As most New York City employers know by now, beginning January 1, 2016, the New York Mass Transit Benefits Law (the “ordinance”) requires employers with twenty or more full-time employees working in New York City to offer their full-time employees the opportunity to elect pre-tax salary reduction to purchase “qualified transportation fringe benefits” β other than qualified parking β as permitted under the Internal Revenue Code (“Code”). This includes transit passes (e.g., MetroCard), rail commuting tickets, bus tickets, and vouchers (i.e., TransitChek) that can be exchanged for tickets and fare cards. An employer can provide reimbursement of substantiated bicycle commuting expenses as well. Other than that, cash reimbursements by the employer are subject to complicated requirements, and will not be permitted in most situations; for example, reimbursing the cost of a MetroCard purchased by the employee would not be permitted. For purposes of the twenty-employee requirement as well as eligibility for the benefit, a “full-time employee” is one who has worked for the employer for an average of at least thirty hours per week over the preceding four-week period, any portion of which was within New York City.
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