"As the chairman and national director of the National Native American Veterans Association, I receive numerous complaints concerning the Veterans Administration and the Department of Defense daily. Much of the time these complaints are the result of misunderstanding and clear communication between the service member or veteran and the VA and the defense department. Most of the problems we handle are therefore routine in nature and can be remedied fairly easily.

However, once in a while a situation will present itself that is not a routine matter and cannot be fixed without legislative action, such as the situation I am asking you to help us and our Native American veterans with. The situation concerns the wrongful taxation of Native American service members who served prior to 2001.

It seems that due to an accounting error on the part of the defense department�s Accounting and Finance Office, Native Americans who enlisted prior to 2001-whose home of record for enlistment was Indian lands- had state income taxes withheld from their military pay, and those deductions were turned over to the states for the state�s use. Those Native Americans whose residence was on Indian lands at the time of enlistment were not subject to state withholding taxes due to sovereign nation status of the Indian tribes and nations."

Get the Story:
Thomas Berry: Native vets wrongfully taxed (The Native American Times 5/26)

Relevant Links:
National Native American Veterans Association - http://www.nnava.org

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