The Supreme Administrative Court upholds the reasonableness of using Park & Ride

In addition to the traffic tax allowance, the legislator provides for employees with regard to the costs for the journey between home and the workplace the small or otherwise large Commuter allowance Provided that the use of public transport is reasonable, the prerequisite for the small commuter allowance, which is tiered according to distance (see client information July 08 for new values), is a journey of more than 20 km. If the use of public transport Public transport at least concerning half the journey not possible or not bearable and if the distance is at least 2 km, then the large commuter allowance applies, tiered according to the distance.

The characteristic of unreasonableness is not defined in the law but is assumed in the LStR 2002, for example, for travel times exceeding the following (one-way journey): under 20 km: 1.5 hours; from 20 km: 2 hours and from 40 km: 2.5 hours. The Supreme Administrative Court has now clarified (decision of 28.10.2007, file number 2006/15/0319) that in the determination, whether the large or small commuter allowance is to be applied, also the Using Park & Ride to be included as a combination of a private car and public transport. As a result of this, Park & Ride can make the use of a mass transit system acceptable, and therefore only the small rather than the large commuter allowance is compensated. The result of the Park & Ride option is even then to recognise, if the journey time is longer than when using only the car, but is still within acceptable limits. Likewise, it is irrelevant that using public transport and a car may incur higher costs than using only the car. Since the costs are covered by the traffic tax credit and the commuter allowance, the actual expenses incurred in reaching the workplace are not relevant.

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