How to Track Business Mileage as a Self-Employed Tradesman UK: HMRC Rules and 45p Rate Explained
Quick Answer
Self-employed tradesmen can claim 45p per mile for the first 10,000 business miles in the tax year and 25p per mile thereafter, using HMRC's Approved Mileage Allowance Payments (AMAP) rate. A tradesman covering 20,000 business miles per year can deduct £7,000 from their taxable profits, saving around £2,030 in income tax and National Insurance at the basic rate. To claim, you must keep a mileage log recording the date, start point, destination, purpose, and miles for every business journey.
Mileage is one of the most commonly unclaimed tax deductions for self-employed tradesmen. If you drive to jobs, quote sites, suppliers, or training courses, you can claim that mileage against your tax bill. Many tradesmen drive well over 15,000 business miles per year but either fail to log it properly or are not aware that HMRC allows a straightforward per-mile deduction without needing to keep fuel receipts. This guide explains HMRC's mileage rates for 2026, what counts as business mileage, how to keep a compliant log, and how to decide between the flat-rate mileage method and claiming your actual van running costs.
HMRC Mileage Rates for 2026
The Approved Mileage Allowance Payments (AMAP) rates set by HMRC for the 2025/26 and 2026/27 tax years are: 45p per mile for the first 10,000 business miles in the tax year, and 25p per mile for every mile above 10,000. These rates apply to cars and vans. Motorcycles attract a rate of 24p per mile, and bicycles 20p per mile. These rates have been unchanged for a number of years and apply regardless of engine size, fuel type, or the age of the vehicle.
The AMAP rates are designed to cover all the costs associated with using the vehicle for business: fuel, wear and tear on tyres and brakes, insurance, road tax, servicing, and depreciation. Because the rate is meant to be all-inclusive, you cannot also claim separate running costs such as fuel receipts or servicing invoices if you are using the AMAP method. It is one or the other. If you use the AMAP rate, your only record-keeping obligation on the vehicle side is a mileage log. If you claim actual costs, you need to keep every receipt for fuel, oil, tyres, servicing, insurance, and so on, plus support your capital allowances claim on the van purchase.
It is worth understanding what the 45p rate actually represents in practice. At current fuel prices, a diesel van doing 30 miles per gallon costs roughly 15-18p per mile in fuel alone. The remaining 27-30p within the 45p rate is meant to cover everything else: depreciation of the vehicle, tyres, brakes, servicing, road tax, insurance, and general wear. For a tradesman with a relatively economical van, the AMAP rate can be generous. For a tradesman running a large, heavy, fuel-thirsty diesel, actual costs might be more beneficial. The 25p rate above 10,000 miles is far less generous and may not even cover your fuel costs if you are driving a larger vehicle.
HMRC has not changed these rates since 2012 despite significant increases in fuel prices and running costs. There is ongoing pressure from industry bodies to update the rates, but until any change is announced, 45p and 25p are the applicable figures for 2026. Always check the current HMRC guidance on approved mileage rates if you are filing a return for a future tax year, as the rates could change with a Budget announcement.
What Counts as Business Mileage?
Business mileage is any journey you make in the course of running your trade. For a self-employed tradesman, this covers a wide range of everyday driving: travelling from your home or office to job sites, travelling between different job sites during the same working day, driving to suppliers or builders merchants to collect materials, visiting a site to give a quote, driving to training courses or trade events, and journeys to see your accountant or solicitor on business matters.
Your regular commute from home to a fixed place of work is not claimable as business mileage. HMRC treats this as ordinary commuting, which is considered a personal cost. However, if your home is genuinely your place of business, meaning you carry out admin there, store your tools there, and it is effectively your base of operations, then the journey from your home to each customer's site is a business journey, not a commute. Most sole trader tradesmen do work from home in this sense, so the home-to-first-job journey is typically claimable.
