I am surprised the firm does not specify travel modes during work to move from one location to another. If on the clock and an accident occurs, that would be a work related injury.

If in personal car, your insurance would be first to be files for PI, benefit to employer. If on bike not so clear cut. Nine or ten miles between job sites is a great deal more distance than some campus setting or downtown office groupings provide.

Public transport with receipts is next best option IMHO, if you can take the bike with you all the better, provides different route for commute home.

I am now curious if the employer requires the staff to have a car or valid drivers license as part of the job requirements.

Of course there is some expense. I don't know what it is though, and I suspect the OP doesn't either.

Businesses compensate expense at the rate the government tells them to. I think the OP's beef should be with the IRS for not providing a bicycle rate - not with his employer for refusing to compensate a bicycle for car expenses.

+1. Why is this so hard to get?

I am not a tax accountant, but I think it comes down to what is taxable to the employer and employee...

Doesn't the IRS publish what the acceptable rate is for a means of transportation?

If so, it is to simplify the book-keeping. Otherwise the company would need to publish (and update) their own policies, and be open to the challenges placed on them.

I think a company could write off any amount for cars, as long as they met the proper guidelines, but it would be far more expensive to meet the guidelines than to just use those published by the IRS.

Therefore, the same with a bicycle. They could reimburse you a reasonable amount. But if it was more than was reasonable for your actual expenses, then you would be liable for income taxes on the excess. How much of the amount paid is the excess? THERE is where the problem lies.

If the company pays you 10 cents per mile to ride your bike, but it only costs you 5 cents per mile to ride your bike, then technically, there is a profit of 5 cents per mile that needs to be added to your net income.

The IRS has all sorts of rules dealing with reimbursement, per diem while on travel (such as people that are on travel for too many days in a row etc.) and relocation... any money the company gives you that is not a direct reimbursement is income, and some of it that we would think is reimbursement is seen as income.

It is silly, but it is the financial framework we all work under. It is not your company.

Some years back I had an employer whose reimbursement policy read "for use of your car on company business". I asked our group comptroller if this excluded personal pickup trucks, vans, etc. He gave me a mean look and retorted "It means your vehicle!"

Based on his explanation, I charged them mileage every time I rode my bike from one facility to the other during the work day after that.

tcs

This is exactly what I was thinking. If the language is about a vehicle, then you are good. If the language is about a car, then you might shake the tree a little and insist that they change it.

Some of you are confusing the employer provided expense reimbursement with the IRS standard mileage deduction.
In either case, you cannot take a standard mileage deduction with a bicycle.

As brown bat says, you're making this more difficult than need be.
Please don't shoot the messenger..

IRS Publication 463, Per Diem and Car Allowances

You bet your Heine! I worked for the Home Depot, and my buddy got into big trouble, when he claimed mileage when he carpooled with me..... I was cool, but he almost got fired! He wasn't driving, so he didn't get the mileage.

I should bloody hope so! Claiming mileage is a reimbursement for your expenses (fuel, wear and tear, etc) in using your own vehicle for company business.

It's an easy solution for the company who would otherwise need to maintain a fleet of their own vehicles for staff to use while on the job. It's not a personal pay bonus for travelling between sites. Jesus.

The only people so encouraged are those idiotic enough to suppose that they don't incur any costs whatsoever when they drive around, and from this conclude falsely that they're profiting somehow from the mileage they claim, rather than simply breaking even on average in the long run.

Love it... FWIW the reimbursement is a COMPANY policy. No law that I am aware of says they have to reimburse you squat. So it will need to be taken up with YOUR company. FWIW my company has a sliding scale based on the average mileage of the vehicle, divided into the cost of fuel, plus a few cents for maintenance.

Aaron:)

It's amazing to me how many people on this thread are engaged in clear tax fraud. I'd always heard "everyone cheats" but didn't believe it. I have never knowingly put anything false on a tax return, but I guess it's not that uncommon.

You can play their game and use a taxi to get from building to building while on the clock.

I have this monkey on my back called a conscience... I keep trying to kill the *******, but he just wont die! :innocent: