Enacts the hire veterans now act

1 Co-sponsor

• Diane J. Savino

BILL NUMBER:S6190

Title of bill

An act to amend the tax law, in relation to enacting the "hire veterans now act"; and providing for the repeal of such provisions upon expiration thereof

Purpose

This bill would incentivize employers to hire unemployed veterans.

Summary of provisions

This act will be known as the "hire veterans now act."

The bill will provide a tax credit to an employer for hiring and retaining a qualified individual. A qualified individual is defined as a resident of the state who is a veteran, begins employment after January 1, 2012 and before January 1, 2013, has been unemployed for sixty days prior to start of employment and is not employed to replace another employee. An employer will receive a tax credit of $1,000 per retained worker. A "retained worker" is a qualified individual who was employed during the taxable year, was employed for no less than 52 consecutive weeks, was employed full time, not less than 35 hours a week during the fifty-two consecutive weeks period and whose wages during the last 26 weeks equal at least 80% of the wages for the first 26 weeks.

Justification

With the economy still recovering many Americans are still unemployed and are struggling to find jobs. According to the New York state Department of Labor, as of September 2011, the unemployment rate was 8.0% for New York State. The United States unemployment rate was 9.1%. Veterans, however, have an even higher unemployment rate. The us Department of Labor website released that as of October 2011, the unemployment rate for veterans who served from 2001-present is around 12.1%, much higher than the nation's unemployment rate. As more service members return from the Iraq and Afghanistan wars this number may increase even more. We must find a way to put New York's veterans back to work. This bill will incentivize employers to hire unemployed veterans by providing a tax credit to employers who hire and retain an unemployed veteran. Veterans have risked their lives for our freedom; we must ensure that these courageous service members have employment opportunities when they return home from war.

Legislative history

New bill.

Fiscal implications

Needs to be determined.

Effective date

The bill takes effect on the sixtieth day after it shall become law and applies to the taxable years commencing on or after January 1, 2012 and shall expire January 1, 2014.