How to Recoup Taxes Paid on Disability Severance pay From the Armed Forces
by Allan B. Colombo 

Many medically discharged vets, including some good friends of mine, don't know they are entitled to get the taxes back if they get a VA rating. The one's who do know they are entitled (like I did) don't know how to go about doing it. If I can spare anyone what I went through trying to figure it out, its worth it.

Dorothy
IRS publications 17 (Your Federal Income Tax) & 525 (Taxable & Non-taxable Income, page 17) both state that “if you receive a lump-sum disability severance payment and are later awarded VA disability benefits, exclude 100% of the severance benefit from your income.” But neither publication says how.

Who is eligible?
According to page one of an information paper published online by the Presidio of Monterey Staff Judge Advocate, veterans who have:
a designation of 10 a, b, or c on DA Form 199 (findings from the Physical Evaluation Board). The rest of this page will deal with the last situation - a retroactive disability determination from the VA. (Information Paper). This last one means the VA has awarded a disability rating for the same condition for which someone is discharged...

GI Bill is a major victory for veterans
By Paul Rieckhoff, Huffington Post

For anyone following the fight for a new GI Bill, progress seemed to slow to a crawl recently. After the House and Senate overwhelmingly passed the veterans' education benefit as a part of the war funding supplemental, reconciling their two versions of the legislation faced serious and unexpected roadblocks. And even if Congress got the GI Bill to the president, the threat of a Bush veto was always looming.

Last night, all that changed. A critical agreement was reached between leadership in the House of Representatives and the White House on the fate of the war funding bill.

In a very rare reversal of opinion, the Bush administration withdrew its long-held objections to a new GI Bill that would fully fund the cost of a public college education for Iraq and Afghanistan veterans. The bill agreed on includes the entire World War II-style GI Bill that IAVA has been championing for over a year. The final bill will also allow service members who stay in the military to transfer their education benefits to their spouses and children. This is another great, bipartisan step toward providing our veterans with the benefits they have earned...

War Veteran must share disablility with ex-wife

Money For Nothing, Checks For Free

by Anne Stanton

A Manistee County judge ruled recently that a portion of a Vietnam veteran’s disability benefits can be considered when determining the amount of alimony paid to an ex-spouse.

Veteran Calvin Murphy had argued in court that his disability benefits should be off limits to his ex-wife, but 19th Circuit Judge James Batzer disagreed.

Murphy, 61, testified in the trial that he served a harrowing 5 1/2 months in Vietnam and mistakenly believed for decades that he had killed a fellow soldier during a North Vietnamese attack. He was wracked by guilt that his entire squadron had been ambushed, shot in the head, and found with cards in their mouths that said “Yankee go home.” He was not with his squadron at the time of the ambush.

Murphy said he was torn up emotionally from the experience—during his 24-year marriage to Karen Murphy, he sometimes slept with a gun, was tormented by nightmares, and used drugs and alcohol. In the early 1990s, he stopped drinking and sought treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder...

"Belated Thank You to the Merchant Mariners of World War II Act," would award $1,000 a month to merchant crewmen who served in WWII
BY GUY TRIDGELL

Henry Clemens was flunking high school in 1943 when he decided to help his country in World War II.

The Army wouldn't take him because he was still a kid. 

Neither would the Marines and the Navy.

Even the Coast Guard told Clemens to beat it.

Clemens found a home in the Merchant Marine, the maritime fleet that shipped wartime supplies through mines and enemy attack to the European and Pacific theaters.

"I was 16 years old," Clemens said. "They told me if I was crazy enough to go, I was in."

Clemens survived gunfire, weathered fierce storms at sea and watched his fellow mariners die to keep the Allied fighting machine running. But once the war ended, Clemens and other members of the Merchant Marine were denied all of the benefits, such as medical care and unemployment payments, extended to veterans...

***CALLING ALL VETERANS!***

Talk about your experience with the GI Bill! 

Steve Henn, Senior reporter of Marketplace would love to speak with recent Veterans about there experiences with the GI bill after returning from either Iraq or Afghanistan.

His deadline is tight and he must wrap up any interviews by about 3:30 pm Eastern time. 

If you are an Iraq or Afghanistan war veteran who has had experience with the GI Bill please contact him directly by email: shenn@americanpublicmedia.us or telephone: (202) 263-0201 IMMEDIATELY.  

