New York City Employees enjoy numerous amazing benefits from their services. The City of New York doesn’t only help the employees get their pay on time without any hassle, but they also help their employees through various schemes. They can start planning for their pension and start saving their children’s education using all these benefits. Not only that, The City of New
York offers commuter services to the employees as well. Edenred Commuter Benefit Solutions takes care of this matter on behalf of the city. Among the really helpful plans for the City employees, Park-n-Ride is a really important one. Let’s have a look at all the important details related to this Park-n-Ride plan-
- What is the Park-n-Ride Plan?
In short, using the Park-n-Ride facility, an employee may make payment for the parking used for commuting to work.
So, if someone needs to reach work and drive to a place for availing public transportation, they can get help from this Park-n-Ride plan for paying their expenses. This help will be available both at the station and in the nearby areas.
- Eligibility Criterion:
To become eligible for availing this Park-n-Ride plan, one needs to have an existing enrollment in any Edenred Commuter Benefit Programs. The list includes-
- Annual Transit Card Plan
- Commuter Card Plan
- Transit Pass Plan
On top of everything, the help in parking payment will only be granted if the parking is transit related.
- The Process of Funding:
Employees can fund their Edenred Parking account via two types of easy payroll deductions. The payroll deductions can be either pre-tax or post-tax. The pre-tax deduction can be any amount up to $270 every month. If the amount crosses the boundary of $270, then the type of deduction becomes post-tax.
The City of New York pays the administrative fee of $2.05 on behalf of the employees. The boundary for pre-tax faced an increase from $265 to $270 from January 1, 2020.
- Available Payment Options:
Generally, there are three modes of payment available as offered by Edenred. The ways of payments are-
- Direct Pay Option:
In the case of a monthly parking permit, one may enroll themselves for paying directly to the parking provider.
- Commuter Card Option:
The Commuter card can be used to pay for parking and transportation expenses on a monthly or everyday basis. However, it depends on the parking provider. This can only be used if the option of debit or credit card is accepted at the parking provider.
- Parking Cash Reimbursement Option:
In case only the method of cash payment is accepted, submission of receipts and reimbursement of the out-of-pocket expenses can be made.
So, depending on the parking provider, one may choose the most suitable option.
- Frequently Asked Questions regarding the Park-n-Ride Plan:
Naturally, people tend to have various queries related to every facility. Let’s look at the most frequently asked questions regarding the Park-n-Ride Plan to get a better understanding.
- How to resume the payroll deduction after suspension or cancellation?
The process to resume the payroll deduction can be done from the official website of the agency. In case of suspension, one may change the resumption date to make the process faster. On the other hand, for cancellation, one needs to go through re-enrollment.
- What are the service fees for this Park-n-Ride Plan?
Yes, the monthly administrative fee is $2.05. This fee is non-refundable. This amount gets deducted as post-tax payment from an employee’s account if they use the parking account.
- How this plan affects the W-2?
The taxable wages, Social Security, Medicare, State, and local wages get reduced because of the pre-tax deductions. The label of this expense is “IRC132”
- Which are included in the eligible parking expenses?
Some criteria need to be fulfilled to be eligible for parking expenses-
- Parking expenses should be made at or near a public transportation stop. So, the purpose must be to commute to the workplace.
- One must have an enrollment in any of the Commuter Benefit Programs.
- The funding must be done via pre-tax and post-tax deductions. Let’s have a look at the aspects were availing of this plan is not eligible to understand it in a better way-
- Parking expenses, if not made for commuting to work, will not be qualified for this plan.
- How to enroll in the program?
City employees from the NYCAPS Employee Self Service website, Department of Education employees from the DoE payroll portal or DoE website, and City University of New York Community College employees can apply for enrollment using the CUNY website. These are the most important details related to the Park-n-Ride plan.