On February 22, 2019, TEI submitted responsive comments and recommendations to the IRS Office of Associate Chief Counsel (Income Tax & Accounting) with respect to Notice 2018-99. The notice provides interim guidance for taxpayers to determine, inter alia, the amount of parking expenses for qualified transportation fringes that is nondeductible under section 274(a)(4), which was added to the Code by Public Law 115-97. TEI’s comments advocated for the exemption of employer-provided parking with no, or a de minimis, fair market value from the qualified transportation fringe expense disallowance in section 274(a)(4). TEI also proposed a pair of elective safe harbors to address the most administratively burdensome step for taxpayers that own or lease all or a portion of a parking facility: determining and allocating the taxpayer’s total parking expenses for the parking facility.
TEI’s comments were jointly prepared under the aegis of the Institute’s Tax Reform Task Force and Federal Tax Committee, the respective chairs of which are Emily T. Whittenburg and John P. Orr, Jr. Watson M. McLeish, tax counsel for the Institute, coordinated the preparation of TEI’s comments