Follow the link below to a directory compiled by military.com for veteran benefits, by state.
Resources
Information resources for benefits for eligible veterans
ask the Chief
disability compensation questions
Becoming an expert in any specialty in the military takes time. The nature of military assignments is such that individuals transfer and often take that expertise with them! This is particularly aggravating in the specialties that relate to service members career and health administration. Because the military is a large bureaucracy, with volumes of policies, regulations and procedures for virtually everything, obtaining answers to specific situations is very difficult.
military service and service-connected disabilities
If you are on Active Duty getting close to your EAOS, a veteran with health issues possibly connected to your military service, or transitioning or enlisting in the Reserve as a veteran of Active Duty, you may find the following example from actual experience helpful. This example is from a family member, a former soldier, who in the last year and a half of his Active Duty enlistment was plagued with shin splints, and an injury that incurred during training in a military culture that treats infirmity as a lack of physical and mental toughness. In most respects an excellent soldier, medical complications and the command climate influenced him to not consider re-enlisting.
From the author’s experience, the process of post-enlistment transition is much improved since the 1990s. The Army referred the soldier for transitional job training, and recommended him for a re-enlistment eligible discharge at his End of Active Obligated Service (EAOS). But there is some ambiguity in that transition. Whether assumptions made or questions went unasked, the service member knew that an initial enlistment contract in the military was a commitment to eight years of total service. Three, four or six years of an Active Duty service and the balance served in the Active or Inactive component of the Reserve. But it is apparent that the soldier was not aware that inactive or IRR service was the default to serve out the balance of the contract. In an inactive status, the service member does not drill nor receive compensation, but annually is only required to inform the military of any changes in status or address.
evaluation by the VA for disabilities
However, as part of the soldier’s transitional assistance he was recommended to go to the Veterans Administration off-post to be evaluated for the medical conditions resulting from, or aggravated by, military service. Once processed out of the Army and possessing a DD214, the official record of military service for veterans, the Veterans Administration determines he has a service-connected disability. Further, the severity of the disability finding is such that the veteran receives a 100 percent rating and compensation for injuries and illness sustained while in the military service.
Can a disabled veteran still serve?
There are different categories of service-connected disability, and either the service branch or the Veterans Administration may determine a disability exists. Unless the member or his command requests a Medical Review Board prior to the service member’s discharge, and the service branch makes a determination, the veteran can go to the Veterans Administration for a medical evaluation. Either may result in a finding of service-connected disability which may be eligible for compensation.
the DD214 is key to benefits and reenlistment
There is no prohibition on its face, for a veteran receiving compensation from the VA for a disability to reenlist in the Reserve component. For the military branch, the re-enlistment code on the DD214 is the clearest indicator of eligibility. Getting a clear answer from the military service representative is difficult. As any veteran can attest, expertise is a rare commodity. Rumor, half-answers and lack of knowledge dominates. The individual affected or a specialist, like a service-organization (VFW, DAV, or AL) representative, may find the answers more readily.
Unless a veteran is in receipt of a classification of 100 percent disability / unemployable, a veteran receiving compensation for 100 percent disability, may serve in the Active Reserve, unless the Reserve determines that the member needs to be medically evaluated and screened for enlistment. This apparently can become, unintentionally, bureaucratically cumbersome, where the member cannot receive military pay and a VA compensation. Suspending ones compensation, or a finding by the military branch that the members disability rating is less than what the VA has determined, can be confusing at best.
U.S. military veterans of past conflicts have the same opportunity to receive care and compensation for disabilities incurred or aggravated by military service. While some medical and service records have been damaged or lost from a several decades-old fire (1973) at the national archive when records were stored on paper, most veterans have access to records that assist them when requesting benefits. Current policies evaluate a list of symptoms, dates and locations stationed with compensation – or medical-treatment- eligible illnesses.
Even a finding by the Veterans’ Administration of a Service-Connected Disability, rated at 0 (Zero) Percent, allows the veteran to obtain benefits for herself or her family. It can be reviewed and re-evaluated based on additional evidence, including civilian medical records documenting conditions a physician attests to military service. Many times, a veteran has received benefits that retroactively are granted back to the period of the veteran’s discharge.
