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Veteran Tax Incentives and Lower Unemployment Rates
In December, I wrote about the extension of several tax incentives for employers who hire veterans. According to an article by CNN, those incentives appear to be working.
In the past month, the jobless rate for all generations of veterans has been around 7.5%, although the rate for young veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan is slightly higher at 10.2%. These numbers show an improvement from this time last year, when the jobless rate for Iraq and Afghanistan veterans was 12.5%.
The veteran tax incentives are in the form of two tax credits:
- The Returning Heroes Tax Credit is a credit of up to $5,600 per employee for employers that hire veterans who were looking for employment for more than six months. If the veteran has been looking for employment for less than six months, the credit is generally up to $2,400 per employee.
- The Wounded Warriors Tax Credit can be up to $9,600 per employee for employers that hire veterans with service-connected disabilities who have been looking for employment for more than six months.
Both of those credits took the place of the Work Opportunity Tax Credit (WOTC), which expired at the end of 2011. The WOTC was designed to spur employers to hire individuals from targeted groups that have a high unemployment rate, including qualifying veterans. Both the Returning Heroes and Wounded Warriors Tax Credits are currently scheduled to expire after December 31, 2012. Both credits are also available to tax-exempt employers.
Because some of the calculations and qualification criteria related to the credits are complex, I suggest that you consider consulting with a tax professional if your business or nonprofit organization is planning on utilizing one of the credits. For more information, please see the IRS website.
Matthew Grosh is an attorney at Russell, Krafft & Gruber LLP in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. He received his law degree from Villanova University and practices in a variety of areas including Taxation and Nonprofit & Tax-Exempt Organizations.