HMRC Mileage Rates 2026: Practical AMAP Guide for UK Claims

Getting the HMRC mileage rates right is only half the job. The other half is applying them correctly across the tax year, tracking the 10,000-mile threshold, and keeping evidence that holds up under scrutiny.

For the 2025/26 tax year, Approved Mileage Allowance Payments (AMAP) have not changed. The rates have stayed the same since 2011, despite repeated calls for an increase. Here is the full breakdown.

AMAP rates at a glance

Vehicle type	First 10,000 business miles	Each mile over 10,000
Cars and vans	45p	25p
Motorcycles	24p	24p
Bicycles	20p	20p

There is also a passenger supplement of 5p per mile for each fellow employee you carry on a business journey. The passenger must be travelling for business purposes too — giving a colleague a lift to the same client meeting qualifies; driving your partner to the shops does not.

These rates cover all running costs: fuel, insurance, servicing, depreciation, and road tax. You cannot claim AMAP and then separately claim for fuel or repairs on the same vehicle.

Full details are on the GOV.UK vehicles-for-work page.

AMAP vs employer reimbursement

Many people confuse their company’s reimbursement rate with the HMRC-approved rate. They are separate things:

• Your employer’s policy controls what they actually pay you per mile.
• HMRC’s AMAP rates determine what is tax-free up to a set ceiling.

If your employer pays 30p per mile and you drive 8,000 business miles, you receive £2,400. But HMRC allows 45p for those miles — a tax-free ceiling of £3,600. The £1,200 shortfall is where Mileage Allowance Relief comes in.

Mileage Allowance Relief (MAR)

If your employer reimburses you at less than the AMAP rate — or does not reimburse you at all — you can claim Mileage Allowance Relief on the difference.

How it works: Subtract what your employer paid from the AMAP amount. The gap is the relief you can claim, and it reduces your taxable income.

Using the example above: £3,600 (AMAP) minus £2,400 (employer paid) = £1,200 of relief. If you are a basic-rate taxpayer at 20%, that saves you £240 in tax. Higher-rate taxpayers at 40% would save £480.

How to claim: You report MAR through your Self Assessment tax return. If you do not normally file Self Assessment, you can claim by submitting form P87 to HMRC. Claims can go back four tax years, so if you have been under-reimbursed for a while, it is worth checking what you might be owed.

Note: if your employer pays above the AMAP rate, the excess is treated as taxable income and will usually appear on your P11D.

Practical monthly workflow

Run this process each month to stay on top of your mileage claim:

1. Classify all journeys — mark each as business, commute, or personal.
2. Remove ordinary commuting — trips to a permanent workplace are not business travel.
3. Track cumulative annual miles — you need to know when you cross the 10,000-mile threshold so the rate drops from 45p to 25p.
4. Export monthly records — archive a summary and raw data file for each month.

Threshold tracking is the step most people skip. Applying 45p to every mile across the whole year is one of the most common errors, and it triggers HMRC attention because it always inflates the claim.

Ordinary commuting vs business travel

The distinction matters. HMRC defines ordinary commuting as travel between your home and a permanent workplace. That journey is never claimable under AMAP.

What does qualify:

• Travel to a temporary workplace (a client site you visit for a limited period).
• Travel between two workplaces (office to client, then client to another client).
• Travel from home if your home is your main base of business and you are visiting a temporary workplace.

If your work pattern is mixed — some days in the office, some at client sites — annotate each journey with enough detail to show why it counts as business travel. “Meeting” on its own is not enough; “Client review meeting at ABC Ltd, Manchester” is.

HMRC’s guidance on travel and subsistence covers the permanent vs temporary workplace distinction in detail.

How the 10,000-mile threshold works in practice

The threshold applies per tax year (6 April to 5 April), not per calendar year. Every business mile you drive across all vehicles counts towards the 10,000 cumulative total.

Here is a worked example. Suppose you drive 12,000 business miles in the 2025/26 tax year:

• First 10,000 miles × 45p = £4,500
• Remaining 2,000 miles × 25p = £500
• Total AMAP claim: £5,000

If you mistakenly applied 45p to all 12,000 miles, you would claim £5,400 — an overstatement of £400. HMRC’s automated checks are built to spot this pattern because it is one of the most frequent errors on Self Assessment returns.

Keep a running total updated each month. When you see cumulative business miles approaching 10,000, you know the rate is about to drop. Any mileage tracking tool worth using should show this automatically.

Motorcycle and bicycle rates

Motorcycles and bicycles have their own AMAP rates, and they do not change at the 10,000-mile mark.

Motorcycles: 24p per mile for every business mile, regardless of total annual mileage. This rate covers fuel, insurance, wear and tear, and all other running costs.

Bicycles: 20p per mile. Yes, you can claim AMAP for cycling to business meetings. The rate is modest, but for self-employed people who cycle between client sites or temporary workplaces, it adds up over the year. A consultant who cycles 2,000 business miles annually would claim £400.

The same evidence requirements apply to motorcycles and bicycles as to cars — date, route, purpose, and distance for every journey.

EV and advisory fuel rate confusion

AMAP rates and advisory fuel rates are different systems. Do not mix them.

• AMAP applies when you use your own vehicle for business travel. The flat rate covers all costs.
• Advisory fuel rates apply to company cars, where the employer reimburses fuel for private mileage or the employee reimburses fuel for private use of a company car.

If you drive your own electric vehicle for business, you still claim AMAP at 45p per mile (assuming it is a car). The advisory electricity rate for company EVs (currently 7p per mile) has nothing to do with your personal mileage claim. The distinction trips people up because EVs are newer and the rules feel like they should be different — but for AMAP purposes, an electric car is just a car.

Evidence checklist

For every business journey, record:

• Date
• Start and end locations
• Business purpose (specific enough that a stranger could understand it)
• Miles driven
• Vehicle used (especially if you use more than one)

If you carry passengers on business journeys and want to claim the 5p supplement, note who was in the car and confirm they were travelling for work.

Tooling that reduces claim friction

A good mileage tracker for UK use should handle the specific requirements that AMAP compliance demands:

• Automatic journey capture — GPS-based recording so you do not forget trips.
• Business/personal classification — quick tagging with purpose notes.
• Annual threshold monitoring — a running total that shows where you stand against the 10,000-mile mark.
• Monthly export — PDF summaries and CSV raw data that you can archive and hand to your accountant.

Dashboard aesthetics matter far less than whether the app produces exports that match what HMRC expects. See Best Mileage Tracker App UK: What to Compare for HMRC Claims for a practical comparison.

End-of-year check

Before you file your Self Assessment or submit records to your employer:

• Verify the cumulative mileage split at 10,000 miles — are the two rates applied correctly?
• Confirm commuting is excluded.
• Check that every month has archived exports with source data.
• If claiming MAR, calculate the gap between employer payments and AMAP entitlement.
• Keep records for at least five years after the 31 January filing deadline for the relevant tax year.

MileTrack captures journeys automatically, classifies them as business, commute, or private, and exports claim-ready reports with all the fields HMRC expects. See the current UK product page at miletrack.app/en-gb.

Tax note: this article is educational and does not replace advice from a qualified UK tax professional.