I 
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 inde-
pendent contractors. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives 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 
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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 accom-
pany ongoing training, and the struggle to balance 
the career and family obligations of today’s two-in-
come families; 
(4) to help recruit and retain volunteer fire-
fighters, some State and local governments may 
offer paid expenses, reasonable benefits, a nominal 
payment, or any combination thereof; 
(5) historically, fire departments used the Inter-
nal Revenue Service’s (IRS) Form 1099 to report 
these reasonable benefits and nominal payments for 
their volunteers; 
(6) increasingly, many volunteer fire depart-
ments 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, in-
stead of the Form 1099; 
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(7) the use of IRS Form 1099 for volunteer 
firefighters has been the long-standing practice of 
many volunteer fire departments because it accu-
rately 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 fire-
fighters by Federal, State, and local regulations; 
(9) because of this reason, IRS Form W–2s 
may greatly alter the historic role of volunteer re-
sponders and the cost-saving benefits that they pro-
vide 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 per-
formed should not be considered as an employer of 
their services; and 
(11) fire departments should be allowed to fol-
low their historic practice of issuing Form 1099s to 
their volunteers. 
SEC. 3. TREATMENT OF EMERGENCY SERVICE VOLUN-
TEERS AS INDEPENDENT CONTRACTORS. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—Subsection (a) of section 3508 of 
the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 (relating to treatment 
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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
VOLUN-
TEER.—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 VOLUN-
TEER.— 
‘‘(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 sub-
paragraph (A) shall have the respective mean-
ings 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
VOLUN-
TEERS’’. 
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(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 insert-
ing ‘‘, direct sellers, and certain emergency service 
volunteers’’. 
(d) EFFECTIVE DATE.—The amendments made by 
this section shall apply to services performed after Decem-
ber 31, 2010. 
Æ 
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