If there is one piece of advice that any service member or veteran should heed, it is to get evaluated. Physical and emotional ailments can be treated before they cause further disabilities. Suicide among veterans, homelessness, PTSD, and drug addiction are among the most severe problems affecting men and women who
no substitute for becoming informed
Visiting or becoming a member of a veterans’ service organization is the best source for information to support a veteran of the armed forces. (Spouses can also become auxiliary members of these organizations.) The Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW), American Legion and the Disabled American Veterans (DAV) are the most well-known. Vietnam veterans and Iraq-Afghanistan veterans have service organizations as well. They have expertise, first-hand experience and the resources to assist veterans with claims to the VA and benefits the veteran may be unaware of. And personally becoming educated is no less important. The following links are reference material to support obtaining a medical discharge, supporting a veteran’s request to change military status and official records (DD214), and understanding the policies and options for a veteran. The veteran in this example is still working through the bureaucracy, though VA compensation has continued uninterrupted.
Guide to Obtaining a Medical Discharge (unofficial)
Family Support: Dealing with Anxiety, Depression, Addiction, PTSD
“Before you can break out of prison, you must realize you are locked up.” – www.healthyplace.com
Everyone is affected by a terminal condition called “life”. In every family, there are emotional or physical Illnesses that affect one member – the sufferer – yet also affect others – spouses or partners, parents, children, or siblings. To a lesser degree, friends, co-workers, or neighbors may also be affected. Disease and genetic disorders like Lyme disease, asthma, Parkinson’s, muscular dystrophy or cancer are chronic conditions and are lifelong disabilities physically but emotional disorders, many linked to genetic predispositions, traumatic physical events or lifestyle choices can can radically change the family dynamics no less permanently.
In most cases, there is no preparation. no schooling or a “recommended reading list” in one’s formative years, for family members when a loved one has a mental illness like anorexia, depression, bipolar or anxiety disorders like agoraphobia. These can also accompany or be elevated by an addiction to alcohol, prescription drugs, or other substances. A casual relationship may not reveal the extent of a sufferer’s condition. But in a long-term relationship, marriage or one with frequent connection or intimacy, between spouses, or parents and children, clues early in a person’s life may exist. Of course, everyone experiences an illness, accident, depression or difficult circumstances that are temporary. It takes long-term observation to note patterns that may indicate unhealthy behavior.
When a participant (an active observer, or even a co-dependent personality type) is not a professionally-trained counselor, experience, level of empathy and often spiritual foundation are the only tools available. Behavior that later manifests in addiction, mania and depression mood swings, obsessive-compulsive activity, hyperactivity, sleeplessness or its opposite, and emotional disconnection may be subtle at first or have sudden onset. With PTSD, post-traumatic stress disorder, a life event such as death of child, a combat experience, a severe accident, sexual assault or abuse can severely damage a formerly healthy individual and ripple emotionally through a family. Triggering events may be a tone of voice, a certain time, a season, a smell, sounds or a characteristic that one person displays. For someone in a relationship with another who experienced a traumatic event -even years in the past – “walking on eggshells” becomes normal. Often in hindsight to a failed relationship, injury or death of the sufferer, particularly when a victim was unwilling or unable to seek help, guilt may emotionally affect those in the victim’s circle for years. Yet PTSD is not a terminal condition, but requires compassion, professional treatment, cooperation, and ongoing engagement on the part of the sufferer and her close personal relationships.
For many, when it is a close family member, in late adolescence or early adulthood, it is a natural response to think the behavior including addiction, is just a “phase” he or she is “going through”. From the outside looking in, the addict, when rational and sober, seems to be functioning individual – but it is a ruse. Some are able to hold a job for a time. They may frequently change jobs due to work stress or the addiction’s toll on a person’s performance. It is a natural self-defense mechanism or social response for people not to ‘get involved’, or to overlook indicators, but these are not compassionate responses of family and close friends. However, an addict can also mask his or her problems by being outgoing but shallow, and very reserved (personal details) to coworkers, family members or others in his or her circle of acquaintances. One sort of behavior that may be due to embarrassment, or pride is a need to appear to be “holding it together”. Limited engagement, that is, keeping visits short with family and family friends at holidays or other gatherings.
When the sufferer is an adult, who arguably is not a “danger to themselves or others”, there is little one can do more than to suggest, advise, or urge the sufferer to seek professional help. The longer the addiction continues, the more the addict does damage to themselves physically and emotionally. Hospitalization and treatment of the symptoms may give the addict an opportunity to be sober for a short time.
