Many volunteer fire and EMS personnel received an early Christmas present - on December 20th, President Bush signed into law the Mortgage Forgiveness Debt Relief Act (H.R. 3648, P.L. No. 110-142). The Act exempts from federal income and FICA taxes certain tax benefits provided to volunteer fire and EMS personnel by state and local governments. It also exempts the first $360 per year of any other type of benefit received by those volunteers. The tax benefits begin in 2008 and sunset in 2010.
Congressman John Larson (D-CT) made this issue a legislative priority after meeting with local officials in Connecticut to discuss how towns hoping to recruit and retain volunteer firefighters were being stymied by an IRS ruling that taxed local tax abatements as income. NATaT identified tax benefits for volunteer responders as one of its top legislative priorities in 2007, and worked closely with Congressman Larson and other stakeholder groups to move this issue through Congress.
By Jennifer Imo, NATaT Federal Director
The Ferguson Group
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment