Two separate issues, as Irv noted, both pertaining only to USA
federal income taxes and volunteer SAR responders:
>exclude from gross income mileage reimbursements
>to volunteer emergency medical responders and
>volunteer firefighters
Reimbursed expenses already are excluded from gross income.
>increase the mileage allowance for charitable contributions
>for the benefit of volunteer fire departments, and for other
>purposes."
Personally, I wish the mileage deduction for *all* charitable
organization volunteers were the same as the mileage deduction
for business use of a vehicle. Why limit the Act to volunteer
responders? For 2006 the business rate was 44.5 cents/mile
while the volunteer/charitable rate was a mere 14 cents/mile.
The medical rate is also a scandal. Here is a handy table:
As Irv said, for MSAR responders with our trucks and trailers
and consequent terrible fuel economy, actual expenses probably
will be a far larger deduction.