II 

114TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION S. 1517 

To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to extend the work opportunity 

credit for hiring veterans, and for other purposes. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

JUNE 4, 2015 

Mr. BLUMENTHAL (for himself, Mr. BENNET, Mr. CARDIN, Mrs. SHAHEEN, 

and Mr. UDALL) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and 

referred to the Committee on Finance 

A BILL 

To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to extend 

the work opportunity credit for hiring veterans, and for 

other purposes. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘VOW to Hire Heroes 

5 Extension Act of 2015’’. 

6 SEC. 2. EXTENSION OF WORK OPPORTUNITY CREDIT FOR 

7 VETERANS. 

8 (a) IN GENERAL.—Paragraph (4) of section 51(c) of 

9 the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 is amended by striking 


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1 ‘‘2014’’ and inserting ‘‘2014 (December 31, 2018, in the 

2 case of a qualified veteran).’’. 

3 (b) EFFECTIVE DATE.—The amendment made by 

4 this section shall apply to individuals who begin work for 

5 the employer after December 31, 2014. 

6 SEC. 3. SIMPLIFIED CERTIFICATION OF VETERAN STATUS. 

7 (a) IN GENERAL.—Subparagraph (D) of section 

8 51(d)(13) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 is amend9 ed to read as follows: 

10 ‘‘(D) PRE-SCREENING OF QUALIFIED VET11 ERANS.— 

12 ‘‘(i) IN GENERAL.—Subparagraph (A) 

13 shall be applied without regard to sub14 clause (II) of clause (ii) thereof in the case 

15 of an individual seeking treatment as a 

16 qualified veteran with respect to whom the 

17 pre-screening notice contains— 

18 ‘‘(I) qualified veteran status doc19 umentation, 

20 ‘‘(II) qualified proof of unemploy21 ment compensation, and 

22 ‘‘(III) an affidavit furnished by 

23 the individual stating, under penalty 

24 of perjury, that the information proVerDate Sep 11 2014 04:18 Jun 09, 2015 Jkt 049200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1517.IS S1517

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1 vided under subclauses (I) and (II) is 

2 true. 

3 ‘‘(ii) QUALIFIED VETERAN STATUS

4 DOCUMENTATION.—For purposes of clause 

5 (i), the term ‘qualified veteran status docu6 mentation’ means any documentation pro7 vided to an individual by the Department 

8 of Defense or the National Guard upon re9 lease or discharge from the Armed Forces 

10 which includes information sufficient to es11 tablish that such individual is a veteran. 

12 ‘‘(iii) QUALIFIED PROOF OF UNEM13 PLOYMENT COMPENSATION.—For purposes 

14 of clause (i), the term ‘qualified proof of 

15 unemployment compensation’ means, with 

16 respect to an individual, checks or other 

17 proof of receipt of payment of unemploy18 ment compensation to such individual for 

19 periods aggregating not less than 4 weeks 

20 (in the case of an individual seeking treat21 ment under paragraph (3)(A)(iii)), or not 

22 less than 6 months (in the case of an indi23 vidual seeking treatment under clause 

24 (ii)(II) or (iv) of paragraph (3)(A)), during 


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1 the 1-year period ending on the hiring 

2 date.’’. 

3 (b) EFFECTIVE DATE.—The amendment made by 

4 this section shall apply to individuals who begin work for 

5 the employer after the date of the enactment of this Act. 

6 SEC. 4. CREDIT MADE AVAILABLE AGAINST PAYROLL 

7 TAXES IN CERTAIN CIRCUMSTANCES. 

8 (a) IN GENERAL.—Paragraph (2) of section 52(c) of 

9 the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 is amended— 

10 (1) by striking ‘‘QUALIFIED TAX-EXEMPT ORGA11 NIZATIONS’’ in the heading and inserting ‘‘CERTAIN

12 EMPLOYERS’’, and 

13 (2) by striking ‘‘by qualified tax-exempt organi14 zations’’ in the text and inserting ‘‘by certain em15 ployers’’. 

16 (b) CREDIT ALLOWED TO CERTAIN FOR-PROFIT EM17 PLOYERS.— 

18 (1) IN GENERAL.—Paragraph (1) of section 

19 3111(e) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 is 

20 amended by inserting ‘‘or a qualified for-profit em21 ployer’’ after ‘‘If a qualified tax-exempt organiza22 tion’’. 

23 (2) QUALIFIED FOR-PROFIT EMPLOYER DE24 FINED.—Paragraph (5) of section 3111(e) of such 

25 Code is amended by striking ‘‘and’’ at the end of 


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1 subparagraph (A), by redesignating subparagraph 

2 (B) as subparagraph (C), and by inserting after sub3 paragraph (A) the following new subparagraph: 

4 ‘‘(B) the term ‘qualified for-profit em5 ployer’ means, with respect to a taxable year, 

6 an employer not described in subparagraph (A), 

7 but only if— 

8 ‘‘(i) such employer does not have prof9 its for any of the 3 taxable years preceding 

10 such taxable year, and 

11 ‘‘(ii) such employer elects under sec12 tion 51(j) not to have section 51 apply to 

13 such taxable year, and’’. 

14 (3) CONFORMING AMENDMENTS.— 

15 (A) Section 3111(e)(1) of such Code is 

16 amended by striking ‘‘with respect to whom a 

17 credit would be allowable under section 38 by 

18 reason of section 51 if the organization were 

19 not a qualified tax-exempt organization’’ in 

20 paragraph (1). 

