I’ve been told that if you would have to spend more than two hours per day travelling to work by public transport, you can claim a tax deduction on the cost of driving to work.

Is this true or another urban myth? I pay tax in Baselland if that makes a difference.

I’ve tried searching the site for the answer but am told that „car“ and „tax“ are „are either very common, too long, or too short and were not included in your search”.

Many thanks

Certainly in the canton of Zurich you can claim travelling to and from work however near/far it is - as well as lunches, clothes, further education etc.

As far as I know, you can only really claim public transport:claiming private car travel to- and from work only if public transport is not an option ie. you work shift work finishing 2am and no trains or buses are possible. You normally also need a letter from the employer stating this.

If you're taxed at source (Quellensteuer), you can't
If you file a tax return, you can, if you can prove one of the following:

- The distance from your home to the nearest public transport stop (or work to nearest stop) is more than 1 km
- The total time spent commuting per day is more than 2 hours 30 min
- You need your car for work-related and/or medical reasons

If any of these are true, you can deduct up to 0.65 CHF/km, so if you have a 20 km commute (each way, as in my case), you could deduct:

20 x 2 x 220 (max. working days allowed/year) x 0.65 = 5720 CHF

And yes, I live in BL as well

Unfortunately words under 4 letters get excluded from search, but I've added both of those words as exceptions to the rule, so they can be searched from now on.

AHV? ALV? and the French acronyms also.
Sky?

Thanks for the info. How is the travel time calculated? According to the SBB website my outward journey is 1 hour 14 and my return 1 hour 15. Can I claim the 3 minutes it takes to walk to the bus stop to get me over 2.5 hours?

Also, do I need to demonstrate that I drive on a given number of days? I use a mix of public transport, driving and cycling on sunny days. I travel about 40 Km each way, so it is worth doing.

Thanks again.

This could be a huge benefit. Can anyone cite the rules where this is defined ?

dave

These and many more are stated in the Wegleitung (Help/Instructions) that accompany every tax form. Specifically for 2006 Canton Zurich: Abzüge (decutions) Page 17 onwards...

personally when I've completed my tax returns, I've simply put the transportation allowance to the maximum. Now I live further from work, I can really exploit that.

Great thanks. Blind faith and tax returns don't go together

dave

use the e-versions of Zurich tax returns and you do get good guidance. For instance, Regenbogen x 12 is very easy to offset if you work anywhere in Zurich. If you work further away, just factor-in what the monthly costs are and multiply by 12. For me, I could do 237 x 12 + cost of Halbtax (discount card) per year quite easily IMO.

Hi Dave,

I remember reading somewhere that you drive 200 km per day... If that's true, could you let us know if you can actually deduct 200 x 220 x 0.65 = 28600 CHF?!!

what if someone has a GA (from the company) but still drives frequently (and commute 3 hours per day)?