Tax Boon to Cyclists?

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Roberts Cycle on January 15, 2010 at 5:45pm

The commuting benefit has been slow to catch on, sadly. Requiring documentation on the costs that you spent--tho understandable for tax purposes and employer participation--made it a drag. You're right, H3N3 and Arrak, my suggestion would not have involved such minutia, nor was it a pittance. Never mind who's riding to work versus biking for fun. Take one-thousand dollars off your taxable income. Buy a bike.

Duppie, here's an offsite discussion about the Bicycle Commuter Act of 2008: http://bit.ly/TjzLU. I mentioned it on roberts' twitter page in September. i put the $1000 boon on there too, an attempt to stomp for the idea. It has yet to grow legs but we'll see ;]

Like Arrak, I have doubts about social incentives, but if we cut the minutia and maximize the benefit, some of them can work. Anyone recall the tax benefits that were used in the '90s to promote SUV purchases? There's a dubious "benefit"! Maybe we can interest the state reps in cycling incentives...

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Permalink Reply by h' Zerocats on January 15, 2010 at 10:58pm

Well, there are different ways to approach this, and there are people chipping away and making inroads.
The quickest path IMO is to elect people who see what needs to happen so they can fight from within the system. Seems like we keep ending up with the SOS every election cycle.
Anyone know anything about who might replace Flores in the first ward, on that note?

Roberts Cycle said:

The commuting benefit has been slow to catch on, sadly. Requiring documentation on the costs that you spent--tho understandable for tax purposes and employer participation--made it a drag. You're right, H3N3 and Arrak, my suggestion would not have involved such minutia, nor was it a pittance. Never mind who's riding to work versus biking for fun. Take one-thousand dollars off your taxable income. Buy a bike.

Duppie, here's an offsite discussion about the Bicycle Commuter Act of 2008: http://bit.ly/TjzLU. I mentioned it on roberts' twitter page in September. i put the $1000 boon on there too, an attempt to stomp for the idea. It has yet to grow legs but we'll see ;]

Like Arrak, I have doubts about social incentives, but if we cut the minutia and maximize the benefit, some of them can work. Anyone recall the tax benefits that were used in the '90s to promote SUV purchases? There's a dubious "benefit"! Maybe we can interest the state reps in cycling incentives...

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Permalink Reply by Roberts Cycle on January 18, 2010 at 11:23am

A problem with the tax benefit for bike commuters is the amount of documentation involving the cyclist and the employer. As Duppie posted, it lets bosses pay the cyclist $20 per month, tax free, and as Iggi pointed out the paperwork involves accounting for mileage and money spent, perhaps even the ratio of biking to public trans. A good description can be found at http://bit.ly/TjzLU

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