Welcome to mySHPS

Q. What is the Commuter Spending Account Program?
A. The Commuter Spending Account (CSA) is an employer-sponsored transportation benefit program which allows you to pay for certain transportation expenses with pre-tax money on a monthly basis. The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) sets the monthly contribution limits.

Q. What benefits are offered?
A. You may have either a transit or parking account, or both. Transit covers public transportation or vanpooling expenses you incur while getting to and from work. This includes buses, trains, subways and even official vanpools.

A parking account covers your monthly parking fees for driving your vehicle to and from work.

Q. Who is Eligible?
A. All employees who are offered the plan by their employer can participate in the Commuter Spending Account program. Spouses and dependent children are NOT eligible. Any employee who regularly pays for mass transit, vanpool, or parking may take advantage of this program.

Q. How do I enroll?
A. Log into your mySHPS online account, click the Commuter Spending Account link and select either the Add Parking or Add Transit button.

Q. Who is responsible for administering the program?
A. Wired Commute, a third-party administrator, oversees the program. Wired Commute is responsible for online enrollment, online ordering, delivery of your transit passes and vouchers, and paying your parking facility or vanpool directly. SHPS is responsible for administering the SHPS/Carewise Card and processing requests for the reimbursement of eligible expenses.

Q. Is my information on the Commuter Spending Account system kept secure and private?
A. Yes. SHPS and Wired Commute, the program administrators, maintain physical, electronic, and procedural safeguards for protecting personal information. Access to personal information is restricted to representatives who need to know the information to provide quality service.

Q. What are the dollar limits on tax-free transit and parking benefits?
A. The IRS limits the amount of pre-tax wages you can deposit into your Commuter Spending Account. For 2009, the limits are $230 per month for transit or vanpool and $230 per month for parking.

Note: The transit pre-tax limit was only $120 between 1/1/09-3/31/09.

Q. Can I combine the dollar limits from month to month?
A. No. The specified limits for transit and parking apply individually to each calendar month.

Q. Will participation in the Commuter Spending Account have an impact on my other benefits?
A. No. Participation in the Commuter Spending Account will have no impact on the gross amount of earnings used to calculate retirement, life insurance, income continuation insurance, sick leave conversion credits, unemployment or Worker's Compensation.

Note: Participation in the Commuter Spending Account will reduce your salary used for calculating social security benefits at retirement. Your Commuter Spending Account contribution will reduce the amount used to compute the maximum amount deferred under a tax shelter annuity or deferred compensation plan.

Q. Will I need to fill out any special forms to get my tax savings?
A. No. You receive your tax savings when funds are deducted from your pay check on a pre-tax basis and deposited in your Commuter Spending Account.

Q. What happens to my transit pass order or parking payment if I leave my employer?
A. Be sure to contact SHPS immediately when you know your parking or transit needs are changing. All changes must be made before the 10th of the month.

Q. What if the transit or parking provider I use isn't available through the Commuter Spending Account system?
A. Not all transit and parking providers are in the Commuter Spending Account online catalog. For parking expenses, simply enroll in the parking reimbursement option to have your expenses reimbursed directly to you. For transit expenses, you can add a new transit authority or use your SHPS Spending Account card to pay for transit expenses.

Q. My monthly commuting costs vary. How much should I enter for my monthly expense?
A. You should enter your usual expense in an ordinary month, ignoring special circumstances like sick days, short vacations and occasional overtime.

Q. What happens to my Reimbursement election if I do not use all the money deposited into my Commuter Spending Account for the current month?
A. Excess balances will be carried over to the following month. However, you can only spend the amount of the monthly IRS limits ($230 for transit and parking). Example: You have a balance of $300 in your parking account at the beginning of July. You can only spend $230 during July. You have the ability to adjust future contributions to avoid having an excess balance.

Eligible Expenses
Q. What commuting expenses are eligible?
A. Only parking and mass transit costs incurred by you in connection with travel between your residence and your work place are eligible. Examples of eligible expenses include:
Mass transit fares, including tickets, passes, tokens, vouchers or other fares for riding buses, trains, para-transit vans or other mass transportation vehicles;
Official vanpool fees;
Parking fees at or near your work place; or
Parking fees at a location from which you commute to your work place via mass transportation or a carpool (ex: park-and-ride lot).

