MilometryDriving abroad for work: what you can still claim
The approved rates do not stop at Dover, but almost everything around them changes. What the mileage covers, what it does not, and what to record.
Allgemeine Information, keine Beratung. Als allgemeine Information verfasst und nach unserem Wissen korrekt am 27. September 2026. Steuerregeln ändern sich, und wie sie gelten, hängt von deinen Umständen ab. Dies ist keine Steuer-, Rechts- oder Finanzberatung: Frag eine Steuerberaterin, einen Steuerberater oder das Finanzamt, bevor du dich darauf verlässt.
If you take your own car abroad on business, the mileage itself is treated much as it would be at home. Nearly everything else about the trip is treated differently, and that is where the money and the mistakes are.
The mileage
For an employee, approved mileage allowance payments apply to business travel in a vehicle that is not a company vehicle, usually your own. For cars and vans the approved rate is 55p a mile for the first 10,000 business miles in the tax year and 25p after (for journeys from 6 April 2026). The self-employed using simplified expenses use the same rates. The rates are not restricted to UK roads. A business journey is a business journey, and the miles you drive in France on the way to a client count towards the same annual total as the miles you drove to get to the ferry.
That includes the 10,000-mile threshold. For an employee it is one running total for the tax year, per employment, across all the cars and vans used for that job, wherever they were driven. The self-employed count over their accounting period across all the business's cars and vans.
The costs that are not mileage
The mileage rate covers running the vehicle. It does not cover:
- Ferries and tunnel crossings
- Foreign tolls and vignettes
- Emissions stickers and city permits
- Parking
These are claimable separately where the journey is business, exactly as tolls and parking are at home. Keep them attached to the journey rather than in a pile.
What is claimable, and how
| Cost | Treatment |
|---|---|
| Mileage in your own car | Approved rates, same annual 10,000-mile total |
| Ferry or tunnel crossing | Separate claimable expense |
| Foreign tolls, vignettes | Separate claimable expense |
| Emissions stickers, city permits | Separate claimable expense |
| Parking | Separate claimable expense |
| Extra insurance or breakdown cover for the trip | Covered by the mileage rate, not claimed on top |
| Hire car your employer arranges | The hire cost, not a per-mile rate |
| Fuel in that hire car | Actual cost, not the mileage rate |
| Hire car you arrange and pay for yourself | Not a company vehicle, so the approved rates can apply |
Where it gets complicated
Mixed trips. A week abroad that is three days of client work and four days of holiday is not wholly business. The travel there and back has to be apportioned, or may fail entirely if the primary purpose was personal. It is a contested area of foreign business travel and one worth taking advice on.
Subsistence. Meals and accommodation abroad have their own treatment, including HMRC's published overseas scale rates for some countries. That is a separate topic from mileage but usually part of the same trip.
Foreign exchange. Costs paid in another currency need converting at a reasonable rate, applied consistently. Pick a method (the card's rate on the day is usually the cleanest) and use it for the whole trip.
What to record
The same as at home, plus a bit more: date, from, to, purpose, distance, and enough detail to show the business character of the trip if the days were mixed. A calendar of meetings alongside the journey log answers most questions before they are asked.
Milometry records the drive by GPS wherever you are, so the distance is measured rather than estimated from a map afterwards, which matters more abroad, where the route you actually took and the route you planned are often not the same.
Sources
- Travel, mileage and fuel rates and allowances (HMRC)
- 490: Tax and National Insurance contributions for employee travel (HMRC)
- Income Tax (Earnings and Pensions) Act 2003, section 229: mileage allowance payments (legislation.gov.uk)
- EIM31240: approved mileage allowance payments, the rates (HMRC manual)
- BIM75005: simplified expenses, motor vehicles (HMRC manual)
- Expenses rates for employees travelling outside the UK (HMRC)
- Expenses if you're self-employed: car, van and travel expenses (HMRC)
General information for UK drivers, not tax advice. Mixed business and personal trips abroad are fact-sensitive: take advice.
