Key takeaways
- A private-sector employee in France who takes public transport to work, long commute or not, is entitled to have 50% of their season ticket refunded by the employer, based on the second-class fare for the shortest route; single tickets are not refundable, according to Service-Public.fr.
- Under Article L. 3121-4 of the French Labour Code (Code du travail), time spent getting to your place of work is not working time. Only business travel that takes longer than your normal commute between home and your usual workplace gives you a right to compensation, as rest or as money.
- For French income tax, the standard 10% deduction already covers travel between home and work; an employee can choose to deduct actual expenses instead, with receipts (Service-Public.fr).
- On our example scale outside Paris, two hotel nights a week come to about €1,100 a month; the same rhythm under a fixed-days lease costs €476 a month in rent, a gap of €624 every month.
Monday, 6:10 a.m. You live two hours from Lyon, door to door, and your employer wants you on site three days a week, Monday to Wednesday. Two hours there, two hours back, three times over. That is twelve hours of commuting every week, a day and a half of work spent on a train or in a car.
This guide is for employees working in France, so the rules below are French ones. The law owes you something for those twelve hours. Less than most people assume.
What your employer must refund
For public transport, the refund is not a perk. The Service-Public.fr page on commuting costs is plain about it (all quotations from French law and official French sites in this article are our translations; the links go to the French originals): “All private-sector employees, including those working part-time and interns, who use public transport to get to their place of work are entitled, on a mandatory basis, to a partial refund of these costs.” Trains are covered, alongside the metro, buses, trams and bike hire.
“The refund covers 50% of the second-class fare, based on the shortest route.” Someone working less than half-time is refunded in proportion to their hours, measured against a half-time job. The refund is paid monthly, at the latest by the end of the month after the purchase, against proof of the ticket. It is exempt from income tax. For 2026, if the employer chooses to go above 50%, the tax exemption applies up to 75% of the cost of the season ticket.
The catch: “Only season tickets are covered by the employer”, whether annual, monthly or weekly. Single tickets are not refundable. Keep that in mind if your rhythm changes: an employee who switches to one return trip a week on single tickets falls outside the mandatory refund.
Driving your own car works differently. Covering personal transport costs “is not mandatory”. It only exists if a collective agreement or an employer decision provides for it, and only if the employee’s usual home or workplace is outside the Île-de-France region and outside an area served by urban public transport, or if a car is essential because of working hours.
Is commuting time working time?
It is the question everyone asks, and the answer fits in two sentences of Article L. 3121-4 of the Labour Code: “Business travel time to reach the place where the employment contract is performed is not actual working time. However, if it exceeds the normal travel time between home and the usual place of work, it gives rise to compensation, either as rest or financially.”
For the everyday journey, then, it is simple: your four hours a day are not working time, and the law requires no compensation for them. Compensation only applies to travel that takes longer than that normal time, when your employer sends you to work further away than usual. The article adds that the part of that travel which falls within working hours “does not lead to any loss of pay”.
Commuting costs and French income tax
On your French tax return, the tax office applies a standard 10% deduction on salaries by default. According to the Service-Public.fr page on work expenses, it covers everyday costs, and first on the list are “travel expenses from home to the place of work”. You do not need to do anything to get it.
You can choose actual expenses (frais réels) instead; the calculation is worth doing when your commute costs more than the standard deduction. Transport between home and work is one of the deductible items. The choice applies to all your salaries: you cannot keep the 10% on part of them and deduct actual expenses on the rest. The expenses must serve your work and be backed by evidence; you do not attach receipts to the return, you keep them for three years in case the tax office asks. One detail that changes the maths: with actual expenses, you must add to your taxable pay the allowances and refunds your employer paid you for work expenses.
The same list of actual expenses also names dual residence costs (frais de double résidence), when you work somewhere far from where your spouse or civil partner (partenaire de Pacs) works, excluding personal convenience. The conditions and the evidence required are covered in our article on dual residence costs.
When a long commute becomes too long
No French text will tell you the hour at which a commute tips over. Your week will. Go back to the case above: twelve hours on the road for three days on site. Those hours are unpaid, and they come early in the morning or late at night.
That leaves a choice: put up with the commute and make it more bearable (working on the train where you can), stay in a hotel one or two nights a week, or rent a place near work for the nights you are actually there and go home the rest of the time. How to run a week split between two cities, and what it asks of a couple or a family, is covered in our guide to the two-city week.
That last case is the one Kowo handles. With a fixed-days lease (bail à jours définis), you rent a furnished home on fixed days every week, for example Monday and Tuesday nights, and you have exclusive use of it on your days. The days are set for the whole term of the lease: you cannot change them or add more along the way. The minimum term is three months. Rent receipts are issued through Stripe and can be used as proof for expense claims.
On that rhythm, the commute shrinks to one trip in on Monday morning and one trip home on Wednesday evening. Four hours a week instead of twelve.
Worked example: three days a week in Lyon
You work on site in Lyon from Monday to Wednesday. You need two nights there each week, Monday and Tuesday. The figures are an example scale outside Paris, not prices observed in Lyon, using an average month of 4.33 weeks.
| Option | Calculation | Per month |
|---|---|---|
| Hotel | about €125 a night, two nights a week | about €1,100 |
| Fixed-days lease | €55 a night × 2 nights × 4.33 weeks | €476 in rent |
Between the hotel and the fixed-days lease, the gap is €624 a month (€1,100 against €476), or €7,488 over a year (€624 × 12). On time, both do the same thing: twelve hours of travel a week become four.
We do not price the train: it depends on the line, the ticket and the share your employer covers. The Lyon part-time rentals page covers the option there.
For property owners: weekday occupants
If you own a furnished flat in a big city that sits empty from Monday to Friday, the employees described above are looking for exactly that slot, the same days every week, for several months. Let on fixed days, the property can bring in a regular income without going down the holiday-let route. The figures and options are in our article on earning from a second home.
Checklist for a long commute
- Your season ticket is refunded at 50%. Check the matching line on your payslip.
- You buy season tickets, not single tickets. Only season tickets fall under the mandatory refund.
- Your company’s rules on driving. Without a collective agreement or an employer decision, car costs are not refunded.
- The 10% deduction against actual expenses. Run the numbers before filing, adding back your employer’s refunds if you switch to actual expenses.
- Your receipts for three years. Tickets, invoices, and rent receipts if you claim dual residence costs.
Frequently asked questions about a long commute
Does my employer have to refund my train season ticket?
Yes, if you are a private-sector employee in France using public transport to get to work. According to Service-Public.fr, the employer refunds 50% of the second-class fare for the shortest route. Only annual, monthly or weekly season tickets are covered, not single tickets.
Does a long commute count as working time in France?
No. Under Article L. 3121-4 of the French Labour Code, travel time to reach the place where the employment contract is performed is not actual working time. Only travel time that exceeds the normal journey between home and the usual workplace gives rise to compensation, as rest or financially.
Can I deduct commuting costs from French income tax?
The standard 10% deduction, applied by default, already covers travel between home and work. You can also opt for actual expenses, which then apply to all your salaries and require you to keep receipts for three years; the option pays off when your costs exceed the standard deduction.
When is a commute too long?
None of the texts cited here sets a maximum duration. The best measure is the time lost each week: three two-hour return trips make twelve hours, against four if you sleep near work two nights a week.
What do two nights a week near work cost?
For two nights a week, a hotel comes to about €1,100 a month. A fixed-days lease on the same nights costs €476 a month in rent, a gap of €7,488 over a year.
If your spouse or civil partner works in another city, our article on dual residence costs explains what the French tax office accepts; the other guides for people who work far from home are in the Commuters section.