Helping Our Heroes Act
Summary
What This Bill Does
The Helping Our Heroes Act amends Internal Revenue Code section 170 to treat volunteer emergency service as a charitable contribution. Each hour of qualified services rendered by a bona fide volunteer is treated as a $20 contribution to the organization receiving the services, with no more than 300 hours counted for any individual in a taxable year. Qualified services include firefighting and prevention, emergency medical and rescue services, ambulance services, civil air patrol, search and rescue services, and required or authorized training and training-related activities. A bona fide volunteer may receive only expense reimbursement or reasonable expense allowances, reasonable benefits including length-of-service awards, and customary volunteer fees from eligible employers. Contributions must be verified as Treasury provides. The $20 hourly amount is indexed for inflation after 2026. Services performed while the individual is a Member of Congress do not qualify. The bill also amends the standard deduction rules so non-itemizers can deduct the amount attributable to section 170(q) volunteer service contributions. The amendments apply to taxable years beginning after December 31, 2025.
Who Benefits and How
Volunteer firefighters benefit because up to 300 hours of qualified service can be valued at $20 per hour for a charitable deduction. Volunteer emergency medical, rescue, ambulance, civil air patrol, and search and rescue personnel benefit from the same tax recognition. Volunteer fire departments and rescue organizations benefit if the deduction helps recruit and retain emergency service volunteers. Non-itemizing volunteers benefit because the standard deduction rules are amended to allow the volunteer-service charitable deduction amount.
Who Bears the Burden and How
Treasury and IRS staff must issue verification rules, administer the inflation adjustment, and update charitable deduction and standard deduction forms. Volunteer organizations must verify qualified service hours in the manner Treasury requires. Volunteers claiming the deduction must document service hours and confirm they meet the bona fide volunteer compensation limits. Federal taxpayers bear the revenue cost of the new deduction.
Key Provisions
- Adds Internal Revenue Code section 170(q) treating each hour of qualified volunteer emergency service as a $20 charitable contribution.
- Limits counted qualified service to 300 hours per individual per taxable year.
- Defines qualified services to include firefighting, emergency medical and rescue, ambulance, civil air patrol, search and rescue, and related training.
- Requires Treasury-prescribed verification and indexes the $20 hourly amount after 2026.
- Excludes services performed while the volunteer is a Member of Congress.
- Allows non-itemizers to deduct the amount attributable to section 170(q) volunteer-service contributions for taxable years after December 31, 2025.
Evidence Chain:
This summary is generated from the full bill text using AI analysis. Expand "Detailed Analysis" below for identified beneficiaries/burden bearers with clause-level evidence links.
At a Glance
What This Bill Does
Creates a charitable deduction for bona fide volunteer firefighters, emergency medical and rescue personnel, ambulance volunteers, civil air patrol volunteers, and search and rescue volunteers by treating each qualified service hour as a $20 charitable contribution, up to 300 hours per tax year, with verification, inflation indexing, a Member of Congress exclusion, and non-itemizer treatment.
Key Policy Areas
Tax, Emergency Services, Volunteerism
Primary Purpose
Creates a charitable deduction for bona fide volunteer firefighters, emergency medical and rescue personnel, ambulance volunteers, civil air patrol volunteers, and search and rescue volunteers by treating each qualified service hour as a $20 charitable contribution, up to 300 hours per tax year, with verification, inflation indexing, a Member of Congress exclusion, and non-itemizer treatment.
Policy Domains
Substantive provisions
Identified Gains
- Volunteer firefighters
- Volunteer emergency medical personnel
- Search and rescue volunteers
- Civil air patrol volunteers
- Volunteer fire departments
- Non-itemizing emergency volunteers
Identified Costs
- Treasury tax administrators
- IRS form writers
- Volunteer emergency service organizations
- Volunteers claiming the deduction
- Federal taxpayers
Sponsors
Legislative Progress
In CommitteeMr. Bresnahan (for himself and Mr. Harder of California) introduced …
Referred to the House Committee on Ways and Means.
Introduced in House
Stakeholder Effects
cui bono?How this legislation distributes effects. Mention counts reflect frequency, not effect magnitude.
Volunteer ambulance service workers, Volunteer emergency medical technicians (EMTs) and paramedics
Bill Structure & Actor Mappings
Who is "The Secretary" in each section?
We use a combination of our own taxonomy and classification in addition to large language models to assess meaning and potential beneficiaries. High confidence means strong textual evidence. Always verify with the original bill text.
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