21 (B) Paragraphs (1) and (2) of section 

22 3111(e) of such Code are each amended by in23 serting ‘‘or for-profit employer’’ after ‘‘employ24 ees of the organization’’. 


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1 (C) Section 3111(e)(3)(C) of such Code is 

2 amended by inserting ‘‘in the case of a qualified 

3 tax-exempt organization,’’ before ‘‘by only tak4 ing into account’’. 

5 (D) Section 3111(e)(4) of such Code is 

6 amended by inserting ‘‘or for-profit employer’’ 

7 after ‘‘the organization’’. 

8 (E) Subparagraph (C) of section 

9 3111(e)(5) of such Code, as redesignated by 

10 paragraph (2), is amended to read as follows: 

11 ‘‘(C) the term ‘qualified veteran’ means a 

12 qualified veteran (within the meaning of section 

13 51(d)(3)) with respect to whom a credit would 

14 be allowable under section 38 by reason of sec15 tion 51 if the employer of such veteran were not 

16 a qualified tax-exempt organization or a quali17 fied for-profit employer.’’. 

18 (c) TRANSFERS TO FEDERAL OLD-AGE AND SUR19 VIVORS INSURANCE TRUST FUND.—There are hereby ap20 propriated to the Federal Old-Age and Survivors Trust 

21 Fund and the Federal Disability Insurance Trust Fund 

22 established under section 201 of the Social Security Act 

23 (42 U.S.C. 401) amounts equal to the reduction in reve24 nues to the Treasury by reason of the amendments made 

25 by subsections (a) and (b). Amounts appropriated by the 


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1 preceding sentence shall be transferred from the general 

2 fund at such times and in such manner as to replicate 

3 to the extent possible the transfers which would have oc4 curred to such Trust Fund had such amendments not 

5 been enacted. 

6 (d) EFFECTIVE DATE.—The amendments made by 

7 subsections (a) and (b) shall apply to individuals who 

8 begin work for the employer after the date of the enact9 ment of this Act. 

10 SEC. 5. REPORT. 

11 Not later than 2 years after the date of the enact12 ment of this Act, and annually thereafter, the Commis13 sioner of Internal Revenue, in consultation with the Sec14 retary of Labor, shall report to the Congress on the effec15 tiveness and cost-effectiveness of the amendments made 

16 by sections 2, 3, and 4 in increasing the employment of 

17 veterans. Such report shall include the results of a survey, 

18 conducted, if needed, in consultation with the Veterans’ 

19 Employment and Training Service of the Department of 

20 Labor, to determine how many veterans are hired by each 

21 employer that claims the credit under section 51 (by rea22 son of subsection (d)(1)(B) thereof) or 3111(e) of the In23 ternal Revenue Code of 1986. 

24 SEC. 6. TREATMENT OF POSSESSIONS. 

25 (a) PAYMENTS TO POSSESSIONS.— 


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1 (1) MIRROR CODE POSSESSIONS.—The Sec2 retary of the Treasury shall pay to each possession 

3 of the United States with a mirror code tax system 

4 amounts equal to the loss to that possession by rea5 son of the amendments made by this Act. Such 

6 amounts shall be determined by the Secretary of the 

7 Treasury based on information provided by the gov8 ernment of the respective possession of the United 

9 States. 

10 (2) OTHER POSSESSIONS.—The Secretary of 

11 the Treasury shall pay to each possession of the 

12 United States which does not have a mirror code tax 

13 system the amount estimated by the Secretary of the 

14 Treasury as being equal to the loss to that posses15 sion that would have occurred by reason of the 

16 amendments made by this Act if a mirror code tax 

17 system had been in effect in such possession. The 

18 preceding sentence shall not apply with respect to 

19 any possession of the United States unless such pos20 session establishes to the satisfaction of the Sec21 retary that the possession has implemented (or, at 

22 the discretion of the Secretary, will implement) an 

23 income tax benefit which is substantially equivalent 

24 to the income tax credit in effect after the amend25 ments made by this Act. 


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1 (b) COORDINATION WITH CREDIT ALLOWED

2 AGAINST UNITED STATES INCOME TAXES.—The credit 

3 allowed against United States income taxes for any tax4 able year under the amendments made by this Act to sec5 tion 51 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to any per6 son with respect to any qualified veteran shall be reduced 

7 by the amount of any credit (or other tax benefit described 

8 in subsection (a)(2)) allowed to such person against in9 come taxes imposed by the possession of the United States 

10 by reason of this section with respect to such qualified 

11 veteran for such taxable year. 

12 (c) DEFINITIONS AND SPECIAL RULES.— 

13 (1) POSSESSION OF THE UNITED STATES.—For 

14 purposes of this section, the term ‘‘possession of the 

15 United States’’ includes American Samoa, Guam, 

16 the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Is17 lands, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, and the 

18 United States Virgin Islands. 

19 (2) MIRROR CODE TAX SYSTEM.—For purposes 

20 of this section, the term ‘‘mirror code tax system’’ 

21 means, with respect to any possession of the United 

22 States, the income tax system of such possession if 

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1 erence to the income tax laws of the United States 

2 as if such possession were the United States. 

3 (3) TREATMENT OF PAYMENTS.—For purposes 

4 of section 1324(b)(2) of title 31, United States 

5 Code, the payments under this section shall be treat6 ed in the same manner as a refund due from credit 

7 provisions described in such section. 

Æ 


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