Tinnitus VA Claim Approval Rate: What the Board Actually Decided (1992–2025)
Across 102,763 tinnitus issues the Board of Veterans’ Appeals decided in 1992–2025, 36.0% were granted, 34.4% denied and 24.3% remanded. From 1,929,585 published BVA decisions, updated nightly.
Most guidance on tinnitus claims explains what the regulation says. This page reports what the Board did — every tinnitus issue in the 1,929,585 Board of Veterans’ Appeals decisions VetAid has parsed from the published record, counted at the issue level the way the Board itself reports.
Official 2026 VA monthly compensation, including the 2.8% COLA increase.
Dependent add-ons start at a 30% rating. Child-only and dependent-parent rates: see the full 2026 pay chart.
2026 base rates, all ratings (veteran alone)
| Rating | Monthly (2026, incl. 2.8% COLA) |
|---|---|
| 10% | $180.42 |
| 20% | $356.66 |
| 30% | $552.47 |
| 40% | $795.84 |
| 50% | $1,132.90 |
| 60% | $1,435.02 |
| 70% | $1,808.45 |
| 80% | $2,102.15 |
| 90% | $2,362.30 |
| 100% | $3,938.58 |
Outcomes, 1992–2025
| Disposition | Issues | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Granted | 37,021 | 36.0% |
| Denied | 35,346 | 34.4% |
| Remanded — sent back rather than decided | 24,983 | 24.3% |
| Dismissed | 4,842 | 4.7% |
| Withdrawn, vacated, moot, referred | 571 | 0.6% |
Of the issues the Board decided on the merits — granted or denied, leaving remands aside — 51.2% were granted. See the live Tinnitus decision list.
By year
Only years the crawl has fully exhausted are shown; the current year and any year still downloading are left out so a partial year cannot pose as a trend.
| Year | Issues | Granted | Denied | Remanded |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1992 | 580 | 23.1% | 29.7% | 47.1% |
| 1993 | 423 | 28.4% | 35.9% | 35.7% |
| 1994 | 522 | 22.4% | 24.1% | 49.6% |
| 1995 | 592 | 28.2% | 21.6% | 40.4% |
| 1996 | 855 | 32.6% | 31.2% | 33.2% |
| 1997 | 953 | 31.8% | 36.8% | 30.4% |
| 1998 | 779 | 27.5% | 44.3% | 27.6% |
| 1999 | 751 | 28.5% | 48.7% | 22.2% |
| 2000 | 773 | 24.3% | 50.3% | 24.5% |
| 2001 | 635 | 21.1% | 31.2% | 45.8% |
| 2002 | 424 | 28.5% | 57.8% | 11.8% |
| 2003 | 871 | 17.6% | 24.1% | 58.1% |
| 2004 | 1,888 | 9.0% | 63.7% | 25.6% |
| 2005 | 1,205 | 14.4% | 56.7% | 27.1% |
| 2006 | 5,294 | 3.8% | 87.7% | 7.8% |
| 2007 | 2,284 | 13.3% | 62.4% | 22.6% |
| 2008 | 2,724 | 18.4% | 58.3% | 21.5% |
| 2009 | 2,984 | 22.6% | 50.8% | 24.6% |
| 2010 | 2,959 | 30.3% | 38.0% | 28.9% |
| 2011 | 2,824 | 34.3% | 32.1% | 30.5% |
| 2012 | 2,596 | 38.8% | 28.9% | 28.9% |
| 2013 | 2,464 | 36.0% | 27.8% | 33.0% |
| 2014 | 3,553 | 41.5% | 25.0% | 29.6% |
| 2015 | 3,482 | 42.8% | 23.7% | 29.6% |
| 2016 | 2,729 | 43.9% | 23.3% | 28.5% |
| 2017 | 2,955 | 45.5% | 26.2% | 24.0% |
| 2018 | 3,500 | 54.1% | 24.3% | 15.9% |
| 2019 | 9,445 | 41.7% | 30.9% | 22.3% |
| 2020 | 7,277 | 40.8% | 29.0% | 24.0% |
| 2021 | 5,251 | 42.8% | 24.4% | 25.2% |
| 2022 | 6,082 | 46.2% | 21.5% | 23.7% |
| 2023 | 6,712 | 43.0% | 23.8% | 24.0% |
| 2024 | 8,120 | 44.2% | 25.9% | 20.8% |
| 2025 | 8,277 | 39.2% | 31.2% | 20.4% |
Why these claims actually fail
The full corpus records what the Board decided, not why. For the why, VetAid hand-tagged a smaller sample: 144 Board decisions involving tinnitus. A decision may carry more than one reason, so shares can exceed 100%.
| Reason stated in the decision | Decisions | Share of 144 |
|---|---|---|
| VA failed its duty to assist | 56 | 38.9% |
| no medical nexus | 44 | 30.6% |
| evidence not new and material | 16 | 11.1% |
| lay evidence held not competent | 10 | 6.9% |
| clear and unmistakable error | 2 | 1.4% |
Note what leads: VA failed its duty to assist, in 38.9% of the tagged decisions. Most published advice tells veterans to shore up their own credibility. In this record credibility findings sit near the bottom — the far more common failure is procedural, and it is VA’ burden, not the veteran’.
Authorities the Board relied on (tagged sample)
- Shedden v. Principi — cited in 52 decisions
- Lynch v. Mc — cited in 52 decisions
- Jandreau v. Nicholson — cited in 48 decisions
- Rodriguez v. Peake — cited in 45 decisions
- Walker v. Shinseki — cited in 39 decisions
Regulations most often applied (tagged sample)
- 38 CFR 20.1303 — 144 decisions
- 38 CFR 3.102 — 108 decisions
- 38 USC 1110 — 86 decisions
- 38 CFR 3.303 — 65 decisions
- 38 USC 1155 — 51 decisions
- 38 USC 5107 — 43 decisions
Want to know which of these patterns your own claim matches? VetAid checks your claim against this decision record. Free, and we never take a cut of your back pay.
See what my tinnitus claim is missingMethod and provenance
Outcomes: 102,763 issues involving tinnitus in 103,126 decisions, drawn from 1,929,585 public Board of Veterans’ Appeals
decisions (1992-03-30 to 2026-07-31) at va.gov/vetapp, parsed at the issue level. The headline rates use complete years only
(1992–2025); the corpus also holds 107,559 such issues across all years downloaded so far. Decisions the parser could not
read cleanly (23,206) are excluded from the rates. This page is regenerated automatically each night
by data_moat/gen_outcome_pages.py as the crawl grows. Board-wide rates by condition and judge:
/bva/outcomes.
Does your rating decision hold up under a real audit?
Upload your decision letter and C&P exams — VetAid's analyzer reads the full file, checks every examiner statement word-for-word against your records, and shows which arguments for a higher rating actually hold. Free, and we never take a cut of your back pay.
Analyze my claim free →