Treating the problem – the addiction – without a sustained, professional program to treat the emotions or physical underpinnings, is a temporary measure. In the meantime, the family and close friends have to endure their own emotional pain to partner in their loved one’s recovery. For some, replacing the destructive addiction with a positive one particularly through physical activity can be successful when partnered with professional counseling. It may well be a lifelong activity. A new ‘normal’.
For those who are willing to consider a spiritual component to ongoing wellness, study of the Bible offers examples of successful lives though suffering from illness, depression or anxieties. The Bible offers hope in illustrations of several figures who suffered from depression. King David is lauded as one of the most devout leaders in the Old Testament, but his Psalms are full of outpouring his anxieties, fears, troubles, and anger to God.
11 Why, my soul, are you downcast?
Why so disturbed within me?
Put your hope in God,
for I will yet praise him,
my Savior and my God – Psalm 42:11
Elijah, one of the greatest prophets in the Old Testament is another. In 1 Kings 19:4
4 while he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness. He came to a broom bush,(A) sat down under it and prayed that he might die. “I have had enough, Lord,” he said. “Take my life;(B) I am no better than my ancestors.”
the passage illustrates his depression. Job also battled depression. Examples: Job 3: 26
26 I have no peace,(A) no quietness;
I have no rest,(B) but only turmoil
and Job 10: 1:
“I loathe my very life;(A)
therefore I will give free rein to my complaint
and speak out in the bitterness of my soul.
While these figures went on to have great impact in the Bible and to adherents for thousands of years, there is no indication that they were freed from the emotional and physical ailments that people still endure today.
One of those who has been successful in ongoing recovery from anorexia, BeautyBeyondBones, offers her personal experience and resources that are instructive for eating disorders and other communities who are seeking support with emotional and physical disorders.
In the following article, there are some good tips for families dealing with the various demons affecting their loved ones. But it is only a starting point.
Family Support: Dealing with Anxiety, Depression, Addiction, PTSD
Support “Blue Water” Vietnam Veterans
As a lifetime member of the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW), I am motivated to act upon issues that affect my fellow veterans. This is an action request for American citizens to send to your Senators urging them to support a measure to provide health care to eligible Vietnam veterans, so-called “Blue Water Veterans”. We know of the exposure to Agent Orange and others by troops on the ground, but there are those whose exposure is from the handling, transport and storage of defoliant offshore, as well as use in the Korean DMZ and elsewhere.
“Background: During the Vietnam War, veterans who served in the offshore waters of Vietnam drank, bathed in, and cooked with water contaminated by Agent Orange. They are now arbitrarily and unjustly denied benefits for illnesses associated with Agent Orange exposure. On July 25, 2018, the House of Representatives unanimously passed H.R. 299, the Blue Water Navy Vietnam Veterans Act of 2018. This bipartisan legislation would end the injustice of denying care and benefits to veterans who suffer from life-threatening health conditions.“
Please copy and send the following letter via email, or print and send. Your Senator ‘s contact information is found here.
SUBJECT: Please Take Action on Blue Water Navy Bill
Honorable Senator ______:
As your constituent, I write to request you to urge the Senate Committee on Veterans Affairs and the full Senate to swiftly pass H.R. 299, the Blue Water Navy Vietnam Veterans Act of 2018. This bipartisan bill was unanimously approved by the House of Representatives nearly three months ago and would end the injustice of denying care and benefits to veterans who suffer from life-threatening health conditions.
Recent statements by the Department of Veterans Affairs dispute scientific evidence that veterans who served in the coastal waters of Vietnam during the Vietnam War were exposed to Agent Orange, a toxic herbicide that has been found to be associated with the development of rare cancers and other health conditions. However, the National Academy of Medicine (formally called the Institute of Medicine) study entitled Veterans and Agent Orange (Update 2014) found that existing evidence shows possible routes of exposure for Blue Water Navy veterans, which means existing evidence should not be used to exclude Blue Water Navy veterans. One thing is undeniable: thousands of Blue Water Navy veterans are suffering and dying from the same conditions as veterans who served in-country during the Vietnam War. Time is running out for many Blue Water Navy veterans. The Senate must not delay further while Blue Water Navy veterans sicken and die from diseases related to exposure to Agent Orange.
