Work supply me with a Peak Miles data logger for my mileage claims, it works well, I upload the report from it every Friday, all I have to do is check the journeys and tick them for private/business

 

http://www.peakmiles.com/

 

Has worked well for me for the last year, and is recognised by HMRC.

 

According to Fuelly, the Octy costs £0.12/Mile for fuel

 

Ohh a spy in the cab.  Serves the company I suppose and takes much of the creative admin out of it.

 

Not sure I would want this for me.  Be interesting to compare GPS miles to odometer miles as much to know when you should service ie true 10K if on fixed or the usually over estimated Odometer mileage.

I drive a company car - all costs are covered expect fuel and insurance- I fuel it and reclaim business miles on expenses - at the 45p/24p/17p rate - my fuel costs are 10p per mile

I drive a company car - all costs are covered expect fuel and insurance- I fuel it and reclaim business miles on expenses - at the 45p/24p/17p rate - my fuel costs are 10p per mile

 

So you get taxed as a Beneift in Kind based on CO2 band and a 3% loading if a diesel. 

 

My company has recently moved away from company cars to a car allowance based ones job title.

 

Has its' pitfalls ie you get taxed under PAYE but at least it is flexible on what marque you buy etc though one firm I drove for said no to Skoda as they thought it down market!  

Ohh a spy in the cab.  Serves the company I suppose and takes much of the creative admin out of it.

 

Not sure I would want this for me.  Be interesting to compare GPS miles to odometer miles as much to know when you should service ie true 10K if on fixed or the usually over estimated Odometer mileage.

Not quite a spy, as it is up to me to upload the info, so no-one is looking over my shoulder.

So you get taxed as a Beneift in Kind based on CO2 band and a 3% loading if a diesel. 

 

My company has recently moved away from company cars to a car allowance based ones job title.

 

Has its' pitfalls ie you get taxed under PAYE but at least it is flexible on what marque you buy etc though one firm I drove for said no to Skoda as they thought it down market!  

 No, with our scheme we pay a fixed monthly fee for personal use.  This fee depends on the car you choose and the declared private mileage. Therefore there is no benifit in kind given therefore no BIK tax

An aspect of claiming business miles interesting is what tool do you use to make the mileage claim?

 

Car's odometer (can be 12% under or 12% over-reading and be within manufacturing tolerences ?

 

Use Routeplanner http://www.rac.co.uk/route-planner/ ?

 

Do you add on a bit for a diversion for comfort break?

 

Would you claim the fastest route but actually take an eco-route and therefore make an extra bit of dosh?

 

HMRC rules are not clear on what is the correct methodology to use so pick the best.

I use an HMRC approved method

I use an HMRC approved method

 

I just provide a total figure on my self assessment form but keep a schedule of the individual journeys if required for audit.  I have looked and looked and never come across a definitive way that a mileage for a journey should be measured and claimed.  I suppose it would be just too complicated ie road closed that day or who is to say a particular software or hardware or car odometer tool is actually correct.  I think as long as it is reasonable and bears up to potential audit it will be passed as OK.

 

As an HMRC Officer, and my fellow HMRC Officers, some would go down to a tenth of a mile and even claim for journeys of a mile or less.  In many areas of analysing tax returns and reclaims a tolerence is expected.  If that tolerence is 5% or so then that has sometimes been deemed as within tolerence.   I have been sent out on some under cover work when tax returns are suspected as being too low, such operations as test-eating at restraurants and test betting when there was betting duty when it was suspected there was considerable under declaring going on by like most area of taxation some "bending" of the rules is thought to occur in most areas and it is when it becomes large scale outside tolerence is when it is tackled.  

Edited 1 February, 201511 yr by lol-lol

I just provide a total figure on my self assessment form but keep a schedule of the individual journeys if required for audit. I have looked and looked and never come across a definitive way that a mileage for a journey should be measured and claimed. I suppose it would be just too complicated ie road closed that day or who is to say a particular software or hardware or car odometer tool is actually correct. I think as long as it is reasonable and bears up to potential audit it will be passed as OK.

