HMRC mileage rates 2026/27: 55p a mile, and what changed on 6 April

#The 2026/27 rates

Vehicle	First 10,000 business miles	After 10,000 miles	Before 6 April 2026
Cars and vans	55p per mile	25p per mile	45p / 25p
Motorcycles	24p	24p	24p
Bicycles	20p	20p	20p

The 10,000-mile threshold resets each tax year, on 6 April. It applies per employment for employees and per business for the self-employed, and it is counted in business miles only — commuting to your normal workplace does not count towards it, because commuting is not claimable at all.

#What changed on 6 April

The 45p rate had been in place since 2011. Fuel, insurance and servicing all rose considerably in the fifteen years since, and the approved amount did not move with them, which is why "45p doesn't cover it" was such a common complaint. From the start of the 2026/27 tax year the first-band rate is 55p. The second band, motorcycles and bicycles are unchanged.

Because the rate is set per tax year rather than per calendar year, there is no mid-year split to worry about in the way there is with the IRS rate in 2026. Journeys on or after 6 April 2026 are at 55p. Journeys before it — including everything in the 2025/26 return you file by 31 January 2027 — stay at 45p.

#Calculator: your approved amount for 2026/27

#If you are an employee

Your employer can pay you up to the approved amount for business journeys in your own car tax-free — these are Mileage Allowance Payments. Three situations follow from that:

• They pay the approved rate. Nothing to claim, nothing to declare.
• They pay less — plenty of employers are still on 45p, or lower. You can claim Mileage Allowance Relief on the shortfall. On 8,000 business miles at 45p against an approved 55p, that is 8,000 × 10p = £800 of relief for the year.
• They pay more. The amount above the approved rate is taxable and goes on your P11D.

You claim the relief through Self Assessment if you already file one, or by writing to HMRC if you do not. Either way it rests on a record of the journeys.

#If you are self-employed

Under simplified expenses you can use the same flat rates — 55p, then 25p — instead of working out the actual running costs of the vehicle and apportioning them to business use. The flat rate covers fuel, insurance, servicing and depreciation, so nothing is added on top for those. Parking and tolls on business journeys are claimed separately.

One rule catches people: once you use the flat rate for a vehicle, you keep using it for as long as that vehicle is in the business. You cannot flip to actual costs in a year when the car needed an expensive repair.

#The record HMRC expects

HMRC does not prescribe a form, but a claim has to be supportable, and what supports it is the same four things every tax authority asks for: the date of each journey, where it went, why it was business, and the miles. A total figure with nothing behind it is the claim most likely to be reduced on enquiry.

The self-employed must keep business records for at least five years after the 31 January submission deadline of the relevant tax year. A journey record kept on paper, in a spreadsheet, or in an app that lets you export it all satisfy that, provided you can still produce it in year five. There is a free template with the right columns if you keep it by hand.

#Common mistakes on mileage claims

• Claiming the commute. Home to your usual workplace is not a business journey, however far it is.
• Forgetting the 10,000-mile step. Miles above the threshold are at 25p, and the threshold resets on 6 April.
• Mixing tax years. The 55p rate starts on 6 April 2026, not 1 January.
• Round numbers. A log that says 20 miles every Tuesday reads as an estimate, and estimates are what enquiries are made of.
• Claiming fuel on top of the rate. The rate already includes it.