The brave men and women who wear the uniform of our nation are asked to serve in the roughest and most dangerous environments on Earth. When they are injured or made ill as a result of such service, a grateful nation must provide them the care and benefits they need to cope with their disabilities. The Senate must do the right thing by passing H.R. 299 before the end of the year.
Sincerely,
<your name / mailing address>
VA Pensions
Are you, or do you know someone who served in the U.S. military, at least some of which was during a period of wartime, and has financial and/ or physical hardship? Do they know that they may receive assistance from the Veterans Administration?
Reprinted from the VA website
Veterans Pension
Supplemental Income for Wartime Veterans
VA helps Veterans and their families cope with financial challenges by providing supplemental income through the Veterans Pension benefit. Veterans Pension is a tax-free monetary benefit payable to low-income wartime Veterans.
Eligibility
Generally, a Veteran must have at least 90 days of active duty service, with at least one day during a wartime period to qualify for a VA Pension. If you entered active duty after September 7, 1980, generally you must have served at least 24 months or the full period for which you were called or ordered to active duty (with some exceptions), with at least one day during a wartime period.
In addition to meeting minimum service requirements, the Veteran must be:
- Age 65 or older, OR
- Totally and permanently disabled, OR
- A patient in a nursing home receiving skilled nursing care, OR
- Receiving Social Security Disability Insurance, OR
- Receiving Supplemental Security Income
Your yearly family income must be less than the amount set by Congress to qualify for the Veterans Pension benefit. Learn more about income and net worth limitation, and see an example of how VA calculates the VA Pension benefit.
Additional Pension Allowances
Veterans or surviving spouses who are eligible for VA pension and are housebound or require the aid and attendance of another person may be eligible for an additional monetary payment.
How To Apply
You can apply for Veterans Pension online or download and complete VA Form 21P-527EZ, “Application for Pension”. You can mail your application to the Pension Management Center (PMC) that serves your state. You may also visit your local regional benefit office and turn in your application for processing. You can locate your local regional benefit office using the VA Facility Locator
To apply for increased pension based on A&A or Housebound payments, write to the PMC that serves your state and provide medical evidence, such as a doctor’s report, that validates the need for an increased benefit.
Google Introduces Job Search Tool for Veterans at USO in San Diego – Times of San Diego
Ask the Chief: interview skills
The world’s third oldest profession*.
When I was a younger Sailor, traveling from foreign port to foreign port, I encountered a lot of outgoing people engaged as vendors, tour guides, shopkeepers and restaurant owners. Often their families were the wait staff that ran these places or made the things that provided their living. When your livelihood depends on people, there is an advantage in being a “people person”.
When I was a kid, I was actually an introvert. A gangling kid with poor eyesight, I was not the best athlete nor a glib talker and jokester. From several moves, a lot of activities that caught my interest, studying people, and experience in several professions from ranching to construction, furniture sales and auto parts counter work, I got to talking with and taking an interest in people. I worked as a bartender and waiter before I went into the military. One of my dreams, long before I became a technical worker in the telecommunications industry, was opening a bar or restaurant based on what I visited in foreign places. A kind of dive that had “atmosphere”. With all that experience of these exotic places and tourists from every part of the world I thought it would be fun. I had been working in bars and restaurants prior to my military service so it was somewhat familiar. I learned to speak, or at least communicate in three foreign languages, Spanish, French and Russian.
The service industry depends on people-skills as well as a strong work ethic. Marketing. Being a good listener as well as an observant and diligent service provider. And have a good memory for people’s names, their likes, and so on. In France in he early 1990s I saw the “smash sandwich” vendors – paninis as America now knows them – and thought it was a novel idea to bring to these shores. With the buxom women staffing these kiosks, the Toulon vendors served a lot of sandwiches. In Turkey, shoeshine boys mobbed visitors, appearing at the dock where our ship’s water taxis deposited them. These kids knew how to say “shoe shine” and make small talk about sports, whether you were an American sailor, a Brit, an Arab or perhaps even Chinese tourist. Even sailors wearing sneakers were not overlooked by boys with pats of shoe polish. In the markets, almost every vendor spoke some foreign tongue.
