Stimulus offers tax credit for hiring vets - Marine Corps News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Marine Corps Times

Stimulus offers tax credit for hiring vets

Economic recovery legislation passed by Congress is likely to include a tax incentive for employers to hire newly discharged service members who are having problems finding work.

Under similar provisions in the House and Senate versions of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, employers would receive a tax credit equal to 40 percent of the first $6,000 in wages if they hire someone discharged in 2008, 2009 or 2010 who received more than four weeks of unemployment insurance in the year they were hired.

Tax credits for hiring military members is part of a larger $208 million package in the $825 billion bill.

The House and Senate are working on their separate versions of the bill with hopes of having a final measure on President Obama’s desk by Feb. 16, according to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev.

The idea of giving employers an incentive to hire veterans has wide support among veterans’ service organizations, although most attention has focused on tax credits for employers with mobilized National Guard and reserve members — especially small businesses — and on enforcing employment and re-employment rights for reservists returning from deployments.

Todd Bowers, government affairs director for Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, said in testimony Wednesday morning before the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee that separating service members need extra help finding work in this time of economic difficulty.

Transition classes given to separating or retiring service members should include more employment training, and classes should be mandatory for all active-duty people who are leaving the military, Bowers said.

Bowers said his organization also would like to see programs that would train veterans to find work in clean-energy technology jobs and tax credits for employers who hire homeless veterans.