Thread by @andersem

Happy Valentine's Day!

I am celebrating with the following thread about the craziest & maybe most important thing going on right now on my favorite subject: PARKING

Seriously we're on the cusp of a potentially earth-shaking federal policy shift.

BUT

it needs your help

Here's the full scoop (and I think this is indeed the first coverage of this particular angle): sightline.org/2019/02/14/bel…

The headline is accurate.

Here's what happened:

When they were pulling all-nighters to get the Trump/Ryan tax reform passed, scouring the tax code for things to put taxes on so they could lower the overall corporate tax rate, GOP legislative aides found a line item worth $1.6 billion: "commuter benefits"

Maybe, like most people, they thought this referred to bus passes. Or maybe not! Hard to say, since the bill basically skipped the usual public hearing process.

But you know and I know that by far the most expensive commuting fringe benefit many employers offer is FREE PARKING.

Here's what this means: every private employer that gives free parking to its employees is now supposed to pay a 21% tax on the cost of doing so.

(Keep in mind that these are the same corporations that just got a massive tax cut from the federal government. They're not hurting.)

Because urban space is very expensive, free parking benefits (especially in cities) are MASSIVE subsidies for driving to work, basically cross-subsidized within every such workplace by those who don't.

Free employee parking is bad for the economy, roads & planet.

Every employer should charge for parking & then give everyone a raise so they can either pay for parking or pocket it (which is to say, spend it on other stuff ... like, say, housing that's closer to their work).

So (as @TransitCenter & @FrontierGroupUS have documented well) just ending all commute benefits would be a huge net win for boosting sustainable transportation. transitcenter.org/2014/11/18/sub…
transitcenter.org/publications/w…

This piece of the tax reform might be a mistake, but it's very good.

Even if employers don't start charging for parking, the law says they have to at least tally their subsidy for it.

"The days of free and unaccounted-for employee parking are coming to an end," says @Jpavllc, a longtime DC expert on commuting benefits policy.

@Jpavllc Here's the catch: a year after the law was signed, the IRS has proposed two big loopholes that defy the new tax code & would exempt many employers, including the (ahem) nation's largest, from paying this new tax on parking lots...while penalizing them if they offer bus passes.

@Jpavllc Also, the IRS says corps that offer by far the most expensive parking lots - garages - don't have to pay taxes on that real estate or the huge cost of building ($30k+ per stall).

Here's a rendering of the garage recently built by a Cupertino-based corporation you've heard of.

At the very least, the IRS needs to preserve equity among modes: employers that get to evade parking lot taxes shouldn't pay taxes on bus passes either.

Better: The IRS should enforce the US tax code as written. If it's hard to calculate parking tax subsidies, the IRS should give them a simplified calculation like say $5/stall/day. Like with auto mileage.

The good news: the IRS has literally asked for your opinion on all of this.

Comment deadline is Friday, Feb. 22. Here's the link: regulations.gov/docket?D=IRS-2…

So far, the population of the U.S. has submitted a total of 20 comments on this subject.

Why should the IRS care if ordinary folk like you were to triple or quadruple that total in the next week? Well, it might not. That's why @SmarterTranspo1 just launched a separate campaign to get more members of Congress to sign @repblumenauer's letter. smartertransportation.org/ask-congress-t…

Thanks for hearing me out! The cool thing about tax policy is it's like the ocean: unfathomably large but impossible to resist if it decides to change.

Here's the piece with full details & more advice on how to fix the IRS proposal.

sightline.org/2019/02/14/bel…

PARKING LOT TAX UPDATE

Dec 15-Feb 16: IRS gets 20 total public comments on potentially revolutionary change to commuting incentives

Last four days: 86 comments

Great work, America! Deadline is Friday. See the thread above for the bonkers backstory. regulations.gov/docket?D=IRS-2…

And please also consider asking your member of Congress to cosign @repblumenauer’s letter to the IRS on this & ensure parking lots don’t get illegally exempted from the new tax while transit riders get socked smartertransportation.org/ask-congress-t…

We're up to 135 comments since last week, & the deadline is tomorrow! Keep em coming and let's make parking lots pay their fair share of national taxes regulations.gov/docket?D=IRS-2…

https://twitter.com/pdxshoupistas/status/1098676607898865664