Buy a Peggo card, get an income-tax credit

Winnipeg Transit is touting tax credits as a benefit of using the utility's new electronic farecards.

Registered users of transit's Peggo cards, which went on sale to all riderson Monday, are eligible for federal public-transit tax credits, said Jonathon Borland, Winnipeg's transit's information supervisor.

• Winnipeg Transit's Peggo smart cards on sale for all riders

"At the end of the year, registered users are eligible for the transit tax credit and a transit-usage report will be availableto each registered user online," Borland said in an interview on Tuesday."It means there's a track history of the card usage."

The federal government has offered a 15percent transit tax credit since 2006.Purchasers of a $980 annual, full-farePeggoe-pass, for example, would beeligible for a $147 tax credit.

Inorder to claim the credit when you file your tax return, however,a proof of purchase is required.

"At a minimum,you need to keep your expired public transit passes and receipts for electronic payment cards to support your claim," reads a transit tax-credit website created by the federal government and the Canadian Urban Transit Association.

Electronic fare cards must also be "used to make at least 32 one-way trips over a maximum of 31 consecutive days" to be eligible for thecredit, the Canada Revenue Agency says on its website.

Borland said Transit's usage report will suffice for tax-credit purposes. It includes information about the dates fares were incurred and the costs of the fare but doesn't disclose other data that will be used by transit planners to adjust bus routes.

"The transit usage report only tells you that the person took a ride on this day atthis time, but no location information is stored in there," he said, attempting to allay fears about the misuse of personal data.

• Winnipeg Transit 'Peggo' smart cards finally ready

Winnipeg Transit planners, on the other hand, will haveaccess to trip-origin location data as well as the gender and age of transit riders in order to make adjustments to transit routes, saidBjornRadstrom, Winnipeg Transit's service development manager.

That information is"anonymized," he said. Transit planners will only know someone of a certain age and gender took a trip originating in one of 500 geographic regions within the city.

Borland said transit users purchased 1,613 Peggo cards on Monday, the first day the tapcards went on sale to all users. Seniors have had access to the cards since July 4.

As of Tuesday morning, about 4,700 were in circulation, Borland said.