Business mileage allowance calculator

For the 2026 to 2027 tax year HMRC allows 55p a mile for the first 10,000 business miles in an employee's own car or van, and 25p a mile after that. Motorcycles are 24p a mile at every mile. Bicycles are 20p a mile at every mile. Those figures are the approved mileage allowance payments, from HMRC's 2026 to 2027 employer rates and the travel mileage rates publication, checked on 10 September 2026. Before 6 April 2026 the car and van rate for the first 10,000 miles was 45p. Do not mix a 2025 to 2026 log with a 2026 to 2027 claim.

The rates cover owning and running the vehicle. You cannot claim fuel, electricity, vehicle tax, MOTs or repairs on top. Passenger payments are separate: 5p per passenger per business mile for carrying fellow employees on journeys that are also work journeys for them. Only payments specifically for carrying passengers count, and there is no relief if you receive less than 5p or nothing.

These rates are for an employee's own vehicle. A company car uses advisory fuel rates, which is a different page. A sole trader can use simplified mileage instead of actual costs, with the same published pence, but cannot mix that with capital allowances on the same vehicle. This calculator is the employee AMAP arithmetic.

Take 14,000 business miles in an employee's own car in one tax year. The first 10,000 miles at 55p are £5,500.00. The remaining 4,000 miles at 25p are £1,000.00. The approved amount is £6,500.00. That split is why a round 55p for every mile over 10,000 is too high, and why a flat 40p for every mile is too low.

At 40p a mile on 14,000 the employer pays £5,600.00 against an approved £6,500.00. The shortfall is £900.00. That larger gap is what a low employer rate produces once you cross 10,000 miles, because the approved rate has already fallen to 25p while 40p is still being compared with the blended approved amount.

At 55p on every mile, including the miles after 10,000, the employer pays £7,700.00 against an approved £6,500.00. The taxable excess is £1,200.00. Payment above the approved amount is taxable and is normally reported. It is not a gift that sits outside PAYE.

The calculator on this page does that arithmetic when you enter the miles and the employer pence. Motorcycle and bicycle rates do not drop after 10,000 miles, so a 14,000 mile motorcycle log is simply 14,000 times 24p, which is £3,360, with no second band.

Ordinary travel between home and a permanent workplace does not qualify. A temporary workplace can. A site visit, a client meeting, a second office you do not permanently work from, and travel between two workplaces in the same employment are the usual qualifying trips. You cannot turn a commute into business mileage by stopping at a shop on the way. HMRC's travel manuals are explicit about that dodge.

Keep the date, the mileage, the start postcode, the end postcode and the reason for every qualifying journey. HMRC's employee relief page says that when you claim you must send copies of mileage logs with those fields. If you have more than one employment, send a log for each. Guessed miles from a round number in a notebook are how claims fail.

A van you own is on the car and van rate. A motorcycle is 24p. A bicycle is 20p. A company car is not this page. Electric cars you own still use the 55p and 25p AMAP figures, not the advisory electric rates. Those advisory rates are for company cars only.

If you complete a Self Assessment tax return, you claim through that return. If you do not, HMRC's employee relief service is the route, and you must send the mileage logs. You can claim for the current tax year and the 4 previous tax years if you are eligible. That four year window is why a 2022 to 2023 log still matters in 2026, at the 45p rate that applied then, not at 55p.

The shortfall is multiplied by your tax rate. England, Wales and Northern Ireland use the 20, 40 and 45 per cent bands published for 2026 to 2027. Scotland uses starter, basic, intermediate, higher, advanced and top rates on the same HMRC employer rates page. This calculator does not pick a Scottish band for you. It reports the eligible shortfall in pounds. The cash tax reduction depends on which rate actually applies to you.

Employers who pay at or below the approved rates do not create a tax charge on those payments. Employers who pay above them have a taxable excess to report. VAT on mileage is an employer and VAT-registered question. This employee AMAP page does not invent a VAT rate for private cars.

That 55p applies to every mile. It applies to the first 10,000. That the shortfall is a refund. It is an eligible amount, then tax-rate arithmetic. That commuting counts if you 'need the car for work'. Ordinary commuting still does not qualify. That a company car uses these rates. It uses advisory fuel rates. That a 2025 log can be claimed at 55p. The 55p car rate starts on 6 April 2026.

People also mix passenger 5p with the car rate, forget to split two employments, and claim fuel on top of AMAP. The approved rate is the fuel, the tax, the MOT and the wear. There is no second bite.

A sole trader can use simplified mileage at the same published pence instead of actual costs, but cannot also claim capital allowances on that vehicle. An employee cannot claim capital allowances on a car used for work. Mileage Allowance Relief is the employee route. Do not file both. A partnership with no company partners can use simplified mileage. A company cannot use AMAP for a director's company car. That car is a benefit in kind.

A motorcycle log of 14,000 miles is 14,000 times 24p, which is £3,360, with no 10,000 mile drop. A bicycle at 20p is £2,800. Those figures are derived from the published flat rates. They are not a second official table. If the employer pays less, the shortfall is MAR. If the employer pays more, the excess is taxable.

Passenger payments are 5p per fellow employee per business mile, and only if the employer actually pays that extra. There is no relief if you receive less than 5p or nothing. Carrying a client who is not a fellow employee is not the passenger payment. Carrying a colleague to a meeting that is work for both of you is. Keep the names and the miles if the employer pays the 5p, so the tax-free amount is obvious.

HMRC can ask for the logs. If you cannot produce dates, postcodes and reasons, the claim is the thing that fails, not the 55p rate. Send what you have, do not invent postcodes. A corrected log for a later year is fine. A reconstructed log of round hundreds for four years is how enquiries start.

If you claimed 55p on a 2025 to 2026 year, amend it to 45p. If you included commuting, take those miles out. If you used advisory fuel rates on your own car, switch to AMAP. If you used AMAP on a company car, switch to advisory fuel rates or actual receipts. Each of those is a different wrong table, not a small rounding.

An employer who has underpaid can choose to top up towards the approved amount. That top-up, if it stays at or below the approved pence, is not a tax charge. It reduces the MAR you then claim. Tell HMRC the amount you actually received, not the amount you wish you had received.