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Denmark’s Alternative party wants to give tax breaks to cyclists

The Local Denmark
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Denmark’s Alternative party wants to give tax breaks to cyclists
Photo: Iris/Scanpix

A tax deduction for expenses incurred traveling to work should also be valid for shorter journeys, says Denmark’s eco-friendly Alternative party – provided those journeys are made by bicycle.

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Cycling to work could soon put the brakes on your tax bill.

The proposal is part of an initiative aiming to reduce Denmark’s CO2 emissions, says Alternative party climate spokesperson Rasmus Nordqvist.

“We need to use all the options we have. This could get more people on their bicycles for short and medium trips,” Nordqvist told news agency Ritzau.

Current tax rules provide for a deduction for travel of over 24 kilometres in total to and from a taxpayer’s place of work. The Alternative party wants to halve this distance to six kilometres each way, or 12 kilometres in total.

“Many people still decide against cycling, so it makes sense to do this for shorter journeys. That’s where we want to give an extra push,” Nordqvist continued.

Technology could be used to ensure that bicycle journeys were logged, preventing abuse of the system, the spokesperson added.

“There are various technical options for calculating it and registering it with [tax agency] Skat,” he said.

The current subsidy is calculated purely on distance between home and workplace and is independent of the form of transport used.

Alternative also want to make electric cars and shared economy transport cheaper by reducing the Great Belt Bridge toll for these transport forms.

“This is a political choice. Do we want to do something about climate change or do we want to wait and see what happens?”, he said to Ritzau.

The party will present its costing for the proposal in the near future.

READ ALSO: Danes want to make bicycle helmets the law

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