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Mileage Allowance Calculator

Work out what you can claim (or pay an employee) for business miles at HMRC's approved rates, including the 10,000-mile step-down and passenger payments.

HMRC approved rates10,000-mile thresholdPassengersNothing uploaded

Calculator

Claim for these miles£0.00
Rate applied45p
Passenger payment£0.00
Total£0.00

Office Expenses Tracker Excel template

Claiming mileage every month?

This works one claim at a time. The Office Expenses Tracker logs mileage next to every other expense, with the approved rate as a setting, budgets per category and per team, VAT handled, and a dashboard of what's still owed to staff.

  • Mileage category with the HMRC rate built in
  • Personal spend awaiting reimbursement, totalled
  • Budgets per category with department overrides
  • Financial-year monthly matrix and dashboard
£7 Get the expenses tracker

Instant download · Excel, Google Sheets, LibreOffice · No macros

HMRC's approved mileage rates

For cars and vans the approved amount is 45p per mile for the first 10,000 business miles in the tax year and 25p per mile after that. Motorcycles are 24p per mile and bicycles 20p, with no step-down. These are the Mileage Allowance Payments (MAPs) an employer can pay tax-free, and the same figures a self-employed person can use under simplified expenses instead of tracking actual vehicle costs. If your employer pays less than the approved rate, you can claim Mileage Allowance Relief on the difference through your tax return or a P87.

The 10,000-mile threshold is why this calculator asks for your miles so far this tax year: a 120-mile trip is £54.00 if it's your first, but £30.00 if you've already passed 10,000 miles, and a trip that straddles the threshold is split at the right point.

Passenger payments

An employer can pay an extra 5p per mile per passenger for each colleague carried on the same business journey, tax-free. It's optional, it only applies to employees (not the self-employed), and the passengers must be travelling for work too. The calculator adds it as a separate line so you can leave it out if your employer doesn't pay it.

What counts as business mileage

Journeys between workplaces, to clients, suppliers or temporary sites, and trips that are part of the job. Ordinary commuting — home to your permanent workplace — is not business mileage and can't be claimed. Keep a log with the date, destination, purpose and miles; HMRC can ask for it, and it's what a tracker like the one below is for.

Electric and hybrid vehicles

The approved rates apply to electric and hybrid cars exactly as to petrol and diesel — 45p/25p — because they cover the whole cost of running the vehicle, not just fuel. The separate Advisory Fuel Rates (including the advisory electric rate) are for company cars where the employer reimburses fuel only; they are not what this calculator is for.

Questions

Do the rates change each year?

The 45p/25p car rates have been unchanged since 2011; motorcycle and bicycle rates likewise. Check HMRC's page if you are reading this long after it was written, and use the Custom option in the expenses tracker if they move.

Can I claim 45p for a van?

Yes — cars and vans share the same rate. Goods vehicles over 3.5 tonnes do not qualify for MAPs.

I'm self-employed — is this the right calculator?

Yes, if you use simplified expenses (flat rate per mile). If you claim actual costs (fuel, insurance, repairs, capital allowances) instead, mileage rates don't apply, and you can't switch methods for the same vehicle once chosen.

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