The approved mileage rates (your own car)
| Vehicle | First 10,000 miles | Over 10,000 |
|---|---|---|
| Car or van | 45p | 25p |
| Motorcycle | 24p | 24p |
| Bicycle | 20p | 20p |
Pay yourself at these rates for business mileage and it’s tax-free with no benefit in kind. Carry a colleague on business and you can add a 5p-per-mile passenger payment.
What counts as business travel
Business travel is travel wholly for work — to clients, suppliers, sites or a temporary workplace. It does not include ordinary commuting between home and your permanent workplace. For a director working from home, a trip straight to a client usually does count — a useful distinction worth getting right.
The 24-month rule
Travel to a temporary workplace is claimable — but a workplace stops being temporary once you expect to, or do, work there for more than 24 months (or it becomes your effective base). After that, journeys there are ordinary commuting and can’t be claimed. Contractors on long assignments are the ones most often caught by this.
Company car vs your own car
The 45p/25p rates are for using your own personal car. If you have a company car whose costs the company already pays, you instead use HMRC’s lower advisory fuel rates to reimburse business fuel — don’t claim both. For most non-EV situations, personal car plus mileage beats a company car.
Other travel costs
- Reasonable meals and accommodation on business trips
- Train, air and other fares for business journeys
- Parking, tolls and congestion charges (not parking fines)
Keep receipts and a mileage log — and we’ll make sure every claim lands in the accounts. Call 0114 327 1480.