Car mileage allowance can be confusing territory. Which is why we have Ken Nash from Wilds Chartered Accountants, Bolton, to explain it all for you.
Are you claiming all you are entitled to?
Every year many taxpayers fail to claim their full entitlement to Car Mileage Allowance and this may have been the case for many years. You could be entitled to a large sum of money from HMRC
without even knowing it.
What is it?
Well, Car Mileage Allowance is money that HMRC gives to individuals who pay for their own fuel and use their own vehicle for work purposes.
Who Qualifies?
Basically anyone who is employed, is a UK taxpayer, and uses their own vehicle for work purposes and here I mean in addition to normal commuting to and from work. For example site visits or
attending meetings away from the office. You must also pay for all your own fuel.
What do I need to be able to claim and how much can I claim?
You need a comprehensive log of all trips made on business; then it is a simple process of converting that mileage into a tax allowance. Your entitlement is 45p per mile for the first 10,000 miles (25p thereafter) and experience shows us that not all employers reimburse their employees at this full rate. You can therefore claim the difference between what you are reimbursed and the HMRC entitlement. For example, if you are reimbursed at 20p per mile you can set the other 25p against your income and claim a refund from HMRC in the form of a tax allowance. These may seem like small numbers but they can soon become quite significant, bearing in mind that you can claim for the current tax year and the 3 years which precede it.