Interviewing, like selling, takes skill and people-smarts
Just as there are people who do not understand the difference between “selling” and “buying”, there are people who do not understand that the interview is a skill that one perfects. Preparation, listening, knowing what and how, to answer a question is part of the interview. Confidence, balanced with humility, and understanding the requirements of the job being sought as well as knowing something of you prospective employer, can win the interview.
Technical professionals I have coached have earned an offer of employment, not only from their preparation, but knowing how to “answer the question being asked” with sufficient detail, but not enough to get bogged down. It is a marketing opportunity to show that you will be an asset to those doing the hiring, but not telling them as much. And to win their trust, through your personality and likeability.
I know others who are successful gardeners, pool men, insurance agents and financial counselors. Some are musicians. Others are artists and writers. And still others with a love for and enough experience in hunting, fishing, camping or motor sports, they made professions as guides and teachers. And they connect with their clients and employers, with the same people-smarts.
Commitment and self-improvement
Practicing interviews, such as the “elevator talk” or meeting people in social settings, is valuable. Listening to people’s names and observing details about those you converse with, not only makes the other person feel valued, but aids in your ability to connect with your message.
Books I have read recently and recommend to everyone, engineer, actor, or military member in transition, include How to Start A Conversation and Make Friends, by Don Gabor (Simon & Shuster), and the classic, How to Win Friends and Influence People , by Dale Carnegie. Another great read and short, is The One Minute Sales Person, by Spencer Johnson, MD, and Larry Wilson (Harper Collins). There are also many good books and websites on personal development, the interviewing process in the social media age as well.
Selling “you”
In a job interview, a prepared and confident person builds a relationship and earns trust with the interviewer and the employer. Beyond the hiring process, as an employee or consultant, you continue being a student of the company, the people you meet, and learning by asking the right questions. There is also the times and places you can market yourself for new opportunities in the company, and by demonstrating value – increasing the bottom line, can use the same interviewing skills to ask for raises as well.
As a manager, you are still engaged in the sales profession. Whether as team leader, morale booster, mentor, recruiter or discipline agent, you still show the “customer” the value of the company and role that person fills, which provides their needs and their relationship to the team.
People do not want to be “sold” but they do want to “buy”
Just as someone who shops for a new vehicle, kitchen appliance, or bringing on a new team member, the skill is in recognizing what motivates, interests or is valued by the customer. A customer looking for the security of business insurance is not going to respond to the agent’s ‘hot buttons’. And an employer is not going to be encouraged by a prospective employee’s focus on pay rate, vacation earned or working hours.
Interviewing requires diligent effort and practice. But the military member also has what many other applicants lack. Focus. Endurance. Attention to detail. And maturity. As well as experience working under stressful situations and deadlines. So take charge and carry out your mission. Interview, interview, interview. And I have benefited from fifty years of practice. I am no longer gangling, nor introverted. I have been a recruiter and meet people everywhere I go. Though my best friends will tell me I am still not “glib”.
Fair Winds and Following Seas. – Senior Chief (Ret.)
* Wikipedia repeats the quote attributed to Ronald Reagan that a politician is the second-oldest profession. Prostitution is frequently quipped as the “oldest” profession.
Military, Active, Reserve or Retired:
-
If you live in, or are moving to, the San Diego area,
-
In the market for a new home, or refinancing an existing one?
Contact Doug Diemer:
Consider this a personal testimonial as he made my VA Refinance a very smooth transaction in 2016. I receive no compensation for any referral.
DoD Announces Policy Change on Transfer of Post-9/11 GI Bill Benefits
Via DoD Announces Policy Change on Transfer of Post-9/11 GI Bill Benefits:
CTMCS (ret) Summary: DOD has changed policy to increase retention, mandating service members must be under 16 years TAFMS (or Selected Reserve), to elect a transfer to spouse or kids, and must have 4 years service obligation remaining in order to transfer benefits.
WASHINGTON –12 July 2018
The Defense Department issued a substantive change today to its policy on the transfer by service members in the uniformed services of Post-9/11 GI Bill educational benefits to eligible family member recipients.
Effective one year from the date of this change, eligibility to transfer those benefits will be limited to service members with less than 16 years of total active-duty or selected reserve service, as applicable.
Previously, there were no restrictions on when a service member could transfer educational benefits to their family members. The provision that requires a service member to have at least six years of service to apply to transfer benefits remains unchanged in the policy.
