NYC commuters get new tax break
Transit Riders Could Save Up to $1,000/Year
Mayor Bill de Blasio and U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer confronted startled early morning straphangers at the Atlantic Avenue/Barclays Center MTA station as they led a posse of commissioners and elected officials into the station on Monday to promote revisions in New York City’s Commuter Benefits Law.
Changes in the existing law, first signed by de Blasio on Oct. 20, 2014, include a requirement that all for and not-for-profit companies with 20 or more non-union full-time employees offer commuter benefits. Under the program, employees contribute pre-tax income to purchase monthly transit passes. Previously, the amount had been capped at $130 per month, but with Congress permanently increasing the Mass Transit Commuter Benefit, workers can now put in as much as $255 per month, an increase city officials had long lobbied for.
The new law, which went into effect on Jan. 1, 2016, also makes participation by eligible employers mandatory. “Now, before, a lot of companies didn’t offer it,” de Blasio told WCBS 880 radio in an interview shortly afterwards. “It will be mandatory for any company twenty employees or more.”