If you use your own car for work and have been claiming mileage at 45p per mile, the good news is that HMRC mileage rates have finally changed. From 6 April 2026, the approved mileage allowance payment (AMAP) rate for cars and vans increased to 55p per mile for the first 10,000 business miles in a tax year. The 25p rate for every mile above that threshold stays the same.

The 45p rate had been unchanged since 2011, so this increase was a long time coming. For anyone driving a reasonable number of miles for work, the difference adds up quickly. Someone doing 8,000 business miles in 2026/27 will now claim £4,400 rather than £3,600 under the old rate, a meaningful improvement.

Below, we run through the current rates, how to calculate what you can claim, what qualifies as a business journey, and how to keep records that will hold up if HMRC asks.

The approved mileage allowance payment (AMAP) rates set by HMRC for 2026/27 are as follows:

The 55p rate for cars and vans was announced in May 2026 and backdated to the start of the 2026/27 tax year on 6 April 2026. It represents a 22% increase on the 45p rate that had been in place since 2011.

There is also a passenger rate: if you carry a fellow employee in your own car on a business journey, you can claim an additional 5p per mile per passenger on top of your own mileage allowance.

If your employer reimburses you at a rate below 55p per mile, you can claim tax relief on the shortfall through your Self Assessment tax return or by contacting HMRC directly. If your employer pays you more than the approved rate, the excess is treated as taxable income and must be declared.

These rates apply to employees and directors using their personal vehicles for business travel. The position for the self-employed is slightly different and covered in the section below.

The calculation itself is straightforward. Multiply your total business miles for the tax year by the relevant rate, remembering that the threshold resets every tax year on 6 April.

An example

Say you drove 12,000 business miles in 2026/27. Your allowance would be:

• First 10,000 miles at 55p: £5,500
• Remaining 2,000 miles at 25p: £500
• Total mileage allowance: £6,000

If your employer paid you 30p per mile as a fuel allowance, the taxable shortfall would be 25p per mile on the first 10,000 miles and nothing (since 25p equals 25p) on the rest. You could claim tax relief on that shortfall.

Self-employed sole traders

If you are self-employed, you can use HMRC’s simplified mileage rates rather than claiming actual vehicle costs. This is often simpler and means you do not need to apportion running costs, insurance, or depreciation. The same 55p and 25p thresholds apply, and once you have chosen the mileage method for a vehicle, you generally need to stick with it for the life of that vehicle.

For limited company directors, the most common approach is for the company to reimburse you at the AMAP rate. The company gets a tax deduction, and the reimbursement is not a taxable benefit in your hands, provided it does not exceed the approved rate.

This is where many people trip up, and it is worth being clear about it.

Business mileage is travel you make in the course of doing your job: visiting a client, travelling between sites, attending a meeting away from your normal workplace, or going to a supplier. These journeys qualify.

Your daily commute from home to your permanent place of work does not qualify, even if it is a long drive. HMRC is consistent on this point, and it is one of the most common errors we see, particularly among contractors and freelancers who work from home some days and on-site on others.

If your home is genuinely your base of work (for example, you have no fixed office and you work from home as a matter of genuine necessity, not convenience), the position can be more nuanced. But if you have a permanent employer’s premises you report to regularly, the journey from your front door to that premises is not a business mile regardless of how far it is.

A few other points worth noting:

• Travel between two workplaces on the same day does qualify.
• Travel from home to a temporary workplace (somewhere you go for a limited duration or irregular basis) generally qualifies.
• Personal errands run while on a business trip do not qualify for that portion of the journey.

Getting this right from the start matters. HMRC does not look kindly on inflated mileage claims, and the penalties for careless errors can outweigh what you were trying to claim in the first place.

A mileage claim is only as good as the evidence behind it. HMRC expects you to keep a mileage log that records each business journey separately. Broadly, each entry should include:

• The date of the trip
• The start and end addresses, including postcodes
• The purpose of the journey (specific enough to verify, not just the word “business”)
• The distance travelled

A log that reads “business meeting, 40 miles” for every entry is unlikely to satisfy an HMRC enquiry. A log that reads “Client visit: Company X, 14 High Street, Anytown AB1 2CD, 38 miles” is far more defensible.

A few habits that save trouble later:

• Record personal trips too, so you can demonstrate the split between business and private use.
• Keep vehicle-specific records if you use more than one vehicle for business, since HMRC requires them to be tracked separately.
• Use the correct tax year (6 April to 5 April), not the calendar year, when totalling your miles.
• Do not estimate or round up. Odometer readings or a mapping tool for each trip are both acceptable.

Various apps can automate most of this, which we would generally recommend to any client who drives regularly for work. The time saved and the audit trail created are worth it. Keep your records for at least five years after the filing deadline for the relevant tax year.