at town meeting. Your town assessor has the current figures.

Standard and Optional Veterans’ Credit

The standard credit is $50 a year, and towns can adopt an optional credit of $51 to $750. It’s available to:

• Veterans who served at least 90 days on active duty during a wartime period and were honorably discharged, and their spouses or surviving spouses
• Veterans discharged because of a service-connected disability, and their spouses or surviving spouses
• The surviving spouse of a service member killed in the line of duty

All Veterans’ Credit

Veterans who don’t meet the wartime rule can still get a credit if their town has adopted the All Veterans’ Credit. It covers residents who served at least 90 days on active service and are still serving or were honorably discharged, plus their spouses and surviving spouses. Guard and Reserve training counts as service. The amount equals the town’s standard or optional veterans’ credit, and you can’t receive it on top of the veterans’ credit or the total disability credit.

Surviving Spouse of a Service Member Killed in Combat

The surviving spouse of a service member killed on active duty in a designated combat zone gets a standard credit of $700, and towns can adopt $701 to $2,000.

Total and Permanent Disability Credit

Veterans with a 100% permanent and total service-connected disability, and double amputees and paraplegics from service, get a standard credit of $700. A 2025 law, House Bill 99, raised the most a town can adopt from $4,000 to $5,000, starting with the April 1, 2026 tax year. The same law says that if your town has adopted an optional amount above $700, you can’t also take the veterans’ credit, the All Veterans’ Credit, the combat service credit or the full exemption below. If your town keeps the standard $700, you can still combine it with those.

Full Exemption for Homes Bought or Adapted With VA Help

A veteran whose home was bought or modified with VA assistance pays no property tax at all on it if they are rated 100% permanent and total or individually unemployable, are blind from a service-connected cause, or are a paraplegic or double amputee from service. An eligible surviving spouse keeps the exemption. Our guide to the VA Specially Adapted Housing grant explains how that assistance works.

How to Apply

File a permanent application with your town or city assessing office by April 15 of the tax year, with your DD-214 and, for disability credits, your VA rating letter. Once approved, the credit carries forward; you only refile if you move. A late application can be accepted if you were prevented from filing by accident or misfortune, but not after the town’s tax rate is set. Members currently serving in combat can apply for the combat service credit at any point during the year.

Education Benefits

Free Tuition for Children of 100% Disabled Veterans

Children, stepchildren and adopted children of a resident veteran with a 100% permanent and total service-connected rating attend the Community College System of New Hampshire and the University System of New Hampshire tuition-free. The veteran must have an honorable discharge and have entered service from New Hampshire or been a resident when rated. Eligibility ends with the semester in which the student turns 27. Call 603-862-0355 for details.

Scholarship for Children of Fallen Service Members

Children of resident service members killed on active duty during a wartime period, or who died of a disability from that service, can receive up to $2,500 a year for four years at state community colleges and universities. The student must be a New Hampshire resident aged 16 to 25. Children of service members listed as missing in action or prisoners of war since February 28, 1961, get free tuition for as long as the parent is listed.

National Guard Tuition Waiver

Members of the New Hampshire National Guard who have finished advanced individual training or been commissioned can take courses tuition-free on a space-available basis at state colleges and universities, after using any federal tuition assistance (VA education benefits and Guard scholarship grants don’t count against this). Members who complete their initial six-year obligation can transfer the waiver to a spouse in return for four more years of service. That transfer option is scheduled to be repealed on July 1, 2027. Call 603-430-3502 for details.

Federal benefits usually go further than the state ones; see our Post-9/11 GI Bill guide. New Hampshire also belongs to the Interstate Compact on Educational Opportunity for Military Children and recognizes Purple Star schools.

Employment Benefits

• Public hiring preference: state and local governments give preference to honorably discharged veterans who served at least 90 days in wartime, unremarried surviving spouses of wartime veterans, and spouses of totally disabled resident wartime veterans. The Liquor Commission and the Veterans Home have their own preference rules.
• Private employers: may adopt a written veterans’ preference policy for hiring and promotion, applied uniformly.
• Military leave: state employees in the Guard or Reserve get 15 days of paid military leave a year, then up to 30 more days at partial pay.
• Job help: New Hampshire Employment Security gives veterans and eligible spouses priority of service, and veterans get a 24-hour first look at jobs posted on the NHES Job Match System.
• Peddler’s license: veterans with a service-connected disability, and their unremarried surviving spouses, don’t pay the fee.

