HMRC Mileage Rates 2025/26: Approved Rates for Cars, Vans, Motorcycles & Bicycles

If you use your own vehicle for business travel, you can claim tax-free mileage from HMRC using their Approved Mileage Allowance Payments (AMAPs). The rates for the 2025/26 tax year (6 April 2025 to 5 April 2026) remain unchanged from previous years.

Here's everything you need to know — plus a free calculator to work out your claim instantly.

HMRC Approved Mileage Rates 2025/26

These are the maximum tax-free amounts your employer can pay you (or you can claim as a sole trader/partner) per business mile:

Cars and vans: 45p per mile (first 10,000 miles) / 25p per mile (over 10,000 miles)
Motorcycles: 24p per mile (all miles)
Bicycles: 20p per mile (all miles)

These rates have been unchanged since the 2011/12 tax year — yes, over a decade. There's ongoing debate about whether they adequately reflect current fuel and vehicle costs, but for now, these are the official figures.

Passenger Payments

If you carry a fellow employee in your car or van on a business journey (that's also a business journey for them), you can receive an additional 5p per mile per passenger tax-free.

This only applies to fellow employees, not clients or other passengers. And importantly, there's no tax relief available if your employer pays you less than 5p or nothing at all for passengers.

How to Calculate Your Mileage Claim

The calculation itself is straightforward, but the 10,000-mile threshold trips people up.

Example: You drive 14,000 business miles in your car during the 2025/26 tax year.

First 10,000 miles × 45p = £4,500
Remaining 4,000 miles × 25p = £1,000
Total claim: £5,500

The 10,000-mile threshold resets each tax year (6 April to 5 April). It applies per person, not per vehicle — so if you switch cars mid-year, you don't get a fresh 10,000 miles.

Rather than doing this manually, you can use our free tool:

👉 HMRC Mileage Calculator

Enter your vehicle type and miles driven, and it calculates your claim instantly. No sign-up required.

Who Can Claim Mileage?

Employees

If your employer pays you less than the approved rate (or nothing), you can claim Mileage Allowance Relief (MAR) on the difference through your tax return or by contacting HMRC.

For example, if your employer pays 30p per mile and you drive 8,000 business miles:

HMRC rate: 8,000 × 45p = £3,600
Employer pays: 8,000 × 30p = £2,400
You can claim relief on: £1,200

If you're a basic-rate taxpayer (20%), that's £240 back. Higher-rate (40%) means £480.

Sole Traders and Partners

You have a choice when you start using a vehicle for business. You can either:

Claim the approved mileage rate (simplified method), or
Claim the actual costs of running the vehicle (fuel, insurance, repairs, depreciation) proportioned by business use.

Once you've chosen a method for a particular vehicle, you must stick with it for as long as you use that vehicle in your business. Most sole traders choose the mileage rate for simplicity.

What Counts as a Business Mile?

This is where many claims go wrong. HMRC is clear on what qualifies:

Eligible

Travel between two workplaces (e.g., your office and a client site)
Travel to a temporary workplace (a location you attend for less than 24 months)
Travel for business purposes (site visits, meetings, deliveries)

Not Eligible

Your normal commute (home to your permanent workplace)
Personal journeys
Travel to a place you attend regularly for more than 24 months (it becomes a permanent workplace)

If you work from home and your home is your principal place of business, journeys from home to client sites or meetings generally do qualify. But the rules around "permanent workplace" can be nuanced — if in doubt, check with your accountant.

Record-Keeping

HMRC expects you to keep a mileage log. For each business journey, record:

Date of the journey
Start and end locations
Purpose of the journey (e.g., "client meeting with ABC Ltd")
Miles driven (use your odometer or a route planner)
Running total for the tax year (to track the 10,000-mile threshold)

You don't need to submit this log with your tax return, but HMRC can ask to see it during an enquiry. Keep records for at least 5 years after the 31 January submission deadline for that tax year.

A simple spreadsheet works fine. Some people use mileage-tracking apps that log journeys via GPS — whatever works, as long as the key details are captured.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

Forgetting the 10,000-mile threshold. Claiming 45p for all miles when you've exceeded 10,000 is an easy mistake that HMRC will pick up.
Claiming your commute. Your regular journey from home to your normal workplace is never claimable, even if it feels like a business trip.
Not keeping records. "I drove about 8,000 miles" won't hold up if HMRC enquires. Log each journey as it happens.
Mixing business and personal. If a journey is partly personal, you can only claim the business portion. A detour to the supermarket on the way back from a client meeting? Deduct those extra miles.
Forgetting to claim at all. Many employees don't realise they can claim MAR if their employer pays below the approved rate. It's free money — don't leave it on the table.

Calculate Your Claim Now

Use our free HMRC Mileage Calculator to work out exactly what you can claim for the 2025/26 tax year. It handles all vehicle types, the 10,000-mile threshold, and passenger payments.