HMRC mileage rates and effective dates

Who it's for

Employees, directors, sole traders and employers

Scope

UK. Approved mileage rates for tax years from 2011 to 2012 up to 2026 to 2027; advisory fuel rates from 1 September 2024 to 30 November 2026.

Facts checked

13 October 2026

Which rate applies to you

Approved mileage rates: your own vehicle

These rates apply per business mile in the tax year (6 April to 5 April). The car and van rate went up on 6 April 2026, the first change since the 2011 to 2012 tax year.

• All cars and vans count together. If you use more than one car or van for the same job, their business miles are added up for the 10,000-mile limit. Motorcycles and bicycles are each worked out separately.
• Electric and hybrid cars and vans use the car and van rates.
• E-bikes: an electrically assisted pedal cycle uses the bicycle rate; any other electric bike uses the motorcycle rate.

National Insurance for employers

For National Insurance, employers compare mileage payments with a "qualifying amount" worked out at 55p for every business mile in a car or van, with no 10,000-mile step (motorcycles 24p, bicycles 20p). Payments above it are added to earnings for Class 1 National Insurance. Unlike tax, there's no relief for employees who are paid less.

Passenger payments

An employer can pay up to 5p a mile tax-free for each fellow employee carried on a business journey in a car or van. If an employer pays less, or nothing, there's no tax relief for the difference.

Simplified expenses: sole traders and partnerships

Sole traders, and partnerships with no company partners, can choose flat rates instead of working out actual vehicle costs. Limited companies can't. The rates mirror the approved rates, except there's no rate for bicycles.

The flat rate covers buying, running and maintaining the vehicle. Parking, tolls and congestion charges for business journeys can be claimed on top. Once you use the flat rate for a vehicle, you must keep using it for as long as that vehicle is in the business, and you can't use it for a vehicle you've claimed capital allowances on.

Advisory fuel rates: company cars

Advisory fuel rates are only for company cars. HMRC reviews them on 1 March, 1 June, 1 September and 1 December. Employers can keep using the previous rates for up to one month after a change.

From 1 September 2026, fully electric company cars are 7p a mile for home charging and 15p for public charging. Separate home and public electric rates started on 1 September 2025; before that there was one electric rate. Hybrids use the petrol or diesel rates.

Each line shows when the journeys were made, and the rates for small, medium and large engines. GOV.UK doesn't give the latest rates an end date. Our calculators use them for journeys up to 30 November 2026, the day before the next scheduled review, and we add the next quarter once we've checked it against GOV.UK.

How we keep these rates right

The rates on this page come from the same rate file the Mile Account app uses. A script reads the rate tables from GOV.UK's official content API and the app's tests fail if any rate, band or date differs. We last checked GOV.UK on 11 October 2026, and this page was last fact-checked on the date shown at the top.