26 U.S.C. § 139C — Certain disability-related first responder retirement payments

This section protects part of a disabled first responder's retirement pension from taxation. (a) In general. If a first responder gets "qualified first responder retirement payments," the part of those payments up to the "annualized excludable disability amount" is not counted as taxable income. (b) Qualified first responder retirement payments. This means a pension or annuity that would normally be taxable, but is paid from certain kinds of government retirement plans (described in section 402(c)(8)(B), clauses (iii) through (vi)) because of the person's service as a qualified first responder. (c) Annualized excludable disability amount. (1) This is the amount of "service-connected excludable disability" payments the person would have received in the 12 months right before reaching normal retirement age. (2) A "service-connected excludable disability amount" is a payment that: (A) is already tax-free under section 104(a)(1) (workers' comp-type payments); (B) is paid because of the person's first responder service; and (C) stops once the person reaches retirement age. (3) If someone only got these disability payments for part of that 12-month period, the amount is scaled up — multiplied by 365 divided by the number of days they actually received it. (d) Qualified first responder service. This means working as a law enforcement officer, firefighter, paramedic, or emergency medical technician.