Parking and Transit Benefits Tax Exclusion Parity Expires Again; Congress Should Consider Permanent Fix

Commuters may exclude from federal income tax a certain amount of their transportation expenses. For calendar year 2013, up to $245 per month in qualified parking expenses, up to $245 per month in transit benefits, and up to $20 per month in bicycle commuting expenses was excludable from tax under this “qualified transportation fringe” provision.[1] An employee may take any or all of the amounts, which employers then withhold from his or her paycheck.

Equal treatment of parking and transit commuting expenses was a temporary provision that expired at the end of 2013 after Congress failed to renew it. Prior to 2009, the monthly parking cap was roughly twice the monthly transit pass cap, with both growing as the amounts were annually adjusted for inflation (see Table 1). The 2009 stimulus bill equalized tax treatment of parking and transit commuting expenses at $230 per month each, temporarily, for the period March 1, 2009 to December 31, 2010.[2] (The $20 per month bicycle commuting expense reimbursement provision was added for 2009 as part of a 2008 bill.) Congress subsequently extended the parity through the end of 2011, when it finally expired. Throughout 2012, therefore, commuters could exempt $240 in parking benefits per month, but only $125 in transit benefits per month. A 2013 bill restored parity retroactively for 2012 and temporarily through the end of 2013.[3] In August 2013, the IRS provided guidance on how taxpayers could obtain a refund of taxes for transit benefits they took above the cap.[4]

Because Congress failed to renew the temporary provision, it expired again at the end of 2013 and the transit reimbursement fell to roughly half the parking exclusion on January 1, 2014. A permanent provision would reduce federal income tax and payroll tax revenue by approximately $160 million per year.[5] Congress is most likely to consider renewing the provision as part of its consideration of the “extenders,” a grab bag of provisions that regularly expire and are regularly renewed by Congress.[6]

Table 1: Monthly Commuting Amounts Excluded from Income Tax under “Qualified Transportation Fringe” Provision

The tax code is probably the wrong place to be subsidizing commuters, and the entire provision ought to be eliminated. If Congress wishes to retain it, it ought to consider a non-expiring unified exclusion of all transportation commuting expenses. This would resolve the confusing, costly, and long-delayed implementation this year of a 2006 IRS directive that the transit benefit cannot be used for parking at transit stations.[7] Transit agencies have thus been forced to separate out amounts paid by commuters for transit passes from amounts paid for parking at transit stations. A unified exclusion for all transportation commuting expenses would also substitute neutrality for the current arbitrary encouragement of driving over carpooling, transit use, and bicycling.