If you use your car or van for work, your business miles can reduce your taxable profit.
And there is an important change for 2026/27: HMRC has increased the simplified mileage rate for the first 10,000 business miles from 45p to 55p per mile. The new rate applies from 6 April 2026.
So, what can you actually claim — and which journeys count?
For the tax year 6 April 2026 to 5 April 2027, the simplified mileage rates are:
| Vehicle | Business mileage | Rate |
|---|---|---|
| Car or goods vehicle, such as a van | First 10,000 miles | 55p per mile |
| Car or goods vehicle | Over 10,000 miles | 25p per mile |
| Motorcycle | All business miles | 24p per mile |
The important word here is business.
Driving 5,000 miles during the year does not automatically give you a £2,750 expense. Only the miles that genuinely relate to your business count.
Business mileage generally means journeys you make for the purposes of running your business.
For example, this could include travelling:
Personal journeys do not count. HMRC also specifically excludes normal travel between your home and your regular place of work.
If your travel situation is less straightforward — for example, you work from home and travel to different locations every day — the tax treatment can depend on the circumstances, so it is worth making sure the journey genuinely qualifies as business travel.
For a broader look at what you can deduct, read our guide to allowable expenses for sole traders.
Imagine you are a self-employed tradesperson and drive 8,000 qualifying business miles during 2026/27.
Your simplified mileage expense would be:
8,000 × £0.55 = £4,400
That £4,400 is an allowable business expense. It is not £4,400 paid back to you by HMRC — instead, it reduces the profit on which your tax is calculated.
If you drove 12,000 qualifying business miles:
That is why keeping track of mileage throughout the year can make a meaningful difference.
You do not necessarily have to use the mileage method.
Sole traders can generally calculate vehicle expenses in one of two ways:
1. Simplified mileage expenses
You record your qualifying business miles and use HMRC's fixed mileage rate.
2. Actual vehicle costs
You calculate the allowable business proportion of the real costs associated with the vehicle.
HMRC's simplified mileage rate already takes account of costs such as fuel, insurance, servicing, repairs, vehicle tax, MOT and depreciation. You cannot use the mileage rate and then claim those same running costs again.
There is another important rule: once you start using the flat mileage rate for a particular vehicle, you normally have to continue using it for that vehicle while it remains in your business. You also cannot use simplified mileage for a vehicle if you have already claimed capital allowances for it or treated its purchase as a business expense under the relevant rules.
So it is worth choosing the method carefully rather than automatically assuming mileage is always better.
Yes — qualifying parking and certain journey-specific costs can be claimed separately from the mileage rate.
HMRC confirms that the mileage rate does not cover costs such as parking, tolls and congestion charges incurred specifically for a business journey.
Parking fines and other penalties are not allowable business travel expenses.
The simple rule is: do not try to reconstruct an entire year's driving in January.
HMRC requires you to keep records of your business miles when using simplified expenses.
In practice, keeping the date, journey and business mileage recorded as you go makes calculating your claim much easier.
Good records also make the rest of your Self Assessment bookkeeping far less painful.
Mileage is one of those expenses that is easy to forget because no receipt lands in your inbox.
Ten miles here. Twenty miles there. A client visit on Monday and a supplier run on Thursday.
By the end of the year, it can add up.
Kletta is built for UK sole traders and lets you track business mileage alongside your expenses, receipts, invoices and other bookkeeping records in one place.
For 2026/27, that is particularly worth remembering: the first 10,000 qualifying miles in a car or van are now worth 55p per mile as a simplified expense.
Track the miles when they happen — not when your tax return is due.