[Congressional Bills 111th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 5537 Introduced in House (IH)]

111th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                H. R. 5537

To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to clarify the treatment of 
        emergency service volunteers as independent contractors.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             June 16, 2010

    Mr. Wu introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
                      Committee on Ways and Means

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to clarify the treatment of 
        emergency service volunteers as independent contractors.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Volunteer Firefighter Fairness Act 
of 2010''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    The Congress finds that--
            (1) the number of volunteer firefighters in the United 
        States has decreased from 880,000 in 1984 to 827,150 in 2008 
        according to the National Fire Protection Association;
            (2) according to the National Fire Protection Association, 
        volunteers comprise 72 percent of our Nation's fire and 
        emergency service;
            (3) the fire service is witnessing a reduced number of 
        volunteers due to increasing emergency call volumes, the large 
        time demands that accompany ongoing training, and the struggle 
        to balance the career and family obligations of today's two-
        income families;
            (4) to help recruit and retain volunteer firefighters, some 
        State and local governments may offer paid expenses, reasonable 
        benefits, a nominal payment, or any combination thereof;
            (5) historically, fire departments used the Internal 
        Revenue Service's (IRS) Form 1099 to report these reasonable 
        benefits and nominal payments for their volunteers;
            (6) increasingly, many volunteer fire departments are being 
        instructed by local offices of the IRS that they must use the 
        Form W-2 to report these nominal payments and reasonable 
        benefits, instead of the Form 1099;
            (7) the use of IRS Form 1099 for volunteer firefighters has 
        been the long-standing practice of many volunteer fire 
        departments because it accurately reflects the relationship 
        between the volunteer firefighter and the volunteer fire 
        department;
            (8) by requiring the use of W-2 forms, the IRS is putting 
        an onerous burden on fire departments and redefining the 
        treatment of volunteer firefighters by Federal, State, and 
        local regulations;
            (9) because of this reason, IRS Form W-2s may greatly alter 
        the historic role of volunteer responders and the cost-saving 
        benefits that they provide to their local communities;
            (10) a volunteer firefighter performing specific duties 
        should not be considered as an employee, and the fire 
        department for whom such services are performed should not be 
        considered as an employer of their services; and
            (11) fire departments should be allowed to follow their 
        historic practice of issuing Form 1099s to their volunteers.

SEC. 3. TREATMENT OF EMERGENCY SERVICE VOLUNTEERS AS INDEPENDENT 
              CONTRACTORS.

    (a) In General.--Subsection (a) of section 3508 of the Internal 
Revenue Code of 1986 (relating to treatment of real estate agents and 
direct sellers) is amended by striking ``or as a direct seller'' and 
inserting ``, as a direct seller, or as a qualified emergency service 
volunteer''.
    (b) Qualified Emergency Service Volunteer.--Subsection (b) of 
section 3508 of such Code is amended by redesignating paragraph (3) as 
paragraph (4) and by inserting after paragraph (2) the following new 
paragraph:
            ``(3) Qualified emergency service volunteer.--
                    ``(A) In general.--The term `qualified emergency 
                service volunteer' means any bona fide volunteer 
                performing qualified services for an eligible employer.
                    ``(B) Definitions.--Terms used in subparagraph (A) 
                shall have the respective meanings given such terms by 
                paragraphs (1) and (11)(B) and (C) of section 
                457(e).''.
    (c) Conforming Amendments.--
            (1) The section heading for section 3508 of such Code is 
        amended by striking ``and direct sellers'' and inserting ``, 
        direct sellers, and certain emergency service volunteers''.
            (2) The item relating to section 3508 in the table of 
        sections for chapter 25 of such Code is amended by striking 
        ``and direct sellers'' and inserting ``, direct sellers, and 
        certain emergency service volunteers''.
    (d) Effective Date.--The amendments made by this section shall 
apply to services performed after December 31, 2010.
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