The Veterans’ Bill of Rights: what the law recognises and how you prove it

It is a legal index, not an office. The Bill of Rights creates no single filing and no one-stop counter: it gathers into one text the rights that various acts had recognised for the Puerto Rican veteran, and leaves each one to be administered by the agency it belongs to. The property tax exemption is administered by CRIM. The excise and licence plate of a disabled veteran’s vehicle fall to Treasury and DTOP. Free tuition falls to the University of Puerto Rico and the Department of Education. Employment preference binds both the government and private employers. And above all of it sits the Office of the Advocate for Veterans Affairs, to which the act assigns concrete oversight and outreach duties. Knowing the Bill exists is half of it: the other half is knowing which agency to claim each right from.

The act defines who is a veteran by reference to service in the Armed Forces of the United States of America, and Section 5 states what evidence proves it: the honourable discharge or separation certificate, or a certification issued to that effect by the Federal Veterans Administration or by the corresponding federal authority. Several specific rights add their own conditions — for example a disability rating of fifty per cent or more certified by the Department of Veterans Affairs for the partial property tax exemption, or being over sixty for certain vehicle fee exemptions. Section 6 extends rights to the veteran’s surviving spouse and to minor or disabled children.

• Proving service in the Armed Forces of the United States: the honourable discharge or separation certificate serves as evidence.Verified against the official source
• Alternatively, a certification issued to that effect by the Federal Veterans Administration or by the corresponding federal authority.Verified against the official source

• The honourable discharge or separation certificate from the branch of the Armed Forces in which you served.
• For rights that depend on the disability rating: the written certification from the Department of Veterans Affairs attesting to that rating.

1. 1

   Step 1: Start with the evidence of service

   Section 5 of the act settles it in one sentence: for the purposes of this chapter, the honourable discharge or separation certificate, or a certification issued to that effect by the Federal Veterans Administration or by the corresponding federal authority, shall be accrediting evidence of having served in the Armed Forces of the United States of America. That document is the key to almost everything else. Get copies and keep them: several of the rights that follow require presenting it to different agencies.

2. 2

   Step 2: Learn the map of rights by subject

   The act groups the rights like this. Education: free tuition at the University of Puerto Rico and its units for veterans who have exhausted their federal study benefits, expansion of the vocational school system, adult education, and reinstatement in employment after finishing studies. Income tax: a deduction for the veteran. Property tax: three different exemptions, depending on whether you are a veteran, a disabled veteran, or a veteran with a service-related disability of fifty per cent or more. Automobiles of disabled veterans: excise exemption, licence fee exemption and a removable parking sign. War surplus property. Certificates issued by government agencies. Preferential service at public offices. And rights related to work: preference, reinstatement, competitive examinations and crediting of service for retirement.

3. 3

   Step 3: Claim each right from the agency that administers it

   There is no single counter. The property tax exemption is administered by the Municipal Revenue Collection Center, and the act empowers its Executive Director to issue regulations. The income tax deduction and the excise exemptions are administered by the Secretary of the Treasury, whom the act empowers to issue rules. The removable parking sign is provided by the Department of Transportation and Public Works. Free tuition falls to the University of Puerto Rico and its academic units. And the obligation to give employment preference falls on the government, its corporations, the municipalities and all private natural or juridical persons operating businesses in Puerto Rico.

4. 4

   Step 4: Know what the Office of the Advocate for Veterans Affairs does

   The act assigns it concrete functions worth knowing because they work for you. Every employer — government or private — is obliged to notify that Office of any employment announcement for available competitive positions, and the Office in turn must circulate them to duly organised veterans’ organisations through its web page, the Government of Puerto Rico portal, or any other means it deems appropriate. The Department of Education is likewise obliged to report annually to it, alongside the Legislative Assembly, on the applications filed and the use of federal funds allocated to veterans’ studies. A warning: that Office’s portal did not respond from the environment in which this guide was verified, so no web address or telephone is published here. Look them up before relying on them.

5. 5

   Step 5: And confirm the figures before relying on them

   This is the guide’s most important warning. The act is dated 14 December 2007 and SUTRA’s record covers only the original bill’s legislative history: it lists no later amendments, so it could not be verified whether any amount, threshold or percentage still stands nineteen years on. Worse for the tax side: the act cites the Puerto Rico Internal Revenue Code of 1994 and its sections 1023(bb)(4) and 2010, and today the Internal Revenue Code of 2011 governs. That is why this guide tells you which rights exist and who must deliver them, and does not present as current any dollar figure from the 2007 text. For the numbers, go to the agency.

There is no single place. The official text of Act 203-2007 is consulted in SUTRA, the Legislative Services Office system, which publishes both the act and its official English translation. Each right is claimed from the agency administering it: CRIM for property tax, Treasury for income tax and excises, DTOP for the sign and vehicle fees, the University of Puerto Rico and the Department of Education for studies, and your employer — public or private — for employment rights.

• Looking for a single veterans’ counter: each right is administered by a different agency.
• Going to claim without the honourable discharge or separation certificate, the evidence the act names.
• Relying on the 2007 text’s amounts without confirming them: the act could not be verified as current.
• Looking up the tax deduction by the section number the act cites, which is from the 1994 Code and not the 2011 one.
• Assuming employment rights bind only the government: the act binds private employers too.
• Forgetting that the surviving spouse and minor or disabled children have their own rights under the act.
• Believing the Bill of Rights replaced federal benefits: they are separate systems and this act is a Commonwealth one.

These are the government pages this guide is based on.

• Oficina del Procurador del Veterano Puertorriqueño

  Procurador del Veterano

  sutra.oslpr.org

• Official text of Act 203-2007 (English translation published by the Legislative Assembly)

  Oficina de Servicios Legislativos

  sutra.oslpr.org