S 298: Provides a state income tax exemption for volunteer firefighters and volunteer ambulance workers who have qualifying service in the taxable year for which such exemption is sought.

  
  STATE OF NEW YORK ________________________________________________________________________ 298 2025-2026 Regular Sessions  IN SENATE (Prefiled) January 8, 2025 ___________ Introduced by Sens. OBERACKER, ASHBY, BORRELLO, GALLIVAN, MATTERA, MURRAY, PALUMBO, ROLISON, TEDISCO, WALCZYK, WEBER, WEIK -- read twice and ordered printed, and when printed to be committed to the Committee on Budget and Revenue AN ACT to amend the tax law, in relation to providing a state income tax exemption for volunteer firefighters and volunteer ambulance workers The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem- bly, do enact as follows: 1 Section 1. Subsection (i) of section 601 of the tax law is relettered 2 subsection (j) and a new subsection (i) is added to read as follows: 3 (i) Volunteer firefighters and volunteer ambulance workers. 1. 4 Notwithstanding the provisions of subsections (a), (b), (c) and (d) of 5 this section and any other provision of this article, for taxable years 6 beginning after January first, two thousand twenty-six, the gross income 7 shall be exempt from tax under this article regardless of whether such 8 income is subject to federal income taxation to each resident of the 9 state who has qualifying service in the taxable year for which the 10 exemption is claimed as a volunteer firefighter as defined in subdivi- 11 sion one of section three of the volunteer firefighters' benefit law or 12 a volunteer ambulance worker as defined in subdivision one of section 13 three of the volunteer ambulance workers' benefit law or as a member of 14 a volunteer emergency medical services personnel squad. 15 2. For the purposes of this subsection "qualifying service" shall mean 16 service where such person has been a member in good standing with a 17 volunteer fire department or volunteer ambulance service for a minimum 18 of one year, has completed all required training courses as required by 19 the state of New York and is certified by the chief emergency service 20 coordinator of the county that the volunteer fire department or the 21 volunteer ambulance service serves and has attended at least fifty-five EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets [ ] is old law to be omitted. LBD01110-01-5 
 S. 298 2 1 percent of the activities of the volunteer fire department or the volun- 2 teer ambulance service that such person is a member of. 3 § 2. This act shall take effect immediately and shall apply to all 4 taxable years beginning on or after January 1, 2026.