As an HMRC Officer, and my fellow HMRC Officers, some would go down to a tenth of a mile and even claim for journeys of a mile or less. In many areas of analysing tax returns and reclaims a tolerence is expected. If that tolerence is 5% or so then that has sometimes been deemed as within tolerence. I have been sent out on some under cover work when tax returns are suspected as being too low, such operations as test-eating at restraurants and test betting when there was betting duty when it was suspected there was considerable under declaring going on by like most area of taxation some "bending" of the rules is thought to occur in most areas and it is when it becomes large scale outside tolerence is when it is tackled.

there's tolerances between measuring route distances and and then there's deliberately claiming for the long way round when you only drove the short way round.

In the real world, we describe that as fraud/theft/tax evasion. I hope that clears it up for you.

I use the trip meter, and a small notebook. It's what I have always done, and is easily validated with google maps if the need arose.I have a phone app that uses the GPS sensor to record all trips, but it was more effort

there's tolerances between measuring route distances and and then there's deliberately claiming for the long way round when you only drove the short way round.

In the real world, we describe that as fraud/theft/tax evasion. I hope that clears it up for you.

 

So which do you use, the lesser of the two figures ie odometer or routeplanner?

 

In reality, when I come to do my self assessment (I was one of the 10M that got it in on time not the 1M that did not and will be fined) I know the journey I did that day and put in the spreadsheet my nominal figure for that journey ie the quickest route.  I might have used one of my cars, a loan, car, my motorcycle but just stick in the 250 miles to that client or office or 310 miles to that office, the same figure for each journey to the client/office for the whole year and then just put the figure in the SA form.  I would hope HMRC Officers have better things to do than pursue the enth degree.  

 

As an HMRC Officer I made assessments of up to £8M in a good year and according to PCS Union an average officer raised more than 10 times their employment cost ie circa half a million and I hope and expect this was pursuing significant under-decs.

 

Aborted journeys are some of the most awkward to deal with, ie cleint cancels/postpones when on route or road blocked and cannot get their in time. wasted journey, no visit.

 

So does anyone know has anyone identified the actual guidance on which method or methods for mileage calculation are preferred by HMRC goes I really do not know? 

Edited 1 February, 201511 yr by lol-lol

Every time I have spoken to the hmrc about this, their recommendation is to use a book to let g all of your trips, including cancelled ones. I always use the mileage from the trip recorder, and if I took the long way home then that's what is recorded. Remember you can only claim from your place of work, not from home unless you are home office based.

I've not worked it out for the Octavia however I've been keeping a record for the Yaris I use for work and it's currently sitting at 81.5p/mile all in (that's for everything including the purchase price of the car!)

Taking out the purchase price it's 38p/mile so I'm making a little bit of profit from the 45p/mile I can claim back. Although my business mileage is pretty tiny tbh as I tend to prefer using one of the pool cars as their far superior to my little box!

Edited 2 February, 201511 yr by Cznski

I've not worked it out for the Octavia however I've been keeping a record for the Yaris I use for work and it's currently sitting at 81.5p/mile all in (that's for everything including the purchase price of the car!)

Taking out the purchase price it's 38p/mile so I'm making a little bit of profit from the 45p/mile I can claim back. Although my business mileage is pretty tiny tbh as I tend to prefer using one of the pool cars as their far superior to my little box!

 

if you are not doing real miles it is frightening. Had a MX5 for a while which we did not do "proper" miles (ie at least 10K a year) in and hence the depreciation majorly affected the effective mileage rate which I suspect was effectively around £1/mile.

 

Working in HMRC we would run our cars up to the 10K per year and then come up with an excuse not to use our car for the rest of the tax year and so use hire cars, Departmental cars or public transport.  The 40-45/25p has been static for a couple of decades and I am sure huge increase in car prices post the financial crisis, fuel prices increasing by about a half in five years plus insurance and servicing costs running with inflation which means that under compounding inflation these elements have about doubled in two decades.  Tyres is one of the few things that have not gone up in price in that time.

 

HMRC do allow extra claiming for carrying passengers, up to 5p a mile I recall, and internally we use to allow 2p a mile for moving equipment I also recall.    

Edited 3 February, 201511 yr by lol-lol

if you are not doing real miles it is frightening. Had a MX5 for a while which we did not do "proper" miles (ie at least 10K a year) in and hence the depreciation majorly affected the effective mileage rate which I suspect was effectively around £1/mile.

 

 

 

Indeed - I do less than 5k miles a year in the Yaris but thankfully depreciation isn't really an issue given the price I paid for it. When I got it I was also toying with a new Citigo but decided that the depreciation wouldn't make financial sense.

Edited 3 February, 201511 yr by Cznski