If you use your own car for business travel, HMRC lets you claim a tax-free mileage allowance. The rates are supposed to cover fuel, wear and tear, insurance, and servicing. Depending on how much you drive, claiming correctly can save you hundreds or thousands a year. Miss it, and you’re basically paying for business travel out of taxed income.
Current AMAP Rates
The Approved Mileage Allowance Payment rates for 2025/26:
- Cars and vans: 45p/mile for the first 10,000 business miles, then 25p/mile after that
- Motorcycles: 24p/mile (all miles)
- Bicycles: 20p/mile (all miles)
These rates apply whether your car is petrol, diesel, electric, or hybrid. HMRC hasn’t changed the car rate since 2012, which is a sore point for many — particularly as running costs have changed massively since then.
Who Can Claim?
- Self-employed: Claim AMAP rates as a business expense on your self-assessment. This is instead of actual running costs — you can’t use both. (Though you can switch methods from one year to the next.)
- Employees using their own car: If your employer pays you less than the AMAP rate (or nothing), you can claim the shortfall through self-assessment or a P87 form.
- Company directors: Your company can reimburse you at the AMAP rate, completely tax-free.
What Counts as a Business Journey?
HMRC is strict about this. Commuting between home and your regular workplace does not count. Business journeys include:
- Travel between business premises and client sites
- Travel to a temporary workplace (somewhere you attend for less than 24 months)
- Travel between two different workplaces
- Travel to training courses related to your current role
Here’s a useful one: if you work from home and it’s your main workplace, all journeys from home to client sites are business journeys. This is a big benefit for home-based workers.
Carrying Passengers
If you give a colleague a lift on a business journey, you can claim an extra 5p per mile per passenger. It’s not much, but if you regularly car-share for site visits, it adds up over a year.
Keeping Records
HMRC wants a mileage log. For each business journey, write down:
- Date
- Where you went (start and end)
- Why (the business purpose)
- Miles driven
You don’t need fuel receipts when claiming AMAP rates (it’s a fixed amount per mile). But you absolutely need the log. HMRC can disallow your entire claim if you can’t back it up. Google Maps journey history can help reconstruct past trips if you’re starting from scratch.
AMAP vs Actual Costs
Self-employed people can choose between AMAP rates and actual costs (fuel, insurance, road tax, servicing, depreciation, then apply a business-use percentage). Actual costs can work out better if you drive a cheap, fuel-efficient car. But AMAP is simpler and usually more generous for cars with moderate running costs. If in doubt, calculate both and pick the higher one.
Work Out Your Claim
Our free mileage calculator works out your annual claim at AMAP rates and shows the tax saving based on your tax band. If you drive 10,000 business miles a year and you’re a basic-rate taxpayer, that’s £900 back in your pocket.