General Cycling Discussion - Get paid to bike commute by Uncle Sam

There is a bill about to pass in congress that will pay you to
bike to work!! Bill Number is H.R.6049.


Bike part of bill....

Deleted

whole bill......

Deleted


(sorry, the damn links won't stay locked. Google H.R. 6049)

That would be sweet but the links you gave don't seem to work. I found a summary of the bill here (http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d110:HR06049:@@@L&summ2=m&) but I don't see anything about being paid/getting a tax deduction for bike commuting. Can you quote and post the relevant text?

Talk about a big let down

Fix your links please

Let your elected officials know how you feel...
http://tinyurl.com/3r7rt7

"Fringe benefit for bicycle commuters. The bill allows employers to provide employees that
commute to work using a bicycle limited fringe benefits to offset the costs of such commuting
(e.g., bicycle storage). This proposal is estimated to cost $10 million over 10 years. "

$10 million over 10 years doesn't seem like a lot for a gov't program...

10 million here, 10 million there, after a while it adds up to lots of money.

$10 million over 10 years doesn't seem like a lot for a gov't program...

It doesn't, that only indicates that it will not be monitored, no studies will be conducted to determine if any employers adopted the program. $10 M just gets it on the books, it would take 100x that amount to make it practice.

I was joking about how much money 10 mill, and how little it will do.

10 million here, 10 million there, after a while it adds up to lots of money.

Yeah, you could directly fund the iraq war for maybe all of what 3 seconds with $10M? People shouldn't be paid to ride their bike to work. It should feel good and be natural, not a chore or something to be offset with monetary reimbursement.

This bicycle related portions of this bill are not that good. They (bicycle related parts of this bill) do not provide for a deduction or credit on your tax return. They would amend section 132 of the Internal Revenue Code. The maximum benefit one could get would be $20 tax free per month but that is subject to a few restrictions. First, your employer’s accounting/tax/HR/etc. department has to arrange it so that employees can get reimbursed up to $20 per month. A lot of employers will not do this, most likely only larger employers. Nothing requires employers to arrange for their employees to get this benefit.

Second, the $20 benefit for bicycle commuting expenses is exclusive to the other three transportation benefits you can already get under section 132 of the Internal Revenue Code. The transportation fringe benefit most people are familiar with under section 132 is the maximum $110 per month mass transit benefit, I forget what the other two are. Currently, I request less than the maximum mass transit benefit from my employer (because I commute many days by bike) to use the Washington DC metro. As I read the bill, one will be forced to choose one and only one type of transportation fringe benefit under the bill. The bill appears to be drafted so that you can choose each month but I cannot imagine my employer wanting me to flip flop between getting subway passes or bike commuter reimbursement, let alone even being able to execute the paperwork to allow this. So, if you mix it up and use the subway and bike, you appear to be out of luck and cannot get both which seems really shortsighted to me.

The third drawback, is that the benefit would not apply until 2009.

Bill is basically a scam. Mostly crazy energy schemes. Cellulosic what? It would be better if the individual deduction were increased, I am sure people would buy bikes with the money.

Most americans already HAVE bikes. They just don't ride them.

Cash incentives for employers to provide bicycle parking would be a better idea. And provide more cash for better parking facilities, like covered or even indoor.

If I didn't currently telecommute, THAT would be a big incentive for me to bike to work.