Senator Charles Schumer is urging his fellow lawmakers to bring back a bigger tax break for commuters that expired at the end of last year.
Workers who travel by bus, train or subway had been able to use $230 a month in pre-tax income, but as of January 1 the benefit was reduced to $125.
Schumer has inserted a measure into the federal highway bill that would reinstate the tax break and increase it to $240.
It would be retroactive to January 1.
The measure is likely to pass the Senate but could be a tough sell in the Republican-led House of Representatives.
“This will be a boom, putting millions of dollars in New York commuter pockets. Hundreds of thousands of New York families would save about a thousand dollars a year, as well as make it easier even for drivers cause the more people use mass transit the less crowded and clogged our New York highways are,” Schumer said.
Schumer noted that workers can already use $240 in pre-tax income for parking expenses, a move he says encourages driving over using mass transit.
(Source: NY1)
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Two years ago, Shumer was calling for a fundamental restructuring and simplification of the Federal Tax Code and eliminating special tax code provisions. Having done nothing on tax reform for the past two years, even though he heads a key Senate Committee, he now seeks to add another subsidy through the tax code. Whatever the merits of mass transit, stop using the tax code as a big piggy bank to transfer money to special interests. Let us keep more of our own money by lowering tax rates and then we will be able to pay our own subway and bus fares without government help.
It is about a change in the Federal tax code affecting all commuters who use public transit, whether someone going from Boro Park to Flatbush, or from Saratoga to Albany, or West Virginia to work in the District of Columbia. The original idea was in part as compensation for not requiring people who drive to work to pay income tax on the value of the parking spaces they get if the employer provides free parking (as in common outside of big cities).
The press release YWN picked up seems to be a bit of a distortion.
Why do this on the federal level? Do it on the state or local level where it should be done in the first place.