Reseavdrag och miljöpolitik

Sammanfattning: Income Tax-deduction for commuting expenses has been criticised and discussed for a long time without having reached any conclusions or reformations. Critical opinions in the debate are that a reformation would disfavour taxpayers living in the countryside with no options except car commuting and decreasing size of labour market regions. At the same time tax evasion is a huge problem because taxpayers living in Sweden’s metropolitan areas, with good public transport connections, often are able to make tax-deductions for car commuting. An important conclusion of this thesis is that a well working legislation would create incentives for commuters to choose more environmentally friendly options. To be able to answer my questions, I compared the differences between distance related tax-deduction and commuting as a non-tax-deductible expense to Sweden’s current legislation. Furthermore, a survey was sent to all the parliament parties in Sweden to show what their viewpoints are on the income tax-deduction of commuting expenses. The survey showed that most political parties have viewpoints somewhat similar to each other, which clearly shows that the political climate affect if incentives are created. With the answers received from the political parties and the results of the comparison between different legislations, this study shows that a distance related tax-deduction for work commuting most likely is the best option. All the political parties are very keen on preserving the ability of living in the countryside, therefore a reformation has to be made in a way that still preserves this possibility.