New Bike Commuter Act or whatever it's called

[Aint Doody]

Sooooo--I cannot find anybody who basically knows how this will work. Are any of you who commute and work for large companies going to participate in this? I read an article that was linked by RoadBikeRider that seemed to imply that it was somewhat useless. I hate to think that's the case. We are an extremely small business--my husband, me, and 1 other employee. The employee and I walk or ride our bikes to work most days. I'm wondering how this will work for us. Or will it not work??? I've read that there's no record keeping. Guess I'd need to check with our CPA. Any ideas?

[Eden]

From what I understand this is a tax credit, not a true subsidy - so you don't just get $25 for riding your bike. If you are a business and you provide some kind of benefit for employees who bike (like showers, a bike cage, a commute bonus, etc.) then you get to deduct $25/month/rider from your pre-tax income. That means that even the business doesn't get $25 - they get whatever percentage of $25 that their tax bracket determines.

I'm kind of with RoadBikeRider... I don't think that this will encourage many businesses that are not already providing incentives to start. It will benefit the ones that already do.

[Aint Doody]

Well, but there was something on RBR about a debit card account that could be set up for the commuters to use for new helmet, light, whatever. I just can't see how this will all shake out. I respect Blumenauer and applaud him for his efforts, but you'd think there'd be an actual plan in place. I really hate to pay our CPA for the time to research this and set it up if there's not yet a model of some sort in place. I'm guessing there's not.

[7rider]

I did a search on "Bicycle Commuter Act" and came up with a bunch of stuff, including this (http://greeninc.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/10/13/buried-in-the-bailout-the-bicycle-commuter-act/), which provides some links to LAB and LOC/Thomas' sites. It sounds like the IRS doesn't yet have provisions in place (well...as of October) on how to implement it. I would hope something would be in place for the end of the tax year, but we'll see.
The Act itself is Section 211 of HR 1424.

[Aint Doody]

Our CPA and I have done some more looking. There is no incentive for a business to implement this. It is a reimbursement for the commuter of up to $20/mo to be paid out as the company chooses--monthly, quarterly, yearly. Then the company gets a credit that would be equal to what the payroll taxes are on the $20/mo--not very much. So despite it sounding wonderful, it does appear to be a rather useless act. Bummer!

[Biciclista]

my very large company is planning on doing this. each carpooler, bus commuter or cyclist "counts" somewhere somehow otherwise I know they wouldn't care.

Right now they are scrambling to come up with a plan and as soon as I know I will let you guys know too.