Tax Exemptions for Seniors / Veterans / Gold Star Spouses

Senior Citizen Exemptions

Note: The General Assembly may eliminate the funding for the Senior Citizen Exemption or Veteran with a disability Exemption in any year in which the budget does not allow for the reimbursement.

Qualified senior citizens are entitled to an exemption equal to 50% of the first $200,000 of actual value of the qualified applicant's primary residence when the State legislature funds the exemption.

Senior Citizens

Qualified seniors must meet the following requirements:

  • The owner-occupier is sixty-five years of age or older as of the assessment date and has owned and occupied such residential real property as his or her primary residence for the ten years preceding the assessment date.
  • The exemption is available on only one property. Legally married individuals may only have one property exemption together.

If the senior(s) also qualifies for a veteran with a disability's exemption, the senior(s) will only be entitled to one property exemption.

Senior Citizen's Surviving Spouses

Senior Exemption: Surviving spouses of eligible senior citizens may also qualify for exemptions, provided that the surviving spouse meets the following requirements:

  • The surviving spouse was legally married to a senior citizen who met the age, occupancy and ownership requirements on any January 1 since January 1, 2002; and
  • The surviving spouse has not remarried;
  • The surviving spouse occupied the residential property with the eligible senior citizen as his or her primary residence and still occupies the same property.

Exceptions to Basic Requirements

An applicant may still qualify if the preceding ownership and/or occupancy requirements cannot be met due to any of the following reasons:
 Title to the property is held in a trust, a corporate partnership or other legal entity solely for estate planning purposes. The maker of the trust must be the qualifying senior or the spouse of the qualifying senior.

The qualifying senior, spouse, or surviving spouse is/was confined to a hospital, nursing home, or assisted living facility. The prior home was condemned in an eminent domain proceeding by a governmental entity, or it was sold to a governmental entity upon threat of condemnation by eminent domain.

Applications

Qualified Senior Primary Residential Classification

A qualified senior primary residential property tax classification is available for tax years 2025 and 2026. This allows property owners who moved and lost their senior exemption, or will move in 2025 or 2026, to have it temporarily reinstated for their new primary residence, if they meet certain requirements. For those who qualify, 50 percent of the first $200,000 in actual value of their primary residence real property is not taxable, unless it causes the assessed value to drop below $1,000.

Application requirements are as follows:

The applicant must have previously qualified for, and received, the senior property tax exemption in property tax year 2020 or later, but are not currently receiving it. The applicant must meet “owner-occupier” criteria. “Owner-occupier” is defined as an individual who; is an owner of record of residential real property that the individual occupies as the individual’s primary residence; OR is not the owner of record, but is either a spouse or civil-union partner of an owner of record of the residential real property, and who also occupies the residential real property as the owner of record’s primary residence, or is the surviving spouse or partner of an owner of record until the owner of record’s death; OR is not an owner of record of the residential real property because the property has been purchased by, or transferred to, a trust, a corporate partnership, or any other legal entity solely for the estate planning purposes; OR but for the confinement of the individual to a hospital, nursing home, or assisted living facility, would occupy the residential real property as the individual’s primary residence.

Veteran with a Disability Exemption

Veterans with a disability are entitled to an exemption equal to 50% of the first $200,000 of actual value of the qualified applicant's primary residence.

Qualified veterans with a disability: must meet the following requirements:

  • The veteran sustained a service-connected disability while serving on active duty in the Armed Forces of the United States. This includes members of the National Guard and Reserves who sustained their injury during a period in which they were called to active duty.
  • The veteran was honorably discharged.
  • The veteran was rated by the United States Department of Veterans Affairs as one hundred percent permanent disability through disability retirement benefits. In 2025, applicants who do not have a 100% disability rating but have been awarded individual unemployment status as determined by the United States Department of Veterans Affairs are also eligible for the program

The veteran must own the property and must have been an owner of record since January 1 of the year of application.

If the veteran's spouse owns the property, the veteran may meet the ownership requirement if the couple was married on or before January 1 and both have occupied the property as their primary residence since January 1.

In 2014 Colorado's legislature expanded the Veteran with a Disability Property Tax Exemption to include the surviving spouse of a prequalifying veteran with a disability. The surviving spouse must be the owner-occupier of the residence of a qualifying veteran with a disability who previously received the exemption and who passed away.

Applications

Veteran with a Disability: Surviving Spouses of eligible Veterans with a disability may also qualify for exemptions, provided that the surviving spouse meets the following requirements:

  • The applicant must be the owner-occupier of the property.
  • The applicant must be the surviving spouse of a veteran who passed away prior to January 1 of the current year.
  • The veteran to whom the applicant was married must have applied for and been granted the disabled veterans' property tax exemption as provided by § 39-3-203(1.5)(a),C.R.S., prior to his or her death.

Applications

Veteran with a Disability: Gold Star Spouses

Amendment E expands the current homestead exemption to reduce the property taxes paid by a homeowner who is the surviving spouse of either a military service member who died in the line of duty or a veteran whose death resulted from a service-related injury or disease.

The surviving spouse must be qualified under Federal Law and by the state Department of Military and Veteran affairs. The surviving spouse must provide a complete packet with the Gold Star Spouse Application, documentation that the service members' death was the result of service-related injury or disease, and documentation that the death occurred on active duty or following separation from the military.

Documentation can be the VA Benefits Summary letter or a letter from the Department of Defense. The surviving spouse must not have remarried in order to be eligible.

For more information, here is a link to the State Brochure (PDF).