The alternative will reward bicycle commuters with a deduction

The alternative will introduce a new transport deduction for bicycle commuters.

With a rate of three kroner per kilometer from 2-24 kilometres, where the current transport deduction starts, there must be a gain if you choose to cycle to work.

It is one of several proposals in a new, larger cycling plan from Alternativet.

– Society benefits very well from us cycling. But the individual cyclist cannot feel that. We would like to change that, because it has to be worthwhile to cycle, says Christina Olumeko, Alternativet’s mobility spokesperson.

According to figures from the Ministry of Transport, there is a social gain of over eight kroner by replacing one kilometer by car with one kilometer by bicycle.

It is not the first time that the Alternative has a proposal with some form of bicycle deduction.

But the previous lack of attention does not worry Christina Olumeko.

– We must dare to make these proposals again and again, because over time, my experience is that even the visionary proposals also become reality.

The alternative envisages that the number of kilometers driven must be checked through an app for the phone developed by the state.

The party further estimates that the bicycle deduction will cost around DKK 350 million per year.

It is to be financed by rolling back the government’s reduction in the kilometer-based road tax and by raising the diesel tax.

The business organization Dansk Industri (DI) shares Alternativet’s ambition to promote the bicycle as a means of transport to work and sees an “untapped potential”.

But it can be done smarter and cheaper than what Alternativet proposes, says industry director at DI Transport, Karsten Lauritzen.

– Therefore, we recommend that you work with employer-paid bicycles instead. Where companies make bicycles available, which you are not taxed on, as is the case today with company bicycles.

Dansk Industri calls it a “Free Cycle scheme” and proposes that DKK 70 million be set aside for it annually in the Finance Act from next year.

The alternative’s cycle plan also contains a proposal for employer-paid subsidies for bicycles, and that it must be tax-free if an employee has the employer’s bicycle parked at his home address in connection with work.

The current transport deduction has a rate of DKK 2.23 per kilometer for between 25 and 120 kilometers of transport to work. The deduction applies to both car, bicycle and public transport.

/ritzau/