Ron Sykstus's blog

More than 130,000 veterans are eligible to apply for refunds of taxes they paid on disability severance pay dating back almost three decades, according to the IRS.  The payments come after it was found the Department of Defense improperly withheld taxes on payments dating to Jan.

Recently, I have seen a number of individuals who have been instructed by their facility security officer (FSO) that they need to fill out and submit a SF 86 form through the e-Qip (Electronic Questionnaire for Investigation Processing). This is all done online through the JPAS  (Joint Personnel Adjudications System).

The answer is maybe. Please tread cautiously and carefully here and know what you are doing before you decide to record a phone call with someone else.

If you grew up in Chicago or in the Chicago Suburbs in the late 70s and early 80s, chances are good that you will recognize this iconic symbol:

For all of the many years that I have been practicing in this area of law, I have never seen a consistent and recurrent news theme where security clearance issues and problems continue to be predominate in the daily news cycle.  In fact, what prompted me to write this blog post is the recent news article, titled "Dozens

I recently saw this heartbreaking article regarding Vietnam veterans titled “Reverberations from war complicate Vietnam veterans’ end-of-life care.”

Have you received weird looking debt collection letters in the mail? Letters that say the debt is old and that the debt collector won't sue on it or report it on your credit reports? Also, do these letters say the debt collector wants to settle the debt with you even though it won't sue you or report it on your credit?

Given the high denial rates by the VA for Gulf War veterans, here is an interesting article about veterans who are doing something about it and helping other veterans.

Security clearance issues are common place in the news these days.  The news covers a lot of areas.

I meet with or talk by phone to at least 2 to 3 veterans each day.  These are veterans who contact me and ask me to help them fight the VA due to the VA’s denial of the veteran’s request for disability compensation.  Out of these veterans that I see each day, at least one will tell me that he or she believes that the VA is purposely denying his or her disability claim and that “the VA is waiting for me to die.”  This comment is so prevalent that I almost always finish the rest of the sentence fo