Information on the Bailout Bonus for Cycle Commuters

I'm sure this has been mentioned here before, but I wanted to provide details that seemed to be lacking. With one of the economic bailouts, cycle commuters are eligible to receive $20 a month for bike maintenance and so forth from their employers; the employers benefit by having this be a tax write-off. The League of American cyclists has a helpful explanation.

For Massachusetts bike commuters, check the MassBike web site. A guy who's an "employee benefits professional" has volunteered to help explain stuff and help you get your work on board.

Yes my employer is going to do it too.

WOW this is awesome. I'm concerned though. It seems that you cannot get the benefit if you are provided with a car parking place at work. Hrm.

Any ideas?

That's correct... the way the benefit was passed as part of the recovery bill, you can only claim one of the various benefits, for parking, for public transit ($120), or for bicycling ($20).

The week before last, Representative Blumenauer filed the Intermodal Commuter Benefit Act (HR 863) that would allow you to claim more than one of the benefits, sort of a clean-up bill for the recovery act.

Tom