An employer gets $1,500 a year for a registered apprentice who is a veteran, double the ordinary amount, for up to five years. It is a reason to name your veteran status to an employer before they hire.
Also called: apprentice, apprenticeship, 39-6-109, 15-30-2357, employer credit, $1,500, hiring.
This is an employer's credit rather than a veteran's payment, and it is in this catalog because it changes what a veteran is worth to a Montana employer and because a veteran can raise it in a hiring conversation.
Section 39-6-109 gives an employer an annual credit against Montana income tax for employing an apprentice in a state-registered apprenticeship training program who works in Montana. The amount is $750 for an ordinary apprentice and $1,500 where the apprentice is a veteran. The credit may be claimed for up to five tax years for each individual apprentice.
The veteran definition used is the employment preference one at 39-29-101, not the narrower one in Title 10. That means a general discharge counts, a Guard member with six years of service of which the last three were in the Montana National Guard counts, and merchant marine service recognised by the Department of Defense as active military service counts.
Three conditions do the work. The apprentice must be a "new employee", defined as someone not employed as an apprentice before January 1, 2018. The credit is not available until the apprentice has finished the program's probationary period or six months, whichever is earlier. And the employer must apply to the Department of Labor and Industry each year for approval to claim it for the preceding calendar year; a credit claimed without that approval is simply stripped out of the return.
Section 15-30-2357(2) makes it nonrefundable with no carryforward and no carryback. An employer has to owe $1,500 of Montana tax in that year to get the whole of it, which is why the Revenue Interim Committee notes that approvals consistently run ahead of claims.
The scale is real but modest. The Department of Labor and Industry approved 188 veteran apprenticeship credits in 2023, against a few hundred apprenticeship credits of all kinds actually claimed.
Thresholds
Thresholds for Montana Veteran Apprenticeship Tax Credit
Gate
Rule
The wider employment-preference definition of veteran
The credit uses the definition in 39-29-101, which covers 180 days of active duty under honorable conditions including a general discharge, a reserve member called up during a war or campaign, and a Montana National Guard member with six years of service of which the last three were in the Montana Guard.
New employee, probationary period, annual approval
The apprentice must not have been employed as an apprentice before January 1, 2018. The credit is unavailable until the probationary period or six months has passed, whichever is earlier, and the employer must apply to the Department of Labor and Industry each year for approval.
Nonrefundable, five years per apprentice
The credit may not exceed the employer’s tax liability and may not be carried forward or back, so an employer with little Montana tax cannot use all of it. It runs for at most five tax years for each individual apprentice.
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Disclaimer
VetTOC is not affiliated with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs or the Department of Defense. Information is for reference only and is not an eligibility determination. Verify with VA, the relevant state or territory, or an accredited VSO.