About 35,000 people commute to Helsinki region from outside area
Government programme offers tax breaks for long-distance commuters
The number of Finns commuting to work in the Helsinki region from outside the area has reached about 35,000.
Transport, communications, and data services, and the construction industry in the Helsinki area are heavily dependent on long-distance commuters.
Arja Jolkkonen of the University of Joensuu says that long-distance commuting has "exploded", and is expanding all the time.
For the first time, the new government is promising tax breaks for those regularly commuting long distances. A total of EUR 30 million has been budgeted for tax breaks to offset the costs of a second apartment. Of those who come to the Helsinki area on a weekly basis, an estimated 18,000 - 20,000 live in Helsinki during the week.
In some cases, the employer pays for the housing costs. Others stay in hotels, apartment hotels, or boarding houses, while others rent an apartment on the open market, and pay for it out of their own pocket.
Helsinki accommodations can vary from a bed in a building site shed to a caravan at a camping site, to a luxury flat in the centre of the city.
Until now, tax authorities have allowed deductions only for owned accommodation in the community where a person works; interest on a loan taken to buy a second apartment has been deductible, and no tax has had to be paid on profit from selling such a dwelling after two years of ownership.
Vesa Korpela, head of legal affairs at the Taxpayers' Association of Finland, says that the current economic boom has brought an increase in people having a second apartment for work.
Rules on the tax-deductibility of travel between work and the home community are stringent, and favour public transport.
This year, the maximum deduction for travel costs is rising from EUR 4,700 to EUR 7,000. The first EUR 500 is not deductible.
In some communities, unmarried men have found it especially difficult to convince tax authorities to accept weekly trips back home as deductible commuting, because their home has been seen to be where the workplace is.
Korpela notes that making distinctions between long-term and temporary work can have significant monetary implications. If a digging machine operator from Kuhmo gets a contract in the Helsinki region, and the employer provides lodging, it is a temporary dwelling, and not a benefit seen as taxable income.
If the arrangement is more permanent, the apartment is seen as a benefit subject to taxation. When temporary work becomes permanent, tax-free travel compensations, per diems, and free accommodation come to an end.
Many of the construction workers in the Helsinki region have long lived in other parts of the country. Korpela says that a growing group are those who are advancing in their careers and have to change communities to take on more demanding work.
Families often vote for their established home, after which one of the two parents starts to shuttle long distances to work.
Helsingin Sanomat
|
| 24.4.2007 - TODAY |
 About 35,000 people commute to Helsinki region from outside area |
|
