VA Disability Calculator 2026

No. VA disability compensation is entirely exempt from federal income tax and state income tax, unlike Social Security disability or most retirement pay. You do not report it on Form 1040, and it does not count toward the income thresholds that make Social Security benefits taxable.

The VA does not simply add ratings together. Under 38 CFR §4.25, it orders your ratings from highest to lowest, then combines them one pair at a time: each new rating applies only to the "remaining efficiency" left after the prior combination, using the formula a + b × (100 − a) / 100, rounded to the nearest whole number after every step. Only the final folded value is then rounded to the nearest multiple of 10 to become your combined rating.

Under 38 CFR §4.26, when you have ratings for a paired body part on both sides of the body (both knees, both hands, both shoulders, etc.), the VA first combines that pair using the standard §4.25 formula, then adds an extra 10% of that combined value before folding the result in with your other ratings. This bilateral factor exists because paired-limb disabilities are considered to impose a greater combined impairment than the same ratings on unrelated body parts.

Because VA math combines "remaining efficiency," not raw percentages. Combining 90% with anything applies the new rating only to the 10% of function VA considers not already accounted for by the 90% rating. A 10% additional rating combined with 90% works out to 90 + 10 × (100 − 90) / 100 = 91%, which rounds to 90% — not 100%. Only a rating that is itself very high, combined with 90%, can push the combined value over the rounding threshold into 100%.

VA disability compensation rates rose 2.8% for 2026, mirroring the Social Security Administration's cost-of-living adjustment announced October 2025. The new rates took effect 2025-12-01, with the first payment at the new rate arriving at the end of that month (VA, like Social Security, pays this raise a few weeks before the calendar year it's labeled for).

Dependents only affect payments at 30% and above — the 10% and 20% rates are flat regardless of dependents. From 30% up, VA pays a higher base rate for a spouse, plus added monthly amounts for each additional child beyond the first (the first child of any type is already priced into the base rate), each school-attending child age 18-23, and up to two dependent parents. A spouse who needs Aid & Attendance adds a further fixed monthly amount.

VA disability compensation rates typically rise every December 1, in lockstep with the Social Security COLA announced by the SSA in October. The exact percentage is not known until that October announcement, so the 2027 rate table (effective December 1, 2026) will depend on that year's COLA figure.

No. A schedular 100% combined rating comes from combining your individual ratings under §4.25 until the result rounds to 100%. TDIU pays at the 100% rate even when your combined schedular rating is lower, if your service-connected disabilities alone prevent you from holding substantially gainful employment. This calculator estimates schedular combined ratings and pay, not TDIU eligibility.

Yes — the VA always orders ratings from highest to lowest before combining, regardless of the order you list your conditions. Combining 30% then 50% produces the same result as 50% then 30%, because the §4.25 combined ratings table is applied to the highest rating first either way.

After all ratings (and any bilateral pair) are folded together, the VA rounds the final combined value to the nearest multiple of 10 to set your combined disability rating — for example, 65% rounds up to 70%, and 84% rounds down to 80%. That final combined rating is what determines your dependent-status row on the monthly compensation table.