Focus on Retention
“After a thorough review of the policy, we saw a need to focus on retention in a time of increased growth of the armed forces,” said Stephanie Miller, director of accessions policy in the Office of the Secretary of Defense. “This change continues to allow career service members that earned this benefit to share it with their family members while they continue to serve.” This change is an important step to preserve the distinction of transferability as a retention incentive, she added.
If service members fail to fulfill their service obligation because of a “force shaping” event — such as officers involuntarily separated as a result of being twice passed over for promotion or enlisted personnel involuntarily separated as a result of failure to meet minimum retention standards, such as high year of tenure — the change will allow them to retain their eligibility to transfer education benefits even if they haven’t served the entirety of their obligated service commitment through no fault of their own.
All approvals for transferability of Post-9/11 GI Bill continue to require a four-year commitment in the armed forces and, more importantly, the member must be eligible to be retained for four years from the date of election, officials said.
The policy affects service members in the uniformed services, which includes the U.S. Coast Guard as well as the commissioned members of the U.S. Public Health Service and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
editor: emphasis added
Ask the Chief: taxes
Retirement pay, states of residence and taxes
Edited and sourced from military benefits :
I believe that we all should contribute what is fair to help our military and contribute to the efficient management of our nation. That said, we all know that taxation is out of control in many states, without regard to the military service retiree’s sacrifice during their career. This information should assist a veteran with decisions about where to spend retirement.
Compiled for 2018, a list of all 50 states that exempt (or don’t) all or a portion of military retirement pay. When and where you settle, after retirement, is up to you, but having some current information should help you with “Uncle’s” hand in your pocket.
Summary:
- NO personal income tax: 9 states
- Full military retirement pay subject to tax: 8 states
- NO tax on military retirement pay: 20 states
- Partial tax on military retirement pay: 13
No state income tax ( no tax on retirement pay):
Alaska
Florida
Nevada
New Hampshire (dividend and interest taxes only)
South Dakota
Tennessee (dividend and interest taxes only)
Texas
Washington
Wyoming
8 States That Do Not exclude Military Retirement Pay from tax:
California
Montana
New Mexico
North Dakota
Rhode Island
Utah
Vermont
Virginia
20 States Don’t Tax Military Retirement Pay:
Alabama
Arkansas
Connecticut
Hawaii
Illinois
Iowa
Kansas
Louisiana
Maine
Massachusetts
Michigan
Minnesota
Mississippi
Missouri
New Jersey
New York
Ohio
Pennsylvania
West Virginia (as of 2018)
Wisconsin
13 States With “Special Provisions” Or Other Consideration For Military Retirement Pay
Arizona – Military retirement pay may be excluded from state taxation up to $2,500.
Colorado – Depending on age, up to $24,000 of military retirement pay may be exempt from state taxes.
Delaware – Taxpayers up to the age of 60 may exclude up to $2,000 of military retirement pay, military retirees aged 60 or older exclude up to $12,500.
District of Colombia – Military retirement pay may be excluded from state taxation up to $3,000 for individuals 62 or older.
Georgia – has a provision for any retirement income including military retirement pay. Taxpayers who are 62 or older, or permanently and totally disabled regardless of age, may be eligible for a retirement income adjustment on their Georgia tax return. Up to $35,000 ages 62-64 and $65,000 for 65 and older.
Idaho – Retirement benefits to a retired member of the military 65 or older, or disabled and age 62 or older are excluded from state taxes. Such deductions must be reduced by retirement benefits paid under the Federal Social Security Act or the Tier 1 Federal Railroad Retirement Act. The total maximum deductions vary each year.
Indiana – Military retirees may deduct the lesser of actual retirement pay or $5,000, whichever is less. Certain conditions may apply.
Kentucky – All military retirement pay is exempt from state income tax for those who retired prior to 1997. For those who retired after 1997, military retirement pay is subject to state tax when the pay exceeds $41,110.
Maryland – Military retirees don’t pay state income taxes on the first $5,000 of their retirement income. Those over age 65, or who are totally disabled, or who have a spouse who is totally disabled, receive additional state income tax breaks which may vary from year to year.
Nebraska – Retirees must choose (within two years of the retirement date) a seven-year exemption option of 40% or a lifetime exemption option of 15% starting at age 67.
North Carolina – Military retirement pay may not be taxed at all if it meets certain requirements including if the veteran was “vested in the retirement system” for five years as of August 12, 1989. Otherwise, tax exemptions may be applicable up to $4,000 for single returns and $8,000 for joint returns.
