Should you claim actual motoring costs (fuel, insurance, repairs etc) or claim the 45p mileage rate against your self-employed profits? As a general rule of thumb: Van drivers are better off claiming for actual costs. If however, you use your family car for some business use, you're probably better off claiming mileage 👍
HMRC's 2 min. video summaries this nicely:
Mileage claims
Currently, HMRC allows a claim of 45p per business mile as long as your business journeys are recorded via a mileage log (the rate falls to 25p per mile after the first 10,000 miles).
Importantly your mileage log should include: Date, start-point, destination, the purpose of the journey and the number of miles travelled. Like all business records, these should be kept for a minimum of 6 years + the current tax year.
Our recommended bookkeeping apps both include mileage tracking features:
Alternatively, there's: Driversnote app
Infrequent business travellers might find it easier to download and use our simple Excel-based template.
Would you like help to pay less tax? Feel free to get in touch or check out our related posts 👇