Connecticut vehicle tax
The Connecticut military car tax exemption
Connecticut charges motor vehicle property tax on a vehicle every year. If you are stationed here on orders and your home of record is another state, 50 U.S.C. § 4001 says that car is not Connecticut's to tax. Connecticut publishes no statewide form for the claim, which is where most people stall. Here is who actually grants it and what they want in hand.
What to file, and where
Application to the town assessor under CGS § 12-81(53)
- Published by
- Connecticut municipalities, described in Office of Legislative Research report 2020-R-0220
- Where it is granted
- Your town grants it
- The tax it stops
- motor vehicle property tax
- How often you claim it
- Must be claimed again every year
- State authority
- CGS § 12-81(53)
- Verified
- 2026-08-28, on the issuing agency's own site
The deadline
File with the town by December 31 each year. The exemption is not automatic and does not carry over.
What Connecticut wants from you
- An application filed with the assessor of the town where the vehicle is taxed
- Evidence of qualifying membership in the armed forces as the town requires
How the Connecticut claim actually works
Connecticut is the outlier in this cluster because its exemption is not built on non-residency at all. By law municipalities must exempt one motor vehicle owned by, leased to, or held in trust for each eligible service member, and the Office of Legislative Research states that the law is silent as to whether the service member must be a Connecticut resident to qualify. Connecticut residents therefore have a claim here that they would not have in Virginia or Kansas.
The exemption also ignores geography in both directions. It applies regardless of where the service member is stationed and regardless of whether the vehicle is garaged within or outside the state. A Connecticut-taxed car sitting at a duty station in another state is still the one vehicle you may exempt.
Eligibility runs off the state’s own definition of armed forces at CGS § 27-103, which reaches the Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Coast Guard and Air Force, any reserve component of those branches, and the Connecticut National Guard when performing certain duties. Reserve component membership is inside the definition, not outside it.
One vehicle is the limit. Any additional motor vehicle not exempted under this or another provision remains taxable if it is registered in Connecticut, or if in its normal course of operation it most frequently leaves from, returns to, or remains in a Connecticut town (CGS § 12-71(f)(1)).
What trips people up here
- December 31 is a filing deadline with teeth, and the exemption must be claimed again every year.
- There is no statewide form number. The application is made to your town assessor on the form that town uses, so the document differs between Stamford and Mansfield.
- A separate protection sits alongside this one: if a motor vehicle property tax payment deadline falls while a service member is on active duty out of state, the municipality must waive the interest that accrues on the delinquent payment.
On spouses
The Connecticut materials read for this page cover the servicemember and do not set out a separate spouse route for this tax. That is not the same as a refusal. The Military Spouses Residency Relief Act sits inside 50 U.S.C. § 4001, so ask the office named above how it handles a spouse-owned vehicle rather than assuming either answer.
Sources
Keep going
Other states
Each state names this tax differently and grants the exemption through a different office.
Heads up: SCRA Saver publishes general information, not legal or financial advice. Laws change and every situation differs. Confirm details with your installation legal assistance office (free for service members) or a licensed professional.