Yesterday, the U.S. Senate passed what is known as the extender bill (Tax Increase Prevention Act of 2014, HR 5771) and the president is expected to sign it. As we discussed in our previous blog on this subject, this bill give parity for transit passes and parking and is retroactive back to January 1, 2014. Effective January 1, 2014, (no that is not a typo, I meant 2014) transit passes are increased to $250 per month.
This happened in 2012/2013 and the IRS had to issue guidance on how to handle Forms W-2 etc. This guidance was contained in Notice 2013-8. It appears the IRS will issue the same guidance again for 2014. We will keep you posted as more information comes in.
Question: Now that the amount is $250 does that mean the entire amount of $250 is a pre-tax deduction? Our organization gives a subsidy to our employees for the transportation. So is the $250 less our subsidy ($60) is all pre-tax?
Please advise
I am not sure of your math. If you are giving $60 as the subsidy then that is what is nontaxable. You can give up to $250 but don’t have to. so if you buy the tickets and they cost up to $250 then they pay in pretax dollars. If you give a subsidy that is part of the pretax dollars. Hope that helps