Q. What expenses are not eligible?
A. Following are some examples of expenses not eligible for the Commuter Spending Account program - this is not a complete list of ineligible expenses:
Tolls
Traffic tickets
Fuel
Mileage or other costs you incur in operating a vehicle
Taxis
Payments to a fellow participant in a carpool or to a friend who drives you to work
Parking at your personal residence
Parking at your spouse's place of work
Parking at a mall or similar location where you stop on your drive to or from your place of work
Costs that have been or will be paid by your employer, such as for a business trip

Q. I ride in a carpool with my neighbor and we share the cost of parking. Can I take advantage of this program?
A. Only the person who actually pays for the parking space should use the Commuter Spending Account.
Q. Is my vanpool eligible?
A. Under Federal law, arrangements where you and other commuters share the cost of renting a van for commuting to work are eligible for tax-free transit benefits. A personal van or other vehicle that you or one of the other commuters owns or operates is not a vanpool. Also, the van must be primarily used for commuting, must have a seating capacity of at least six adults including the driver and must typically be at least half full.
Q. I drive my car to work and get free parking at work. Can I still use the Commuter Spending Account?
A. No. You don�t incur any eligible expenses for a Commuter Spending Account.
Q. What is the deadline to sign up, change or cancel my benefits?
A. You can enroll, change or cancel your Commuter Spending Account at any time.
The deadline for ordering transit and parking passes through the Commuter Spending Account online is the 10th of the month. The benefits will begin at the start of the following month.
Note: The deadline for ordering Long Island Railroad and Metro North Railroad is the 4th of each month.
Q. I missed the deadline for next month. What do I do?
A. Unfortunately, you will have to wait until the following month.

Transit Account
Q. Why can't I just get cash reimbursement, instead of ordering my transit passes online?
A. Government regulations prevent us from allowing cash reimbursement when a transit pass is readily available for purchase from the Commuter Spending Account website. You can be reimbursed for transit passes if you cannot purchase a pass online.
Q. Can I get my transit pass automatically without having to come back to the Commuter Spending Account website every month?
A. Yes. By selecting Reoccuring when you configure your transit selection, you will automatically receive your transit pass and you will not need to come back to the Commuter Spending Account unless you wish to make a change to the monthly frequency or to the type of pass.
Q. I pay for parking at a park-and-ride lot, but pay for a bus pass separately. How do I use pre-tax dollars for both parking and transit?
A. You can use pre-tax dollars for parking and for transit by electing each commuter benefit separately. The bus fare would count toward the monthly $230 transit limit, and the parking fee would count toward the $230 parking limit.
Q. My transit plans can change from month to month. How accurate do I have to be when I predict my next month's expense?
A. If you are unsure about the total expense, you may wish to under-estimate how much to have withheld from your paycheck. Excess funds may be rolled from month to month, but unused funds at the time of termination of employment are forfeited. Please plan your monthly contributions wisely.

Parking Account
Q. What is the Direct Pay option for parking?
A. The Commuter Spending Account will automatically pay your designated parking provider on a monthly basis. Because your provider is paid directly, you do not need to submit paper receipts for reimbursement.
Q. When will my parking provider be paid if I select the Direct Pay option?
A. If you order by the 10th of each month, payment is sent to your parking provider by the first of the subsequent month.
Q. Can I schedule payments to occur at some other time during the month?
A. No.
Q. I pay for my parking every day or every week. Can I use the Direct Pay option?
A. Direct Pay can be used to make payments once a month. You cannot schedule daily or weekly payments. You should use the parking reimbursement feature from the Parking menu to be reimbursed for your daily or weekly out-of-pocket expenses.

Reimbursement of Expenses
Q. If I buy my transit pass or have my parking facility paid directly through my Commuter Spending Account, do I need to submit a receipt?
A. No. You only need to submit receipts if you request reimbursement for out-of-pocket expenses.
Q. How do I get reimbursed for my expenses?
A. Submit your receipts for the month and a reimbursement claim form to SHPS. Please allow 10-15 days to receive your reimbursement check.
Q. What kind of supporting documents need to be submitted so I can be reimbursed?
A. You will need to provide an itemized receipt from the parking facility that shows the name of the vendor, the date(s) the service was provided and the cost. If a receipt is not available, you must sign and submit a statement with the above information. Canceled checks are accepted as supporting documentation.
Q. I have the same out-of-pocket expense every month. Do I still need to submit receipts?
A. Yes. SHPS will withhold your out-of-pocket expense automatically from your paycheck if you click "Reoccurring," for your account, but you still need to submit receipts to receive reimbursement.
Q. My provider doesn't give receipts or ticket stubs. What should I do?
A. Some transit and parking providers don't provide receipts or any form of documentation. You will need to must sign and submit a statement that shows the name of the vendor, the date(s) the service was provided and the cost.
Q. What happens if I don't submit receipts or other documentation?
A. Your expenses will not be reimbursed until you provide your receipt or other documentation.
Q. Where do I get more of the Commuter Spending Account reimbursement request forms?
A. You can obtain additional reimbursement forms by logging you�re your online mySHPS account. Or you can call SHPS Customer Service at 1-800-678-6684 to request forms by mail.