| Compton: VA education benefits are not taxable By George Compton Q. I am going to attend college with the Post 9/11 Education Bill. Are any of those benefits taxable? A. No. Any benefits paid under any law administered by the Department of Veterans Affairs should not be reported as income to the Internal Revenue Service. Q. Is it possible to schedule my interment at a National Cemetery in advance? A. You cannot make arrangements with the National Cemetery in advance, but you can make arrangements with a funeral director in advance. In making those arrangements, give the funeral director a copy of your discharge. All interments are now scheduled through the National Cemetery scheduling office in St. Louis, and all funeral directors should be familiar with the process. Q. I understand that if the child of a veteran wants to use the California Fee Waiver, the veteran must have a service-connected disability. I did not file for disability from the VA but I was discharged from the military because of a medical condition. Will that make my son eligible? A. If a veteran has a discharge document that states that the reason for discharge is because of a service-connected disability, eligibility for the California Fee Waiver is established. I recommend you file for disability from the VA for the condition that ended your service. That could be important if your medical condition becomes more severe. You also could be eligible for medical treatment from the VA. Q. At one time I used a VA loan to purchase a home. My loan was assumed, the assumer defaulted on the loan, and the VA paid a claim to the lender. The VA agreed it was not my fault and waived the debt. Now I need a new VA loan but I am told that my used eligibility cannot be restored. Why? A. Although your debt was waived by the VA, the government still suffered a loss on the loan. The law does not permit the used portion of your eligibility to be restored until the loss has been repaid in full. — George Compton, a retired Army colonel, is the veterans service officer for the county Human Services Agency. Send your questions to Veterans Service Office, 1701 Pacific Ave., Suite 110, Oxnard, CA 93033, phone 385-6366, fax 385-6371, or e-mail george.compton@ventura.org. —— MilitaryConnection.com is a portal of all things military. We have thousands of pages and hundreds of databases of valuable information and resources. There is something for everyone. All of this is provided free to users. Additionally, we feature all types of Columns like this one to keep you informed. We will post your press releases, special events, newsletters, professional conferences and seminars, reunions, job fairs, and videos to help organizations get out the word. One of the areas of our focus is connecting candidates from the military community with outstanding government and civilian employers. We are well aware that candidates from the military community across the board have a work ethic second to none. They make highly valued employees. MilitaryConnection.com has a multitude of employment resources including a Directory of over 30,000 employers, Job Tips, Columns, our Job Board, Virtual Job Fair and much more. We understand the importance of education. Please check out our new Scholarship Directory featuring thousands of scholarships. When the next tour is back home, it’s on MilitaryConnection.com.
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