New York State Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele, Jr., (I, D, WF-Sag Harbor) today announced a previously approved $74 million tax credit encouraging employers to hire New York’s post-9/11 veterans who are currently not employed begins on January 1, 2014.

Nationwide, post-9/11 veterans have an unemployment rate of 10.0 percent. Post-9/11 veterans under age 25 have an unemployment rate of 10.5 percent. Unemployment rates for post-9/11 veterans are noticeably higher than the unemployment rates for their non-veteran counterparts. There are approximately 75,000 post-9/11 veterans living in New York State today.

The State has allocated $74 million to provide tax breaks that can be applied against the taxes of any private business that hires a post-9/11 veteran after Jan. 1, 2014 and before Jan. 1, 2017, to a full-time position of at least 35 hours a week for at least a year. The amount of the tax credit equals 10 percent of the gross wages paid to a non-disabled veteran, and 15 percent of the gross wages paid to a disabled veteran, for the first year of employment.

The credit is capped at $5,000 for non-disabled post-9/11 veterans and at $15,000 for disabled post-9/11 veterans. It is a one-time credit applied against the 2015 and 2016 franchise tax years; however, any credit not used by an employer can be carried forward for three years.

Another requirement of the credit is that the veteran employee must be a new hire who had been unemployed for at least six months prior. The new policy prohibits employers from firing an employee to replace them with a veteran to receive the credit.