Transportation (Commuting) Benefits

This section discusses exclusion rules that apply to benefits you provide your employees for their personal transportation, such as commuting to and from work. These rules apply to the following transportation benefits.

• De minimis (minimal) transportation benefits.
• Qualified transportation benefits.

Special rules that apply to demonstrator cars and qualified nonpersonal-use vehicles are discussed under Working Condition Benefits, later.

De Minimis Transportation Benefits

You can exclude the value of any de minimis transportation benefit you provide to an employee from the employee's wages. A de minimus transportation benefit is any transportation benefit you provide to an employee that has so little value (taking into account how frequently you provide transportation to your employees) that accounting for it would be unreasonable or administratively impracticable. For example, it applies to occasional transportation fare you give an employee because the employee is working overtime, if the benefit is reasonable and is not based on hours worked.

Employee. For this exclusion, treat any recipient of a de minimis transportation benefit as an employee.

Qualified Transportation Benefits

This exclusion applies to the following benefits.

1. A ride in a commuter highway vehicle between the employee's home and work place.
2. A transit pass.
3. Qualified parking.

The exclusion applies whether you provide one or a combination of these benefits to your employees.

Qualified transportation benefits can be provided directly by you or through a bona fide reimbursement arrangement. However, cash reimbursements for transit passes qualify only if a voucher or a similar item that the employee can exchange only for a transit pass is not readily available for direct distribution by you to your employee.

You can exclude qualified transportation fringe benefits from an employee's wages even if you provide them in place of pay.

Commuter highway vehicle. A commuter highway vehicle is any highway vehicle that seats at least 6 adults (not including the driver). In addition, you must reasonably expect that at least 80% of the vehicle mileage will be for transporting employees between their homes and work place, with employees occupying at least one-half of the vehicle's seats (not including the driver's).

Transit pass. A transit pass is any pass, token, farecard, voucher, or similar item entitling a person to ride, free of charge or at a reduced rate, one of the following.

• Mass transit.
• In a vehicle that seats at least 6 adults (not including the driver) if a person in the business of transporting persons for pay or hire operates it.

Mass transit may be publicly or privately operated and includes bus, rail, or ferry.

Qualified parking. Qualified parking is parking you provide to your employees on or near your business premises. It also includes parking on or near the location from which your employees commute to work using mass transit, commuter highway vehicles, or carpools. It does not include parking at or near your employee's home.

Employee. For this exclusion, treat the following individuals as employees.

1. A current employee.
2. A leased employee who has provided services to you on a substantially full-time basis for at least a year if the services are performed under your primary direction or control.

Exception for S corporation shareholders. Do not treat a 2% shareholder of an S corporation as an employee of the corporation. A 2% shareholder is someone who directly or indirectly owns (at any time during the year) more than 2% of the corporation's stock or stock with more than 2% of the voting power.

Relation to other fringe benefits. You cannot exclude a qualified transportation benefit you provide to an employee under the de minimis or working condition benefit rules. However, if you provide a local transportation benefit other than by transit pass or commuter highway vehicle, or to a person other than an employee, you may be able to exclude all or part of the benefit under other fringe benefit rules (de minimis, working condition, etc.).

Exclusion from wages. You can generally exclude the value of transportation benefits you provide to an employee during 2001 from the employee's wages up to the following limits.

1. $65 per month for combined commuter highway vehicle transportation and transit passes.
2. $180 per month for qualified parking.

Benefits more than the limit. If the value of a benefit for any month is more than its limit, include in the employee's wages the amount over the limit minus any amount the employee paid for the benefit. You cannot exclude the excess from the employee's wages as a de minimis transportation benefit.

More information. For more information on qualified transportation benefits, including van pools, and how to determine the value of parking, see Notice 94-3 in Cumulative Bulletin 1994-1.

Previous| First | Next

Publication Index | IRS-Forms Main | Home