Driver’s Licenses, Registration and Plates

• Veteran indicator: free on your driver’s license or ID at renewal for honorably discharged veterans; $10 to add it between renewals.
• Free driver’s license: for veterans rated 100% permanent and total, and for amputees or paraplegics who received a VA-adapted vehicle.
• Free registration: for veterans rated 100% permanent and total, totally blind from a service-connected cause, amputees or paraplegics with a VA vehicle grant, and honorably discharged former POWs.
• Disabled Veteran plate: one free plate for the same groups, and free parking in any city or town when the veteran is driving or in control of the vehicle.
• Other plates: Veterans, Purple Heart (one vehicle and one motorcycle) and Gold Star plates, plus $10 decals for branch of service and valor medals (Gold Star decals are free). New Hampshire offers 12 military and veteran designs in all.

State Parks, Hunting and Fishing

• State parks: veterans with any service-connected disability get free day-use admission to New Hampshire state parks; show a Disabled Veteran plate or a VA letter. Camping, ski lifts and other fees still apply. Resident service members in grades E-1 to E-6, military retirees and their spouses and surviving spouses also get free admission.
• Lifetime licenses: resident veterans rated 100% permanent and total get a free lifetime hunting and fishing license, and those rated 80% to 99% for at least two years can buy one at half price. Both carry a one-time $10 administrative fee. Apply to New Hampshire Fish and Game.
• Home on leave: residents stationed outside New Hampshire can get a free one-year license to hunt and fish when they come home.
• Stationed in New Hampshire: nonresident service members permanently stationed in the state pay resident prices.

New Hampshire Veterans Home

The New Hampshire Veterans Home in Tilton is a 250-bed intermediate and long-term care facility that also provides hospice and palliative care. Honorably discharged veterans of any active or reserve component can apply; you don’t need combat service or a service-connected disability. You must have lived in New Hampshire for at least a year before applying, or listed New Hampshire as your home of record at discharge. Your assets determine your share of room and board, with a one-year look-back, but a house isn’t counted while a spouse or dependent lives in it.

• Address: 139 Winter Street, Tilton, NH 03276
• Admissions: 603-527-4400

New Hampshire State Veterans Cemetery

The state veterans cemetery in Boscawen offers casket burials, in-ground burial of cremated remains and columbarium niches. Eligibility follows VA national cemetery rules, so spouses and eligible dependent children qualify, and New Hampshire residency isn’t required. There’s no VA national cemetery in the state. Ask the cemetery for its current fee table and apply for a pre-need eligibility decision ahead of time.

• Address: 110 Daniel Webster Highway, Boscawen, NH 03303
• Phone: 603-796-2026

Needy, honorably discharged wartime veterans who die in New Hampshire can be buried at the expense of the city or town where they died.

Surviving Spouse and Family Benefits

• Property tax: surviving spouses can keep the veterans’ credit and the full exemption for VA-assisted homes, and the surviving spouse of a service member killed in combat gets a credit of $700 to $2,000.
• Plates: Veterans and Purple Heart plates can be transferred to an unremarried surviving spouse.
• Gold Star families: the Gold Star plate for mothers and stepmothers, and a free Gold Star decal for spouses, parents, children, siblings and grandparents.
• Hiring preference: for unremarried surviving spouses of wartime veterans.
• Relief: wartime veterans and their families who can’t support themselves can get help from their city or town.

Federal survivor benefits are usually larger; see our guide to VA benefits for surviving spouses.

War Bonuses, Dental Care and Records

• Service bonuses: $100 for Vietnam-era, Persian Gulf and Global War on Terrorism service, if you were a New Hampshire resident when you entered service and meet the medal and date rules. Call 603-225-1200.
• Freedom to Smile: free or reduced-cost dental care for New Hampshire veterans who aren’t rated 100%, have no dental insurance, aren’t eligible for Medicaid and can’t afford care. Call 877-248-6684.
• Public records: free copies of New Hampshire records, such as birth and marriage certificates, when you need them for VA benefits.

For VA health care, the Manchester VA Medical Center and community clinics serve the state. If you haven’t enrolled, you can apply online at VA.gov; our VA health care enrollment guide explains priority groups and costs.

How to Claim New Hampshire Veteran Benefits, Step by Step

1. Get your documents: your DD-214 and, for disability-based benefits, a VA letter showing your rating and whether it’s permanent and total.
2. Talk to a Veterans Services Officer: the New Hampshire Division of Veterans Services helps with state and federal claims for free; call 603-624-9230.
3. Ask your town what it has adopted: the credit amounts, and whether it offers the All Veterans’ Credit, depend entirely on local votes.
4. File by April 15: property tax credit applications go to your town assessing office; plates and license benefits go to the DMV; hunting and fishing licenses go to Fish and Game.

Frequently Asked Questions

This article is provided by USMilitary.org, an independent educational resource. We are not affiliated with the State of New Hampshire, the New Hampshire Division of Veterans Services, VA or any government agency. Property tax credit amounts are set by each city and town; confirm current details with your assessor, the Division of Veterans Services or the official New Hampshire state benefits summary before you apply.