This is your chance to be heard regarding veterans' education benefits!

A Call To Action!

by Major Robert L. Hanafin, U.S. Air Force-Retired  

My gut feeling is like all else Congress does when it comes to seriously supporting America's Veterans members of Congress will vote along party lines to either be fair or CHEAP!

How many members of Congress have continuously tried to sell the War on Terror on terms comparable to the sacrifice of World War II? It is way past time for them to put YOUR GI Bill where their mouth is. (See Links below to THE GI Bill, compare it to what's being offered then decide if the War on Terror is on par with WWII).

Vietnam vet's persistence finally pays off in settlement from VA
by Sara Hacking, Wadena Pioneer Journal

Persistence paid off for Vietnam War veteran Eugene Foster, 64, in the form of a settlement for post traumatic stress disorder. Foster, a Wadena resident, was awarded a claim of more than $65,000 and will receive $2,527 a month from Veterans Affairs for the rest of his life, he said.

“I don’t give up too easy,” Foster said. “I come from a long line of stubborn people.”

Foster filed the claim two and a half years ago, he said. It took three appeals to get his settlement.

“The only thing I can say is the system works,” said David Anderson, Wadena County’s veterans services officer. “This will really improve his quality of life.”

Foster is excited to get a better living situation, he said. He plans to move to a two-bedroom condominium with all new carpets, floor heating and dishwasher...

IRS Will Send Stimulus Payments Automatically Starting in May; Eligible Taxpayers Must File a 2007 Tax Return to Receive Rebate 

Editor's Note: I was actually happy to receive a phone call from the IRS today! Mark Hanson called me to ask me to publish this information so that veterans will be sure to file their 2007 tax return in order to receive their stimulus check if they are entitled to one. Good news for a change!

WASHINGTON — The Internal Revenue Service today advised taxpayers that in most cases they will not have to do anything extra this year to get the economic stimulus payments beginning in May.

“If you are eligible for a payment, all you have to do is file a 2007 tax return and the IRS will do the rest,” said Acting IRS Commissioner Linda Stiff.

The IRS will use information on the 2007 tax return filed by the taxpayer to determine eligibility and calculate the amount of the stimulus payments...

You just might want to think twice or maybe three times before you do. 

Every senator and member of the house should be ashamed of letting things like this happen.  Yet, it goes on daily within the Veterans Affairs with people making decisions that either cannot pour it out of boot, allowed to deny the laws of chemistry, or they get their cash bonuses based on denials of Veterans claims.

Korean DMZ Veteran David Hill was given 18 months to live with two cancers that are approved as associated with the herbicide Agent Orange.  David proved beyond any doubt he did serve along the DMZ for months.  Veterans Affairs denied him compensations because David arrived two months after the Department of Defense (DoD) stated they quit using the herbicides.  Our Veterans Affairs totally discounting and denying the proven toxic half-life of these herbicides in their denial of David’s claim.  Even more germane to the issue, not only did David have two cancers associated with the herbicide exposures but after leaving the DMZ and at discharge from service, David was diagnosed with pustular acne.  A scientific hallmark of exposures to these dioxins, dioxin-like furan isomers, and polychlorinated biphenyl's (PCB’s) that some of their isomers fall in the category of dioxin isomers.  David had no such pustular acne before he served on the Korean DMZ...

War veteran turns to Project SALUTE--Students And Lawyers Assisting U.S. Troops Everywhere and gets back payments due to him
by Rosanna Ruiz, Houston Chronicle

Left, Willie Williams Sr. plans to replace his dilapidated, 40-year-old mobile home when he gets the check from the Department of Veterans Affairs. He lost a leg to diabetes, which has been linked to Agent Orange exposure, more than 30 years ago.

DAYTON — Willie Williams Sr., a Vietnam veteran who years ago lost a leg to diabetes, takes pride in being able to do for himself.

Lately, however, it's become harder for him to move around in his dilapidated 1968 trailer where the floor in the bathroom and hallway seems ready to give way. A new home was out of the question, given the paltry Social Security benefits he lived on.

And then last week he got a call from an apologetic Department of Veterans Affairs official. There had been a mistake, three years ago, when his claim for disability benefits was denied. The department owed him $96,000. They would be depositing a check...