Committee approves employer income tax credit for hiring a veteran

Onetime military members who want to reintegrate into civilian life could receive employment help.

Sponsored by Rep. Anna Wills (R-Apple Valley), HF10 would provide employers with a nonrefundable income tax credit for hiring qualified veterans.

Rep. Anna Wills

The bill seeks a credit equal to 10 percent of the veteran’s wages, with caps of $3,000 for each disabled veteran hired, $1,500 for each unemployed veteran hired and $500 for each other veteran hired. No credit would be available if the employer now employs or has previously employed the veteran.

Approved Monday by the House Veterans Affairs Division, the bill awaits action by the House Taxes Committee. A companion, SF79, sponsored by Sen. Chuck Wiger (DFL-Maplewood), awaits action by the Senate Taxes Committee.

“I think this a very nice incentive for small businesses … that I think will greatly benefit, not only the business environment, but also our ability to give a veteran the help they really need,” said Rep. Dave Hancock (R-Bemidji).

“The state’s unemployment rate for all veterans stands at 5 percent, and 8.8 percent for post-Sept. 11 veterans,” Wills said. “This is more than double the unemployment rate for civilian counterparts which is about 3.7 percent.”

Wills sponsored similar legislation in 2013, but she said the language was “stripped out” by a conference committee.

“We need to make Minnesota a veteran-friendly state for service members to come home and start civilian life by becoming Minnesota taxpayers in the private sector, rather than having them depend on state benefits or leaving to go to a more veteran-friendly state,” Wills said.

Dennis Davis owns a consulting firm that helps companies hire veterans. He said there are both positive and negative stereotypes when it comes to hiring veterans, including concerns about post-traumatic stress disorder concerns. 

“They assume that you wore a uniform, you deployed in the last 15 years, and that you must be broken and need to be fixed,” said Davis, a veteran who served for 16 years, including two deployments. “They don’t understand post-traumatic stress and how that complicates things so there’s a resistance in hiring. … These typically are simply not true of the people that have served our great country.”

“If we need to incentivize financially the employment of our veterans, I think it’s the least we can do,” added Joe Johnson, founder of Trust Vets which unites veterans for business success. “I think it is important for all of us to lift up our veterans and put them in a position so they can continue serving our communities here at home because it will be better for all of us.”