Quick answer
The VA pays tax-free disability compensation to veterans whose disabilities result from injury or disease incurred or aggravated during active service.[1] TBI is rated under Diagnostic Code 8045 in 38 CFR § 4.124a, which evaluates cognitive, emotional/behavioral and physical effects.[2] VA regulations also presume that certain conditions, such as some cases of depression, seizures and dementia, are secondary to a service-connected TBI.[3]
Basic eligibility
The Veterans Benefits Administration states that compensation requires a service-connected disability and that the veteran must have been discharged “under other than dishonorable conditions.”[1] The disability must result from an injury or disease incurred or aggravated during active duty or active duty for training, or from an injury, heart attack or stroke during inactive duty training.[1]
How the VA rates TBI
Diagnostic Code 8045 directs the VA to evaluate three main areas of dysfunction: cognitive, emotional/behavioral and physical.[2] Cognitive impairment is rated using a table of 10 facets:[2]
Thinking
Memory, attention, concentration and executive functions; judgment; orientation; visual spatial orientation.
Behavior and communication
Social interaction; neurobehavioral effects; communication.
Physical and subjective
Motor activity; subjective symptoms. Examples the regulation gives at level 1 include intermittent dizziness, daily mild to moderate headaches, tinnitus, frequent insomnia and hypersensitivity to sound or light.
Consciousness
“Total” is defined as a “persistently altered state of consciousness, such as vegetative state, minimally responsive state, coma.”
Each facet is assigned a level from 0 to 3, or “total.” The overall rating is based on the highest level assigned to any facet: 0 is rated 0%, 1 is 10%, 2 is 40%, 3 is 70%, and “total” is 100%.[2]
Mild TBI is not automatically rated low
38 CFR § 4.124a, Diagnostic Code 8045, Note (4)
The terms “mild,” “moderate,” and “severe” TBI, which may appear in medical records, refer to a classification of TBI made at, or close to, the time of injury rather than to the current level of functioning. This classification does not affect the rating assigned under diagnostic code 8045.
Source: [2]
Emotional and physical effects
When a veteran has a diagnosed mental disorder, emotional and behavioral symptoms are rated under the mental disorders schedule (38 CFR § 4.130) rather than the TBI facets.[2] Physical effects are rated separately under the appropriate diagnostic codes. The regulation’s list includes motor and sensory dysfunction, visual impairment, hearing loss and tinnitus, loss of smell and taste, seizures, balance problems, speech difficulties, cranial nerve dysfunction and endocrine dysfunction.[2]
Conditions presumed secondary to TBI
38 CFR § 3.310(d) provides that the following conditions in a veteran with a service-connected TBI will be held to be the proximate result of the TBI, subject to the regulation’s conditions:[3]
- Parkinsonism, including Parkinson’s disease, following moderate or severe TBI
- Unprovoked seizures, following moderate or severe TBI
- Presenile dementia of the Alzheimer type, frontotemporal dementia and dementia with Lewy bodies, if they appear within 15 years of moderate or severe TBI
- Depression, if it appears within 3 years of moderate or severe TBI or within 12 months of mild TBI
- Diseases of hormone deficiency resulting from hypothalamo-pituitary changes, if they appear within 12 months of moderate or severe TBI
The regulation states that these conditions are presumed related “in the absence of clear evidence to the contrary,” and that the severity levels and time limits do not prevent service connection for conditions shown by other evidence to be caused by the TBI.[3]
For these presumptions, the time-of-injury severity classification does matter. The regulation classifies severity using imaging, loss of consciousness, alteration of consciousness, post-traumatic amnesia and the Glasgow Coma Scale:[3]
Mild
Normal structural imaging; loss of consciousness 0 to 30 minutes; post-traumatic amnesia 0 to 1 day; GCS 13 to 15.
Moderate
Normal or abnormal imaging; loss of consciousness over 30 minutes and under 24 hours; amnesia over 1 and under 7 days; GCS 9 to 12.
Severe
Normal or abnormal imaging; loss of consciousness over 24 hours; amnesia over 7 days; GCS 3 to 8.
VA does not require a TBI to meet every criterion for a level, and ranks it at the highest level in which a criterion is met.[3]
Frequently asked questions
Is VA disability compensation taxable?
No. The VBA describes it as a tax-free monetary benefit.[1]
If my TBI was labeled “mild,” will my rating be low?
Not necessarily. Note (4) to Diagnostic Code 8045 says the mild, moderate and severe classification does not affect the rating.[2]
Can depression be connected to a service-connected TBI?
Under 38 CFR § 3.310(d), depression is presumed secondary if it appears within 3 years of moderate or severe TBI or within 12 months of mild TBI.[3]
This page provides general information about the law from the sources listed below. It is not legal advice, and reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship. Laws vary by state and change over time. See our legal disclaimer.
Sources
- U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, Veterans Benefits Administration. “Compensation.” https://www.benefits.va.gov/compensation/
- 38 CFR § 4.124a, Schedule of ratings, neurological conditions and convulsive disorders (Diagnostic Code 8045). Legal Information Institute. https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/38/4.124a
- 38 CFR § 3.310, Disabilities that are proximately due to, or aggravated by, service-connected disease or injury. Legal Information Institute. https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/38/3.310
Sources last checked: October 11, 2026
