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Tax officials tell Ways & Means data sharing would ease veteran tax credit verification
Summary
Deputy Commissioner Rebecca Samrock told the Ways & Means Committee that the Vermont Department of Taxes prefers a data-sharing system to verify veteran status for a new veteran tax credit in S.51; absent that, the department may request VA documentation during return review. A vote on S.51 was scheduled for the committee’s next meeting.
Deputy Commissioner Rebecca Samrock of the Vermont Department of Taxes told the Ways & Means Committee that the department prefers a data-sharing solution to verify veteran status before administering a new veteran tax credit proposed in S.51, and that, without such a system, the department may request documentation from claimants during return review.
Samrock said the department is weighing taxpayer ease against administrative integrity and prefers an electronic database that would allow matching by an identifier. "The best option would be if there was some sort of data sharing or database that tax department could plug into that would have an updated list of veterans in our state," she said.
Committee members pressed how verification would work in practice and whether DD214 forms or DMV lists might be alternatives. Representative Henry suggested the Department of Motor Vehicles could provide lists tied to veteran-designated license plates; Samrock said presenting a DD214 was possible but would be a greater lift because the department currently does not require attachments for existing credits.
The department described fallback options if a data-sharing agreement is not available: examiners could request VA-generated documentation for specific returns during post-filing review rather than require attachments from all claimants on submission. Samrock noted that a VA verification step appears quick on the VA website and could be used in follow-up: "It seems like it's pretty, pretty quick, you know, less than 5 clicks, from the VA website." She added that documentation could be used either on the front end for examiners or in back-end compliance reviews.
Committee members also asked about tracking and reporting. Samrock said the department can provide aggregate statistics by income slices, subject to confidentiality rules that require at least 10 filers per group to release counts. On the related military retirement pay exemption in the bill, she said the department already administers a similar exemption capped at $10,000 and that retirement income is grouped into federal taxable income, which the department can reconcile using existing data.
No formal vote took place on S.51 during the hearing; committee members indicated a vote was scheduled for the next meeting. The discussion was technical and focused on implementation details rather than changes to credit eligibility.