Oklahoma – Military retirement pay is exempt either up to 75% or $10,000, whichever is greater, but cannot exceed federal adjusted gross income.
Oregon – Military retirees may qualify for a “federal pension subtraction”. Those considered “special-case” Oregon residents will have their military retirement pay taxed as regular income.
South Carolina – Military retirees with a minimum of 20 years of active duty may exempt up to $3,000 until age 65, after which an exemption of $10,000 applies.
See: https://militarybenefits.info/states-that-do-dont-tax-military-retirement-pay/#ixzz5KmP3NLpq
Veterans benefit
It is a long time in coming, but f you served, you may again be eligible for GI Bill Education benefits that you may have thought expired.
Sharing news from the Veterans Administration:
Dear Fellow Veterans and Colleagues,
As you know, the recent passage of the Harry W. Colmery Educational Assistance Act of 2017, also known as the “Forever GI Bill,” enacts several changes to the GI Bill that will positively impact Veterans and their families. Some of the changes became effective the day the law was signed, some next fall, and some in the future. In the months to come, I’ll be updating you on how this new law impacts VA education benefits and what actions Veterans may need to take.
Here’s a breakdown of some of the legislation that immediately went into effect with the President’s signature, and what it means for you.
The 15-year time limitation for using Post-9/11 GI Bill – The 15-year limitation to use benefits is removed for Veterans who left active duty on or after January 1, 2013, children who became eligible for the Marine Gunnery Sergeant John David Fry Scholarship (Fry Scholarship) on or after January 1, 2013, and all Fry Scholarship eligible spouses.
There is no action you need to take; if eligible, the limitation is simply removed for you.
Restoration of Benefits due to School Closure – We are now authorized to restore benefits and provide relief to Veterans affected by school closures or disapprovals.
If you attended courses or programs discontinued from January 1, 2015 to August 16, 2017, and attended an accredited institution of higher learning, and did not transfer any credits to a comparable program, entitlement will not be charged for the entire period of your enrollment. The law also provides separate criteria for partial benefit restoration for school closures after January 1, 2015.
To apply for restoration, we will develop a web page with instructions, information, and a form to complete and return. I will update you when this page is available, and we’ll post an announcement on our main GI Bill page and social media sites.
Independent study programs at career and technical education schools covered by GI Bill – This allows anyone eligible for GI Bill to use their benefits at an accredited independent study program at an area career and technical school, or a postsecondary vocational school providing postsecondary level education. A bit of background on this provision: before the passage of this law, most non-college degree programs weren’t approvable if any portion of it was online. This change allows those programs to be considered for approval even if some or all of the instruction is online/not in a classroom.
There is no action for you to take here, as these programs will go through the normal course of approval by the appropriate State Approving Agency. Any new programs will be added to our GI Bill Comparison Tool.
Reservists who had eligibility under the Reserve Educational Assistance Program (REAP) and lost it due to sunset of the program will have that service credited toward the Post-9/11 GI Bill program – We are in the process of identifying the approximately 2,800 Reservists affected by this and will send them letters with instructions.
I will update you when the letters go out, and what to do if you did not receive a letter but feel you may be eligible for this restoration. We will also post more information on the GI Bill web and Facebook pages.
These changes will greatly benefit our nation’s Veterans by providing expanded access and opportunity to access education benefits. I will continue to update you as we work out the details of this legislation.
As always, thank you for your service.
Regards,
Curtis L. Coy
Deputy Under Secretary for Economic Opportunity
Veterans Benefits Administration
U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs
Washington, DC 20420
VA Core Values: Integrity, Commitment, Advocacy, Respect, Excellence (“I CARE”)
Veterans or prospective veterans: Get Hired!
My employer is GROWING and looking to hire veterans of the U.S. Armed Forces. Locations across the United States and overseas. Job Fair information:
ViaSat is hosting a free transition workshop for veterans and their spouses from 8 a.m.-5 p.m. on June 14. The event will assist those moving from the military to the civilian workforce.
Hands-on sessions include compensation and benefits, LinkedIn tutorial, resume building, StrengthFinder assessment, interview skills and more.
Lunch is included for all participants. RSVP by June 10 at www.surveymonkey.com/r/ViaSatTransitionWorkshop.
