Mileage and Travel Claims
Claim business mileage and travel correctly using HMRC rates and avoid claiming non-allowable commuting.
Travel is one of the most common business costs, yet it is also one of the most frequently miscalculated. Whether you are a sole trader visiting clients or a director driving between sites, business mileage and travel costs can be claimed against your profits, provided you follow the rules HMRC sets out. Getting it right reduces your tax bill; getting it wrong invites questions at enquiry. This guide explains the HMRC approved mileage rates, what counts as business travel, and how to keep records that stand up to scrutiny.
For the bigger picture, see our allowable business expenses guide, which sits within the wider business expenses and deductions hub .
HMRC approved mileage rates
If you use your own vehicle for work, the simplest method is the HMRC Approved Mileage Allowance Payment (AMAP) scheme. Instead of tracking actual running costs, you claim a flat rate for each business mile. The rate is intended to cover fuel, insurance, servicing, road tax and depreciation in a single figure.
Two features are worth remembering:
- A higher rate applies for the first portion of business miles in a tax year, and a lower rate applies once you pass that annual threshold.
- The rate is per business mile and is set by HMRC, so you do not need to keep fuel receipts when using this method.
Because these figures are reviewed periodically, always confirm the current published rate before calculating a claim.
Cars, vans, motorcycles and bicycles
The approved rates differ by vehicle type. Cars and vans share the same scheme, with the higher and lower bands described above. Motorcycles and bicycles each have their own single rate that applies to every business mile, with no threshold step-down.
| Vehicle | Rate structure | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Cars and vans | Higher rate up to the annual mileage threshold, then a lower rate | Most common claim |
| Motorcycles | Single flat rate per mile | No threshold step |
| Bicycles | Single flat rate per mile | Genuine business journeys only |
If you carry a fellow employee on the same business journey, an additional passenger rate per mile may be claimed on top of the standard rate.
Commuting versus business travel
This is where most claims go wrong. Ordinary commuting — travel between your home and your permanent workplace — is not an allowable business expense, no matter how far it is. Business travel is a journey you must make to carry out your work, such as visiting a customer, supplier or temporary site.
A few principles help you draw the line:
- Travel from home directly to a client or temporary workplace is usually allowable.
- A site you attend for a continuous period that is expected to last more than two years can become a permanent workplace, making journeys to it ordinary commuting.
- If you run a genuine home office as your base, journeys from home to clients are generally business travel. See our guide to claiming home office costs for the supporting rules.
Keeping a mileage log
Whichever method you use, you must be able to evidence every claim. A mileage log should record, for each business journey:
- The date of the trip.
- The start and end points, with the business purpose.
- The number of business miles travelled.
Keep the log contemporaneously rather than reconstructing it at year end. A spreadsheet works, but a mileage-tracking app linked to your bookkeeping is more reliable and far harder to dispute. For the wider principles on retaining evidence, see our guide to record keeping for expenses .
Public transport and overnight costs
You are not limited to the mileage scheme. The actual cost of public transport on a business journey — train, bus, tube, taxi, or air fares — is allowable, along with congestion charges, tolls and reasonable parking (but never parking fines or speeding penalties). These costs are all posted to travel expenses in the chart of accounts.
Where a trip requires you to stay away from home, overnight accommodation is allowable at a reasonable cost. Keep the invoice and make sure it relates to a genuine business trip rather than a personal extension of it. If you add private days to a business journey, apportion the cost so you only claim the business element.
Subsistence rules
Subsistence covers reasonable food and drink while you are travelling on business. To be allowable, the cost must arise from a journey that is itself business travel — you cannot claim lunch on an ordinary commute. Typical allowable items include a meal during a long business trip and refreshments while staying overnight away from base.
HMRC operates benchmark scale rates that some employers use to reimburse staff without itemising every receipt. If you reimburse at or below the published benchmark and meet the qualifying conditions, the payment is generally free of tax and National Insurance. For employer reporting obligations on travel and subsistence, our payroll and HR guides cover the reporting and benefit-in-kind side.
Company car versus mileage claims
If your limited company owns or leases a vehicle, the position changes. You cannot also claim AMAP rates for that company car; instead the company deducts the running costs, and you may face a car benefit-in-kind charge for any private use. Where you use your own car for company business, the company reimburses you at the approved mileage rate, which is the simpler and often more tax-efficient route for low-mileage directors.
| Situation | What you claim |
|---|---|
| Own car, business journeys | Approved mileage rate per business mile |
| Company-owned car | Actual running costs in the company, plus a benefit-in-kind charge for private use |
| Van with only incidental private use | Often no, or reduced, benefit charge |
Weigh the options carefully — a high-value company car can create a sizeable benefit charge that outweighs the running-cost deduction.
Common mistakes
The errors that most often surface at an HMRC enquiry are predictable:
- Claiming the commute between home and a permanent workplace.
- Mixing methods — claiming both AMAP rates and actual fuel for the same car.
- No contemporaneous log, leaving claims unsupported.
- Including fines such as parking or speeding penalties, which are never allowable.
- Claiming personal trips dressed up as business, or failing to apportion mixed-purpose journeys.
Keeping clean digital records under Making Tax Digital makes all of this far easier, because each journey can be tagged and reconciled as it happens rather than guessed later.