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Tax Credits and Scholarships
for Volunteer Firefighters & EMS Personnel

    As VFD-Funding Group has grown in the number of visitors we receive, the number of web sites we own and the amount of financing and services we are providing globally, we are going to try again with the new U.S. Congress to attempt to get federal income tax credits and scholarships for volunteer firefighters, to help with recruiting, retention and this is the right thing to do, which is long overdue.

    As the number of volunteer firefighters and EMS personnel are dwindling, (See: USA Today-11/7/05: Number of Volunteer Firefighters Declining and VFD Facts) we have started a political initiative to amend the tax code to give a $1,000/yr. federal income tax credit and a $2,500 tuition/books scholarships to active volunteer firefighters/EMS personnel who are in good standing.  The scholarship element will help to recruit and retain younger firefighters and EMS personnel. 

    To enable the tax credit to function effectively and to insure the continuous protection of the public, a $1,000 per active volunteer firefighter federal tax credit to employers, who permit their active volunteer firefighter employees to leave work to answer alarms and continue to pay their wage or salary, without any deductions for time spent away from work.

    We believe this will not only help to recruit and retain volunteer firefighters, with emphasis to younger firefighters, but that because something like this hasn't been done a long time ago, we believe all to agree for this to be absurd, if not obscene.

    What we are proposing is going to prove to be a very lengthy, arduous, complicated, and expensive process to lobby members of congress and the White House; to get them to add this amendment and long overdue consideration to the IRS code.

    What We Propose:

    To encourage the recruitment and retention of volunteer firefighters and EMS personnel; a $1,000/yr. federal income tax credit, and a $2,500/yr. personal scholarship, for volunteer firefighters and EMS personnel who meet the following criteria:

    1.    Must be an active volunteer firefighter/un-paid EMS in good standing with their VFD.
    2.    Meet a minimum of 75% of answering alarms.
    3.    Meet a minimum of 70% of department drills.
    4.    Meet a minimum of 70% of department meetings.
    5.    Meet a minimum of 75% of department fund-raising activities.
    6.    Meet a minimum of successful fundamentals fire school training certification.
    7.    Attend at least two (2) days of fire school classes per year.

    To encourage businesses, who permit and encourage their active volunteer firefighters/EMS employees to leave work to answer alarms, a $1,000 federal tax credit per active volunteer firefighter employee, permitted to leave work, with the following conditions being met:

    1.   That the active firefighter employee(s) responded to a minimum of 85% of the alarms
          (actual emergency & fire calls and not false alarms) during their scheduled work hours.
    2    VFDs give response credit to active firefighters who call to confirm alarms from work.
    3.    That the active firefighter employees have a minimum of 1 hour to return to work,
           after the station and apparatus returns from the alarm and they are back in service.
    4.    The employer continues to pay the employee, without deduction, for time spent away
           from work at actual fire and other emergency scenes.
    5.    The employer provides the active firefighter employee with one (1) day of paid wages
           for the active firefighter employee to attend a fire school or other training program.
    6.    That should the employer pay wages to active volunteer firefighter employees for time
           spent away from work answering fire and other emergency calls and this to be in an
           amount exceeding $1,000, that the employer can claim a 150% loss on wages paid
           to active firefighters, as a tax deduction, on all amounts exceeding $1,000.

    What You Can Do to Help:

    1.    Write to us and give us your support.  Give us information about yourself, whether or not you are a firefighter/EMS, the name of your department, your community, and the name and contact information of your representative in the U.S. congress.

    2.    Give us your ideas of what you believe needs to be included in this proposed legislation to make it a viable new law.  When we can show that firefighters/EMS and their supporters have helped to develop this proposed legislation, it will send a clear message and with a loud voice of how much support there exists for these tax credits and scholarship programs.

    3.    Post your comments also to our forum, so that we can send members of congress there to immediately read for themselves how much support exists for this proposal and how long overdue it is.

    4.    Join our mailing list, so that when the time comes you can also write or call your U.S. senator and member of congress, or to give some other politician a real wake-up call, with a load of e-mails and phone calls as loud as any siren.  We need to be able to alert you (call out the alarm), so that as issues and opposition arise, we all stand as one voice. 

           Remember these folks (congress & other politicians) have a political reality in that an election is less than one (1) year away and they need votes to get elected/re-elected.  Supporting volunteer fire departments and helping get grants is an important "Homeland Security" political point that they will and need to use, or their opposition will use it against them if they don't help us.  If the big oil companies, pharmaceutical companies, and other billion dollar businesses get tax breaks, so should we!  If private contractors working in Iraq get tax breaks (because of hazardous duty), so should a volunteer firefighter or EMT!

    5.    Obtain a copy of our press release and send it to your U.S. representatives (both senate and house members), your local newspaper, your local TV station, and your volunteer fire departments in your area as part of an e-mail, declaring your support for these tax credits.

    6.    Write or call your U.S. senator and representative and send them to our VFD-Funding.com web site, so they can see what we're doing and perhaps help us.  Your calls and letters to congress will help us, so that we might not only do this successfully, but quickly and keep the costs of doing this as minimal as may be possible.  Remind them that volunteer firefighters/EMS and their supporters are good citizens, usual and likely voters, and also that "WITHOUT VOLUNTEER FIREFIGHTERS, HOMELAND SECURITY WILL GO UP IN SMOKE!"

   7.    Help spread the word.  Contact other firefighters and fire departments in your community and fire departments in your surrounding area, along with alerting your on-line firefighters/EMS & VFD friends to tell them what we're doing and have them visit us here at the VFD-Funding.com web site for more information.

Last modified: June 06, 2007

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