COFT - COUNCIL ON FIREFIGHTER TRAINING

This information and these forms should ONLY be used if you are working on your Oklahoma state tax return for 2007! Be sure the forms you are using have 2007 in the upper right corner.

At that time, ONLY volunteer firefighters in good standing in 2007 with an Oklahoma fire department could participate!

For 2007, there were two Training Incentive programs for Oklahoma's volunteer firefighters:

1) One is a $200 Volunteer Firefighter Training Tax Credit...

- for any volunteer firefighter who is personally applying for the first time in 2007!!
              (Please use 2007 Form1A for $200. You will need 12 points of eligible training - you can grandfather in eligible training from previous years)

        - for volunteer firefighters who had not yet completed and were still working on training sessions
             required to finish their Volunteer Fire Fighter Practices [VFFP] training program in 2007.
             During 2007, the COFT Council in conjunction with OSU-Fire Service Training officially recognized
             the Structural Fire Fighter program as being an approved equivalent to the VFFP for the purposes of
             the Training Tax Credit program.
            (Still use 2007 Form1A for $200. You only need 6 points of eligible training - you already grandfathered in eligible training from previous years,
                   so all your eligible submitted training MUST have been done in 2007.)

2) Another is a $400 Volunteer Firefighter Training Tax Credit....
- used by those volunteer firefighters:
a) who were volunteer members in good standing of an Oklahoma fire department in 2007
            AND
                   b) who were previously approved for and who used their $200 Training Tax Credit in a previous year
AND
                  c) who had finished either their VFFP training program by December 31 of 2007
                        OR their Structural Fire Fighter training program by December 31 of 2007
                        OR their Fire Fighter I [FFI] training program by December 31 of 2007
                        OR their Fire Fighter II [FFII] training program by December 31 of 2007
AND
                   d) who had taken approved Homeland Security-related training to be compliant for 2007
                                 Note: The COFT Council by virtue of the authority approved by the Legislature to meet the ever-evolving needs
                                            of the fire service just voted to accept any NIMS training that you might have taken in previous years
                                            if that course makes you fully compliant with the federal guidelines for 2007.
PLUS
   you must take 6 points of general firefighter training by December 31 of 2007
All the criteria above must be met OR else you would still stay
with the $200 Training Tax Credit for Tax Year 2007.

In this section, you will find all the forms you need to fill out:
- 2007 Form 1A for $200 Training Tax Credit
- 2007 Form 1B for $400 Training Tax Credit
- 2007 Attachment S (if you use in-house training)
(formerly named Attachment A)
- 2007 Equivalency Charts

(Starting in 2006, specific points were assigned to each course since the number of classroom hours varied)

Download the 2007 Form 1A for the $200 Tax Credit
and print it out for your use. PRESS

DOWNLOAD: 2007 Form1A for $200

               You also need to download the 2007 Equivalency Charts shown just below!
               If you are using In-House Training, please download Attachment S below!

   Download 2007 Form 1B for the $400 Tax Credit
   and print it out for your use. PRESS

DOWNLOAD: 2007 Form1B for $400

You also need to download the 2007 Equivalency Charts shown just below!
If you are using In-House Training, please download Attachment S below!

Download 2007 Attachment S for In-House Training
and print it out for your use... ONLY if you will be using
In-House Training this year. PRESS

DOWNLOAD: 2007 Attachment S

(formerly named Attachment A)

2007 Equivalency Charts give the details on "POINTS"
Download Equivalency Charts to use with Form 1A or 1B
and print it out for your use. PRESS

DOWNLOAD: 2007 Equivalency Charts

For an explanation of the Equivalency Charts, scroll down...

If you need your Fire Department's official Identification Number
which is issued by the State Fire Marshal...
OR
If you need your Sub-State Planning District Number
(which relates to your Rural Fire Coordinator)...PRESS

There are new Equivalency Charts for 2008 in the 2008 section.

Explanation of
EQUIVALENCY TABLES / CHARTS for Tax Year 2007

Training sessions and classes offered by different training providers may sometimes
be assigned different time designations for credit hours.

Therefore, in order to make the application process more understandable and
more consistent, equivalency tables have been developed to clarify how much
each specific class will count towards the training tax credit. On the actual
Form 1A and 1B, the quantities are referred to as “points” to minimize confusion.

There are Point Equivalency Charts for 2007:
- the Volunteer Fire Fighter Practices [VFFP] program
- the Structural Fire Fighter program
- the Fire Fighter I [FFI] program
- some NEW optional courses on various topics

Here is the 2007 Point Equivalency Chart for Volunteer Fire Fighter Practices......
which appears on the 2007 Equivalency Charts DOWNLOAD above.

Here is the 2007 Point Equivalency Chart for Structural Fire Fighter program.....
which appears on the 2007 Equivalency Charts DOWNLOAD above.

Here is the 2007 Point Equivalency Chart for the Fire Fighter I program.....
which appears on the 2007 Equivalency Charts DOWNLOAD above.

And still in 2007, Point Equivalency Chart on various additional topics.....

Effective July 28 of 2006, COFT was given discretion
to adjust eligible training to meet the ever-evolving needs
of the fire service. Several categories of eligible training classes
were added for 2006 (and still remain valid in 2007) to encourage
Oklahoma firefighters to be better prepared to protect our citizens and
their communities.

So that firefighters would still work towards completion
of VFFP or FFI programs, only HALF of your required general firefighter training points
in any year may come from the yellow chart below:

Here is the 2007 Point Equivalency Chart for optional additional training
which was approved to count towards
the 2007 General Firefighting Training Coursework for use
on either the $200 Tax Credit on 2007 Form 1A
or the new $400 Tax Credit on 2007 Form 1B...

This also appears in the 2007 Equivalency Charts DOWNLOAD above!
The 2007 Training Point Equivalencies listed above are eligible for tax year 2007.
NOTE: Some were added to the previous year's list when they were not yet eligible training.
(Remember firefighters need to take the courses for General Firefighter Training
during the calendar year for which they are applying - - except, of course,
for someone’s personal first year when eligible training from the current year
plus eligible training from previous years are both considered.)

COFT is constantly reviewing the evolving needs of the fire service
per its legislated mandates. Additional optional training for the purpose
of Training Tax Credit Program may be approved as eligible and will be
posted here on our COFT website plus other organizations' websites.

It is not anticipated any of these training sessions would be removed
from eligibility. But if so, then ample advance notice would be given.

2008 Equivalency Charts will be available soon in the 2008 section of this website.