HMRC Mileage Rate History: 45p Since 2011 — the Full Record

Ask when the UK mileage rate last changed and the answer surprises most drivers: 2011. The 45p per mile that HMRC approves today is the same 45p introduced in the 2011–12 tax year, and the 25p rate above 10,000 miles is older still. Where the IRS repriced twelve times in as many years, the UK rate is a study in standing still — which has consequences for anyone claiming, reimbursing, or negotiating around it.

The full AMAP history

Approved Mileage Allowance Payments (AMAP) rates by tax year:

Period	Cars & vans, first 10,000 miles	Cars & vans, over 10,000 miles	Motorcycles	Bicycles
2011–12 to present	45p	25p	24p	20p
2002–03 to 2010–11	40p	25p	24p	20p
Before 2002–03	Fixed Profit Car Scheme — rates varied by engine size

Alongside the vehicle rates sits the passenger payment: 5p per mile per colleague carried on a business journey, payable by employers on top of AMAP — also unchanged since its introduction.

The table’s shape tells the story. AMAP replaced the engine-size-banded Fixed Profit Car Scheme in 2002 with deliberately simple flat rates; the 2011 Budget nudged the main rate up 5p; and everything since has been silence. Motorcycles and bicycles have not moved in over twenty years. The current-rates guide covers how the figures apply in 2026; this page is about what the long freeze means.

What the freeze means in real terms

45p in 2011 and 45p in 2026 are very different amounts of money. Fifteen years of fuel, insurance, and vehicle-price inflation have eroded the real value of the rate substantially — on general price inflation alone, matching 2011’s purchasing power would take well over 60p today.

The practical consequences land differently depending on who you are:

• High-mileage drivers feel it twice, because the 25p over-10,000 rate has been frozen since 2002. A territory sales rep doing 20,000 business miles gets £4,500 + £2,500 = £7,000 — a figure that has not moved while their actual running costs have.
• Employers may pay more than 45p, but the excess is taxable pay and reportable; the AMAP figure acts as the tax-free ceiling, and a frozen ceiling steadily converts real reimbursement into taxable income.
• Employees paid less than 45p — common in the NHS and elsewhere in the public sector, where local schemes sometimes trail AMAP — can claim Mileage Allowance Relief on the gap. The frozen rate at least keeps that arithmetic stable.
• The self-employed using simplified expenses apply the same 45p/25p, and the freeze is one reason to run the numbers against claiming actual vehicle costs — the crossover moved as costs rose while the flat rate did not.

Backdated claims: one rate, four years

The rate history matters most when claiming for the past. Employees can generally go back four tax years with a Mileage Allowance Relief claim — under-reimbursed business miles from several years ago are still claimable money.

The freeze makes the rates side of a backdated claim trivial: every open year uses the same 45p and 25p. The evidence side is where backdated claims die. A claim for 2023–24 needs the journeys — dates, destinations, purposes, miles — and reconstructing them two years later from a diary and fuel receipts is exactly the reconstruction problem that contemporaneous records exist to prevent. HMRC’s five-years-after-deadline retention expectation for the self-employed points the same direction: the log outlives the tax year by design.

Worked example of what the gap is worth: an employee drives 6,000 business miles a year and is reimbursed 30p by their employer. The AMAP value is 6,000 × 45p = £2,700; received: £1,800. Relief is due on the £900 difference — £180 for a basic-rate taxpayer, per year, and up to four years of it if the records exist.

A stable rate still needs a dated log

There is a tempting false conclusion in all this: if the rate never changes, surely an annual mileage total is enough. It is not. The 10,000-mile threshold resets each tax year, so miles must be attributable to years; employer reimbursements must be matched journey-by-journey for MAR; and HMRC’s evidence expectations concern journeys, not totals. The freeze simplifies the multiplication, never the record.

MileTrack keeps the record in claim-ready shape automatically: journeys detected in the background, classified as business, commute, or private with a swipe, and exported as HMRC-ready PDF, CSV, or XLSX with per-journey dates, distances, and purposes. Free, no account needed, and journey history stays on your device by default — still there when a four-year-old claim window is about to close.

Related guides

• HMRC Mileage Rates 2026: 45p and 25p AMAP Rates Explained
• Mileage Allowance Relief: Claiming the Gap Your Employer Leaves
• HMRC Mileage Logbook Rules: Recordkeeping Checklist for 2026

Tax note: educational content only, not tax advice. Check current GOV.UK guidance before making or backdating a claim.