Cumulation of bicycle deduction and public transport allowed

Travel expenses between home and workplace are tax-deductible for employees as work-related costs. The commute does not need to be made solely by one mode of transport to qualify for deductions. According to the Federal Court, bicycle costs and public transport costs can be cumulatively deducted.

Non-self-employed individuals have the option to deduct their professional costs from taxes. These are understood as directly necessary expenditures for earning income, which are borne by the employee themselves. Examples include travel costs between home and workplace, additional costs due to meals outside home, and in some cantons, accommodation costs for weekly commuters.On September 21, 2017, the Federal Court addressed the question in case 2C_745/2017 whether bicycle and train costs can be cumulatively deductible as work-related costs. A taxpayer from the Canton of Zurich used his bicycle every day for 8 minutes to get from his home to the train station, where he then took the local train for 26 minutes to his workplace. If he used the bus for the first part of the journey instead of a bicycle, it would take him 16 minutes instead of 8 minutes. In his tax return, he deducted his public transport pass and a lump sum of 700 Fr. for his bicycle. The local municipal tax office did not accept the bicycle deduction, calculating it on the grounds that it was not a cumulative but an alternative deduction. The taxpayer filed an objection, which was dismissed by the tax office of the Canton of Zurich, and then took the case to the Administrative Court of the Canton of Zurich, which ruled in his favor. The tax office then took the dispute to the Federal Court, where it requested that the decision be overturned.

The Federal Court referred to Art. 26 Sec. 1 lit. a DBG, stating that necessary costs for "trips between home and workplace" can be claimed. The law does not specify how the commute should be made. Although public transport deductions are preferred, if no public transport is available or its use is objectively unreasonable, according to Art. 3 BKV (Ordinance on the Deduction of Professional Expenses of Non-self-Employed Persons), the costs for a private vehicle can be deducted on a lump sum basis. The law does not require that the commute must be accomplished in a specific manner. Especially today, with increasingly longer work commutes, it is common for multiple modes of transport to be used one after the other. In the present case, the taxpayer managed the commute in both an economical and ecological manner. By avoiding the bus, he contributes to the fact that public transport does not need to be further expanded during peak times. The Federal Court dismissed the complaint of the tax office, thus emphasizing the admissibility of a cumulative deduction of bicycle and public transport costs.

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