Using your vehicle for business purposes

As a general rule, if you use your private transport for trips related to your employment, you may be able to claim tax relief if you are not reimbursed for this business use by your employers.

Exceptionally, any normal travel between your home and your place of work will always be excluded from this calculation unless you are required to travel to a temporary place of work.

How much you can claim depends on whether you’re using:

• a vehicle that you’ve bought or leased with your own money
• a vehicle owned or leased by your employer (a company vehicle)

Using your own vehicle for work

If you use your own vehicle or vehicles for work, you may be able to claim tax relief based on an approved, HMRC mileage rate. This covers the cost of owning and running your vehicle. You cannot claim separately for things like:

• fuel
• electricity
• road tax
• MOTs
• repairs

To work out how much you can claim for each tax year you will need to:

• keep records of the dates and mileage or your work journeys
• add up the mileage for each vehicle type you’ve used for work
• take away any amount your employer pays you towards your costs, (sometimes called a ‘mileage allowance’)

Approved mileage rates

If your employer pays less than the above rates you can claim tax relief on the difference.

If your employer pays more than the above rates per mile you will be taxed on any excess as a benefit-in-kind.