The City of New York provides its Employees with numerous amazing services. Starting from Direct Deposit, Pension Plan, Funding for College of the children to giving several commuter benefits to the employees; the City of New York never fails to help its employees. Edenred Commuter Benefit Solutions provides these commuter benefits to New York City employees.
Among the five amazing benefit programs, Commuter Card Plan is really an important one. This facility is available for the New York City employees, and it collects its funds from the payroll deductions of the employees. This card can be really handy for qualified transit pass and park-n- ride expenses. To get the best of this Commuter Card plan, one needs to be aware of all the details related to it-
- What is the Commuter Card?
The Commuter Card is a stored-value card that can be reloaded just like a prepaid card for paying transit and parking fees. This card operates in the same way as a debit card.
- Where does this card work?
There are a few places where one may use this card. The places that accept this card are-
- Transit agencies,
- Farer vending machines
- Designated transit retail centres
- Qualified parking facilities in the tri-state area of New York City.
- How does it get funded?
As the Commuter card is directly linked with the Edenred account of an employee, it collects its funds through payroll deductions assigned by the monthly commuting needs.
So, the funds get transferred on the payday automatically. The payroll deductions can be made as a pre-tax or post-tax way. In case the amount of the deduction is up to $270 every month, it is pre-tax deduction. On the other hand, the deduction amounts more than $270 is regarded as post-tax deductions.
- Available offers for Commuter Cards:
- Commuter Card plan with no admin fee:
- In this case, the monthly pre-tax payroll deduction amount is $127. The value of this deduction is equal to the cost of MTA 30-Day Unlimited Ride MetroCard.
- The administrative fee for one month, in this case, is $1.25. This fee gets funded by the City.
- Commuter Card – unrestricted:
- In this case, the monthly pre-tax payroll deduction amount can be any amount up to $270. If the amount gets exceeded $270 in a month, it will be regarded as a post-tax deduction.
- Here, the administrative fee of $1.25 gets paid by the additional payroll deduction.
If someone has applied for enrollment for the Park-N-Ride plan as well, they can choose to avail both the benefits using the same card. The transit plan and the parking plan will be funded to the Commuter Card in separate ways. However, the deduction amount must be the same. The two different funds will maintain funds on a separate basis as well. This means funds for transit purposes cannot be used for making transit purchase.
- Edenred Calculator:
The link to the Edenred Calculator can be found on the official website of NYC. It can be used to calculate the estimated savings of a person.
- Frequently Asked Questions regarding the Commuter Card Plan:
Have a look at the most frequently asked questions regarding the Commuter Card Plan to get a better understanding of this particular facility.
How to resume payroll deduction for the commuter card after suspension or cancellation?
In the case of suspension, one needs to change the resumption date to make the process faster. This can be done using the payroll portal of the agency.
In case of cancellation, one may apply for re-enrollment using the agency’s payroll portal.
How does the W-2 get affected?
The taxable wages, Social Security, Medicare, State and Local wages get reduced because of the pre-tax transportation deductions.
On the other hand, in case of Commuter Card without any admin fee, the administrative price paid by the City gets reflected as a fringe benefit, and it adds up to the taxable earnings. Due to this, the W-2 gets affected.
Is there any restriction for making a purchase?
The provisions made for Internal Revenue Code (IRC) Section 132 do not permit pre-tax earnings that are set aside for transportation, to be used for other purposes.
How to use the card at the transit vending machine?
The way of usage is the same as the personal debit or credit card. It is advised to select “credit” rather than “debit” as the card does not require any PIN.
What happens to the rest of the balance available on the card at the end of every month?
Unused balance can be used in future. If the amount of unused balance is more than $2000, then it gets moved from the credit account to the commuter master card.
These are all the important details regarding the Commuter Card Plan available for the City of New York employees.