The painful cost of commuting, time for tax relief

golddustmedia

Hi, I'd like to float an idea I've been thinking over in the hope perhaps Martin or someone else could raise it's profile.

I'd like to talk about tax on commuting. I don't mean people who drive their BMW into central London alongside main railway lines I mean the millions of us who commute to work by car because there is no alternative.

My partner & I are at breaking point financially and unfortunately commuting costs are a large part of monthly expense. We don't exactly live rurally but it's not a large town. We live in Tiverton which is 7 miles off the M5 between Exeter and Taunton. I commute North to Bridgwater (35 miles) and my partner South to Exeter (20 miles). I personally use £50 of petrol per week exclusively on commuting and my partner a little less, perhaps £30 per week. Add to this the cost of owning, maintaining, taxing, insuring 2 cars and I believe we spend £600 per month exclusively on commuting.
I am tight as they come with money and we cut costs everywhere we can but the cost of living is just too close/greater than our income.

This is what upsets me; I could not get to work without my car, so it is an essential commodity to bring home any income. Yet when I bring home my salary after being taxed on it, I then pay for the items that are necessary for me to get to work (again paying other taxes along the way). However it feels to me that my car is in a way "a business expense" and the cost of my commuting should be offset against the tax I pay on my salary?

In my partners example her monthly salary is about £800, but when you take off the cost of commuting it's closer to £500. At which point it starts to become more profitable to work on a supermarket checkout which she could walk to than drive to a job that matches her qualifications!

I fully support public transport and if it were an option I'd take it (though I'd wonder about tax relief on commuting costs there too). However to get to work I'd need to walk to bus stop, get bus to train station, get 2 trains and walk for 30 mins from station to work, each way. All in my commute would reach near 2 hours (4 times the drive time) and a cost of twice the petrol costs! I realise it's unrealistic to campaign for better public transport as it would take hundreds of millions of pounds, decades to achieve and chances are it would miss the goal anyway. However, tax relief on commuting costs would be simple! It would make a real difference to people who want to work but live in rural areas or areas of poor public transport.

So I'd like to know if anyone else feels this is realistic or supports the idea?

Thanks.

OxJak

Like a lot of my colleagues I live in the city but work in the countryside (right in the middle of nowhere, with no public transport for miles around), and as I drive out of town in the morning rush hour and into town in the evenings I'm always going against the flow of traffic (I smile to myself every time I see a queue of traffic heading in!).

My fear is that this nation-wide congestion charging scheme, which apparently will charge us for driving on "busy" roads will take no account of the fact that I'm not causing any congestion at all!

I totally support your idea, and hate the way this London-centric government want to punish the motorist, when for a lot of people the car is the *only* way of getting to earn a living!