Volunteer and Combination

President Signs Fiscal Year 2019 Appropriations with Increases for Fire Service Programs

February 15, 2019

2019 appropriations bill signed into law which funds federal agencies including the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, FEMA, U.S. Department of Agriculture, U.S. Forest Service, and U.S. Department of Transportation. The bill included a number of increases for fire service programs. read more
HHS Announces New EMS Reimbursement Model

February 14, 2019

The Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation (CMMI) announced Feb. 14 that they will begin testing a model policy in which CMMI reimburses fire departments for the cost of providing Medicare beneficiaries with treatment-without-transportation and transporting patients to alternative destinations. read more
5 Things I Learned from Dad to Help Grow Volunteer Membership

January 31, 2019

Over the holidays, my dad told me the church he attends is growing. I was surprised because over the past 25 years, membership in American churches has dropped 15%. Sound familiar? In the past 30 years, volunteer firefighters have declined by 12%. read more

IAFC Urges Congress to Exempt Volunteer Incentives from Taxation

On May 26, 2016, the IAFC submitted comments to the U.S. House Committee on Ways and Means on the need to exempt nominal incentives for volunteer fire and EMS personnel from taxation. The IAFC offered these comments as part of a larger comment on the need to reform the tax code to address several important fire service issues such as volunteer recruitment/retention and fire sprinkler installation. Read the IAFC's full comments today!

Reinstate and Extend the VRIPA

State and local governments use property tax rebates and other incentives to recruit and retain volunteer firefighters, yet the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) views these incentives as income. The Volunteer Responder Incentive Protection Act (VRIPA) excluded from taxable income any property tax benefit and up to $360 per year of all other payments to volunteer firefighters and EMS personnel from a state or local unit of government. However, this law expired at the end of the 2010 tax year.

In February 2015, Senators Charles Schumer (D-NY) and Susan Collins (R-ME) introduced the Volunteer Responder Incentive Protection Act (S. 609) to reinstate the tax benefit and raise the $360 cap to $600 through the end of the 2017 tax year. In June 2015, Representatives John Larson (D-CT) and Dave Reichert (R-WA) introduced an identical House bill (H.R. 2752).

Action Item: Urge your members of Congress to reinstate VRIPA by cosponsoring H.R. 2752 and S. 609. Send a letter to your Representative and to your Senators to explain the need for action on this issue. Find out here who your members of Congress are and how to contact them!

IRS Clarifies Taxes on Uniforms

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) released guidance to help fire departments understand which uniform items must be declared on a volunteer's W-2 and which uniforms items may be excluded. Learn more today about how this decision will impact your volunteers' W-2s.

House Passes Bill to Exempt Volunteers from PPACA

The House of Representatives voted 415-0 in favor of passing the Protecting Volunteer Firefighters and Emergency Responders Act (H.R. 1191) which would codify the IRS decision to ecempt volunteer fire department personnel from being classified as full-time employees for the purposes of enforcing the Employer Shared Responsibility Provision of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. H.R. 1191 now rests in the Senate where it is awaiting action.