The distinction becomes more complicated if you have a yard, workshop, or depot that you drive to each morning before heading out to jobs. In that case, HMRC may treat the home-to-yard journey as commuting and only the yard-to-job-site journeys as business mileage. The key question is whether the yard or depot is a fixed, regular place of work. If you only go there occasionally, the journey may still be claimable. If you go there every morning as a matter of routine, HMRC is more likely to treat it as commuting.
Journeys to collect materials are straightforwardly business mileage, even if you make those journeys multiple times per week. Picking up timber from the builders merchant, collecting a special-order part from a plumbing supplier, or driving to a tool hire shop are all claimable journeys. Record the merchant name and the specific job you were buying materials for, as this supports the business purpose of the journey. The same applies to journeys to a trade counter, depot, or cash-and-carry. Stopping briefly for a personal errand on the way does not invalidate the mileage claim if the primary purpose of the journey was business.
See the broader self-employed tradesman expenses guide for a full breakdown of what else you can claim alongside mileage, including tools, insurance, PPE, and training costs.
How to Keep a Mileage Log
HMRC requires you to keep a mileage log for every business journey you wish to claim. There is no prescribed format, but each entry must be able to demonstrate the business purpose of the journey. At a minimum, each entry should include: the date of the journey, the starting location, the destination, the purpose of the journey (customer name and job reference is ideal), and the number of miles driven. Without a contemporaneous log, any mileage claim is vulnerable to disallowance during a compliance check.
A paper log kept in the van is a simple and HMRC-accepted method. A small notebook in the glove box, filled in at the start and end of each journey, is cheap and requires no technology. The main drawback is that it is easy to forget to log shorter journeys, and paper logs can get damaged or lost. If you use a paper log, photograph or scan it periodically so you have a backup.
A spreadsheet is a step up from paper. A simple spreadsheet with columns for date, start, destination, purpose, and miles, updated daily or weekly, is easy to review at year-end and straightforward to total up. The limitation is that it still requires you to manually enter each journey, and it relies on you remembering to do so.
If you forget to record exact mileage at the time, Google Maps can help you calculate the distance for a journey after the fact, provided you know the start and end points. This is better than guessing, and a distance calculated from a mapping tool is a defensible figure if HMRC ever asks how you arrived at the number. However, reconstructing a full year's mileage log this way is time-consuming and should be seen as a fallback, not a system. The Sleepless Tradesman mileage and expense tracker lets you log trips as you go and keeps a running total, making year-end much simpler.
Keep your mileage records for at least five years and ten months after the end of the relevant tax year. HMRC can open an enquiry into any return within this window, and you will need your records to defend the claim. Digital records stored in the cloud are safer than paper from the perspective of disaster recovery, and HMRC explicitly accepts digital records.
Mileage Apps for Tradesmen
A mileage tracking app removes most of the friction from keeping a compliant log. The best apps use your phone's GPS to automatically detect when you start and stop a journey, recording the start point, end point, distance, and time without any manual input. You then categorise each trip as business or personal, and the app totals your business mileage automatically.
MileIQ is one of the best-known options. It runs in the background on your phone and detects journeys automatically. At the end of each day you swipe right to classify a trip as business and left for personal. The app calculates your claimable amount based on the current HMRC AMAP rate and exports a report for your accountant or self-assessment return. The free version covers a limited number of trips per month; the paid version is unlimited and typically costs around £5-6 per month, which is a deductible business expense.
Dext Mileage (formerly Receipt Bank) offers similar automatic tracking with the added benefit that it integrates with bookkeeping software such as Xero and QuickBooks, so your mileage flows directly into your accounts without manual entry. If you already use Dext for receipt capture, adding mileage tracking through the same app keeps everything in one place.
The Sleepless Tradesman Mileage and Expense Tracker is built specifically for tradesmen and lets you log both mileage and job-related expenses in a single tool. Unlike general mileage apps, it connects your mileage to specific jobs and customers, which makes the business purpose of each journey self-evident and strengthens your records if HMRC ever reviews your return.
