Pre-Tax Payroll Deduction Policies
Per federal law, eligible employees may use up to $630 pre-tax dollars for their own transportation costs to commute to and from work—$315 per month in parking expenses and $315 per month in transit and vanpool expenses.
Employees should observe the following policies and be advised that transit passes or parking permits purchased via pre-tax payroll deduction may NOT be purchased for or transferred to other individuals. Additional restrictions apply.
Employee responsibilities
-
Monitoring payments: Employees are responsible for monitoring their paychecks to ensure proper deductions are made for their purchases.
-
Missed payments: Participants are liable for missed payments, including in instances when an employee does not receive a paycheck during the pay period in which a deduction is scheduled. If you will miss a payment for any reason, contact Stanford Transportation.
Cancellations, exchanges, and returns
-
Previous deductions: Changes may not be made to deductions already made.
-
Parking pass cancellations:
-
Parking permits should only be purchased as needed. All parking permits, except quarterly and monthly auto-renew permits, are invoiced in full and non-refundable once purchased. Only future recurring payments for quarterly and monthly auto-renew permits can be stopped by canceling the parking permit after the first effective month. Cancellation requests must be submitted by the 15th of the month to stop future recurring payments. Requests submitted after the 15th will result in one final monthly charge and remain effective until the last day of the following month.
-
Unused permits: There will be no refunds for the unused portion of the current month’s permit or for unused daily permits.
-
For more information, visit our Permit Cancellation Policy/Return Policy.
-
-
Transit pass and commuter benefits cancellations, returns, and exchanges:
-
Cancellations: Orders must be canceled through the Pre-Tax Transit and Commuter Benefits Portal by the 10th of the month for the next month's order to be canceled. For example, You would have to cancel your order by February 10th to stop an order for March. If you submit your cancellation on Feb. 20, in this example, the cancellation would take effect in April.
- No refunds, returns or exchanges: Transit passes, Clipper card funds and transit parking cannot be refunded, returned or exchanged, even if you don't use them. If you have funds on your Clipper card, you have six months from when you leave Stanford to use or add funds to the card (validate) or the value will expire. If you leave Stanford on or before the 10th of the month, you have until the end of the month to use the cash value on your Mastercard before it expires. If you leave Stanford on the 11th or later, you have until the end of the following month to use your Mastercard funds. If you have questions please call Edenred Customer Service at 888.235.9223.
-
For further information, please refer to the Pre-Tax Transit and Commuter Benefits page.
-
Once your transit pass or transit parking pass is mailed, Stanford Transportation and/or Edenred are NOT responsible if it gets lost. If you do not receive your pass in the mail, please contact Edenred immediately at 888.235.9223 and submit a support ticket.
Effect on Social Security
Since this program has the general effect of lowering a participant’s taxable income (as reported on Form W-2), Social Security benefits may be reduced for certain participants (i.e., those who do not reach the annual FICA wage cap). Stanford-provided benefits will not be affected.
Other Information
Administration
Status and Duration of the Program
Further questions? University employees can also call the Stanford Commute Club at 650.736.9923, and Hospital employees can call Hospital Transportation Services at 650.736.8000.