For more information, contact Adrian Haskamp at veterans@viasat.com or call (760) 476-2200.
Taxation but poor representation
On April 6th, 2017 the California Legislature narrowly approved an additional fuel and car registration tax and fees to make up for a “budget shortfall”. I did not approve.
Poor California. Run by men and women who steal from the working people of the state to fund everything but quality of life in the Golden State. The bureaucracy in California, from the local planning commissions, to the Air Quality boards, the education administration and a thousand jobs, bureaus, and committees that take money out of our pockets. They fund “trains to nowhere” around the state. They put bicycle lanes in existing roads that diminish the utility for motorists. They approve Public transit projects that do not provide an adequate ridership.
There are few streets or highways in the state that are maintained in suitable condition. In Los Angeles, there are hundreds of miles of highway that are a patchwork of potholes, filled potholes, patches, barriers, cones and flashing signs. In San Diego, one of the more recent projects did nothing to alleviate a congestion problem of merging lanes but to move the congestion three miles to the west of the original problem. And the local planning board approved an additional neighborhood development to funnel another five or six hundred cars at any given time into the present congested highway merge point.
In every municipality there have been bond measures – robbing from Peter to pay Paul for school improvements, fire stations and so forth, but the roads still don’t have improved traffic control and signal lights, street lights do not get bulbs replaced. Abandoned and broken down cars in neighbor hoods are the last item law enforcement investigates due to few resources.
But we continually hear the drumbeat of how the state of California is so progressive. Democrats — and it is the Democrats, or at least the socialist fringe Democrats who push through legislation or policy and regulations. There have never been sufficient numbers anywhere in the other 75 percent of the state to express a different viewpoint. Democrats and their Union/ ethnic/ LGBT lobbyist masters are the ones to blame for all the ills in the state. Not bad living at an average of $95,000 a year to make others lives miserable. And the Republicans, Greens, Socialists, and Libertarians are no better at any significant improvement in the management of our state. The state would be run far better if high school students could run things. The last generally-equipped-with-common-sense and not (yet) beholden to social justice warriors for opinions and direction.
The California education system loves to implement new methods for teaching but year after year the children in the state come out functionally disadvantaged, indoctrinated in all things to do with gender equality and green technology, but unable to hold responsible working – high paying jobs – because they have to pursue social justice protests and activist politics.
Everyone expects there to be blame assigned and subsequent REMORSE on the part of the worst offenders. But the social warriors have no delusions about this. Despite the huge numbers of people who do not HAVE to acquire a working knowledge of the English language, nor a skill to sustain them, nor an understanding of budgets, health care, and other common sense skills that the residents of this state enjoyed up until the 1960s. we have huge numbers that follow vapid entertainment personalities who present themselves as paragons of virtues, experts in sexual persuasions, proper roles of religion in society (none) and absolutely have no regard for Government — that does not follow the continued moral and social decline so favored by the socialists.
In California, the reason that we have rain and the inability to store water for the state in times of drought, is not because of weather patterns existing for millions of years, but because the political policy wonks find money can be leveraged for public-valued works to pet projects. What hampers growth in the economy – businesses and people- are favored academics who have conclusions FIRST and who then find or create evidence to support their grant money.
When millions of people stream into the state without the education, ability or desire to improve the state community as a whole but look to the state to care for them, the state – we who fund from our labor – has a problem. When we cannot discuss it for fear of reprisals, from the very same critics who demand we change everything to suit them – that do not tolerate dissent.
It’s a crazy, crazy place to live, California.
Oh, dear state legislators and bureaucrats, Soon, I will not afford to drive, the roads are already impassable, the trains don’t come my way; I still am expected to pay my bills and taxes. Maybe you can send every state retiree a vacation package for swimming with sharks, hot-air ballooning, skydiving lessons, or other means to decrease the number of pensioners in the state. I need YOUR optimism for California – and maybe a solar-powered car to get around.
For further study:
http://www.taxhistory.org/thp/readings.nsf/ArtWeb/5DDB79194769C2BF852574D5003C28D5?OpenDocument
http://www.nytimes.com/1990/06/26/us/two-votes-show-public-is-wary-of-tax-increases.html
http://www.latimes.com/opinion/la-oew-greene3sep03-story.html
Truths, Half-truths, and Sea Stories 