Whichever tool you use, the key discipline is to categorise journeys promptly. Automatic detection handles the logging, but if you leave a week's worth of trips uncategorised you will struggle to remember which were business and which were personal. Five minutes at the end of each working day is all it takes to keep the log current and accurate.
Actual Costs vs AMAP: Which to Claim?
You have two methods for claiming the cost of using your van for business. The AMAP method uses the fixed HMRC rate of 45p and 25p per mile and requires only a mileage log. The actual costs method involves claiming the real expenditure on fuel, servicing, insurance, road tax, tyres, and repairs, plus capital allowances on the van purchase itself. Choosing the right method can make a significant difference to your tax bill, and the correct answer depends on your specific van and annual mileage.
For lower-mileage drivers or those with relatively economical vehicles, the AMAP method is often more generous than actual costs. The 45p rate is quite high compared to the real per-mile cost of running a fuel-efficient van, so the AMAP deduction can exceed your actual expenditure. For tradesmen covering high mileage in a large, fuel-thirsty diesel, the 25p rate above 10,000 miles often falls below the actual cost per mile, making actual costs the better choice.
The actual costs method involves more record-keeping. You need to retain fuel receipts, servicing invoices, insurance renewal documents, road tax confirmation, tyre purchase receipts, and any other vehicle-related expenditure. If the van is used partly for personal journeys, you can only claim the business proportion of each cost. If 80% of your total mileage is business and 20% is personal, then 80% of each running cost is deductible and 20% is not. You calculate this ratio from your mileage log, which you need to keep under either method.
The van purchase itself is claimed through capital allowances under the actual costs method. A new van can be written off in full in the year of purchase through the Annual Investment Allowance, giving you a large upfront deduction. A used van is also eligible for the AIA. Under the AMAP method, you receive no separate capital allowances on the van, because the AMAP rate is supposed to cover depreciation. This is one reason actual costs can be more attractive in the year you buy a new van.
Crucially, once you choose a method for a particular vehicle, you must stick with it for the life of that vehicle. You cannot switch from actual costs to AMAP in a later year just because AMAP would be more generous that year, and vice versa. This makes the initial decision important. Use the van running costs calculator to compare both methods for your specific situation before filing your first return on a new vehicle.
How Much You Can Claim
To understand the real value of claiming mileage, it helps to work through concrete numbers. Consider a tradesman covering 20,000 business miles per year under the AMAP method. The first 10,000 miles at 45p equals £4,500. The next 10,000 miles at 25p equals £2,500. Total mileage deduction: £7,000. This £7,000 reduces taxable profit, not gross income. At the combined rate of 20% income tax and 9% Class 4 National Insurance, a £7,000 deduction saves approximately £2,030 in tax and NI. That is money that stays in your pocket rather than going to HMRC, and it is entirely legal and straightforward to claim.
For a higher-mileage tradesman covering 30,000 miles per year, the calculation is: 10,000 miles at 45p equals £4,500, plus 20,000 miles at 25p equals £5,000. Total: £9,500. At the basic rate, the tax saving is approximately £2,755. This is a substantial annual saving, and the effort required to generate it is simply logging each journey as you go.
Many tradesmen either do not claim mileage at all, or under-claim because they have not kept a complete log and rely on rough estimates. HMRC does not accept estimates, and a mileage figure that looks suspiciously round or inconsistent with the volume of work shown by your invoices will attract attention at an enquiry. Logging accurately from day one is both the legal requirement and the commercially sensible approach. You can see the impact of mileage on your overall tax position using the sole trader tax calculator, which factors in your deductible expenses alongside your income.
Mileage is also one of the simplest deductions to defend at an HMRC enquiry, provided your log is complete. Unlike some claims that involve judgment calls about the business purpose of an expense, mileage between two business locations is self-evidently commercial. A properly maintained log with the customer name and job reference for each journey is almost impossible to challenge. In contrast, a claim based on a rough annual estimate with no supporting records is exactly the kind of entry an HMRC inspector will disallow.
