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HMRC
Business mileage and HMRC: what the new 55p mileage rate means
The rate just rose to 55p a mile — the first change since 2011. What you can claim, and how to keep it simple.
If you use your own car for work, HMRC lets you claim a set amount per business mile, tax-free — and in 2026 that rate went up for the first time in fifteen years. Here's what you can claim now, and how to keep the record-keeping painless.
The new rate: 55p a mile
For the 2026/27 tax year, the approved mileage rates for a car are:
| Business miles in the tax year | Rate per mile |
|---|---|
| First 10,000 miles | 55p |
| Every mile after 10,000 | 25p |
| Motorcycles (any mileage) | 24p |
| Bicycles (any mileage) | 20p |
| Carrying a colleague (per passenger) | +5p |
The car rate rose from 45p to 55p for the first 10,000 miles, effective 6 April 2026 — the first change since 2011. The 25p rate above 10,000 miles is unchanged. These are the "approved" rates: pay them and there's no tax to worry about.
What actually counts as business mileage
Business mileage is travel you do for work that isn't your ordinary commute — driving to a client, a site, a temporary workplace, or between jobs. The everyday trip from home to your normal place of work doesn't count, and neither do personal detours. That distinction is the whole thing HMRC cares about.
A quick example
Do 8,000 business miles in the year and, at 55p, that's £4,400 you can claim tax-free — about £800 more than the same mileage would have been under the old 45p rate. If your employer pays you a lower rate (or nothing), you can claim the difference back through self-assessment or a P87.
The record-keeping that keeps it simple
HMRC wants a credible record, not a novel: for each business trip, the date, the purpose, where to and from, and the miles. The trick is to log it as you go — a contemporaneous record is both accurate and exactly what HMRC expects, and it beats trying to reconstruct a year of journeys from memory the night before the deadline.
Business miles, sorted for HMRC.
Tag journeys as business or personal and MileMind builds an HMRC-ready report — the current rates applied for you — exported as a tidy tax-year PDF for self-assessment or your accountant.
Download on App StoreRates are the HMRC approved mileage allowance payments for the 2026/27 tax year, correct to the best of our knowledge at the time of writing (the car rate rose to 55p from 6 April 2026). This is general information, not tax advice — always confirm current rates and rules at gov.uk or with your accountant before you claim.