If you have been self-employed for several years and have not been claiming mileage or have been under-claiming, it may be possible to amend previous self-assessment returns to include the correct mileage deduction. HMRC generally allows amendments within twelve months of the filing deadline for the relevant year. If you have records from previous years, even partial ones, speak to an accountant about whether an amendment is worthwhile. See the HMRC self-assessment guide for tradespeople for more on filing and amending returns.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I claim mileage from home to my first job each day?
Yes, provided your home is your business base. If you work from home in the sense that you keep your tools there, do your admin and quoting there, and your home is effectively your place of business, then the journey from home to each job site is a business journey rather than ordinary commuting. Most sole trader tradesmen meet this test comfortably. The position is less clear if you have a separate fixed base, such as a yard or depot, that you drive to each morning as a matter of routine before heading out to jobs. In that case, HMRC may treat the home-to-yard journey as commuting and only allow the yard-to-job portion as business mileage. If you are in this situation, it is worth keeping clear records of your typical working pattern and discussing the position with an accountant if the amount at stake is significant.
What mileage rate applies to my van?
Vans use the same AMAP rates as cars: 45p per mile for the first 10,000 business miles in the tax year and 25p per mile thereafter. The rate does not vary by engine size, fuel type, payload capacity, or the age of the vehicle. A new diesel Transit and an old petrol Berlingo attract exactly the same per-mile rate. Where the type of vehicle does make a difference is if you switch to the actual costs method, because your real fuel consumption, servicing costs, and depreciation will vary significantly between vehicle types. The van running costs calculator can help you compare which method produces the larger deduction for your particular vehicle.
Do I need to log every single mile?
Yes, HMRC expects a complete contemporaneous mileage log covering every business journey you claim. A round number or an estimate will raise flags if HMRC opens an enquiry and will typically be disallowed in full if you cannot produce supporting evidence. Each entry needs to record the date, start location, end location, business purpose of the journey (ideally customer name and job reference), and the distance in miles. The most practical way to achieve this level of completeness without significant extra effort is to use a mileage tracking app that automatically logs journeys via GPS and requires only a business or personal classification from you. If you log manually, make a habit of updating the log at the end of each working day before anything slips from memory.
Can I claim mileage on journeys to the builders merchant?
Yes, absolutely. Driving to collect materials, parts, fixings, or equipment for a specific job is business mileage, and regular runs to the builders merchant are a normal part of running a trade. Record the merchant name and the job the materials were purchased for. If you make multiple trips per week, each trip is a separate log entry with its own date, start point, destination, and mileage. Stopping briefly at the merchant on the way home from a job site does not undermine the claim if the primary reason for the detour was to collect materials. The brief personal element (passing the merchant on the way home) does not contaminate the business character of the journey overall.
What happens if I am inspected by HMRC and I do not have a mileage log?
If HMRC opens a compliance check into your self-assessment return and you cannot produce a mileage log to support your mileage claim, they are entitled to disallow the claim entirely. They will then raise a tax assessment for the additional income tax and National Insurance that would have been due without the mileage deduction, plus interest on the underpaid tax and potentially a penalty depending on whether they consider the error careless or deliberate. The burden of proof rests with you, not HMRC. If you have been claiming mileage without a log in previous years, the most sensible course of action is to begin keeping a proper log immediately for the current year and to reconstruct as much evidence as you can from your calendar, customer job records, and Google Maps history for previous years. An accountant can advise on the best approach if you are concerned about the position for past returns.
Log Mileage and Expenses in One Place
The Sleepless Tradesman Mileage and Expense Tracker lets you log trips, record expenses, and tie everything back to specific jobs, so your records are complete and your year-end figures are ready without any scramble. Start tracking from today and capture every mile you are entitled to claim.