MilometryFuel cards and mileage claims: how they interact
A fuel card does not remove the need for a mileage log. It usually makes it more important. Three common arrangements, and what each one asks of you.
Algemene informatie, geen advies. Geschreven als algemene informatie en voor zover wij weten juist op 27 september 2026. Belastingregels veranderen, en hoe ze uitpakken hangt af van je eigen situatie. Dit is geen belasting-, juridisch of financieel advies: vraag een accountant, een belastingadviseur of de Belastingdienst voordat je erop vertrouwt.
Fuel cards feel like they simplify things. The fuel is paid for, so surely there is nothing to claim. In practice they usually create more record-keeping, not less, because the question stops being "what am I owed" and becomes "what did I use that I should not have". This post is about employees.
Your own car, employer's fuel card
If the card pays for fuel in your car, the employer is meeting a cost that is partly personal. That has consequences.
Fuel your employer provides for your own car is not a mileage allowance payment, because it is not a payment to you, and the fuel benefit rules for company cars do not apply to it. HMRC's guidance is that the cost of fuel an employer provides for an employee's own vehicle is taxable on the employee, and it is reported as a benefit. Fuel for personal journeys, including your commute, is the obvious part of that.
So the split between business and personal mileage stops being about what you can claim and starts being about what you owe. Get the log wrong in the generous direction and you have understated a benefit. That is a worse position than under-claiming.
Because the fuel is not a mileage allowance payment, your employer has paid you nothing towards your business miles for Mileage Allowance Relief purposes. You can claim that relief on the approved amount for your business miles (for a car or van in 2026-27, 55p a mile for the first 10,000 business miles, then 25p) against your own Income Tax. Where the card only ever buys business fuel, the relief broadly offsets the tax on that fuel and leaves relief on the rest of the approved amount. How your employer reports the card, and whether National Insurance is due, depends on how the card is set up; the result shows on your P11D or payslip.
Company car, fuel card, no reimbursement
If the car belongs to the company and the card pays for all fuel including private use, that is the car fuel benefit: a charge worked out from the car's CO2-based percentage applied to a fixed sum set each year, not from how much fuel you actually used.
The catch is that it is fixed. Someone doing very little private mileage can be taxed as though they did a great deal. The charge is nil only if you are required to repay, and do repay, the cost of all private fuel by 6 July after the end of the tax year. A partial repayment does not reduce it at all. HMRC accepts repayment at Advisory Fuel Rates for company cars.
Whether repaying beats being taxed is arithmetic, and it depends on your private mileage. You cannot do that arithmetic without a mileage record.
Company car, business fuel only
The cleanest arrangement: the card is used for business fuel, private fuel is repaid or bought separately. Advisory Fuel Rates are the yardstick.
Here the mileage log is the entire basis of the split. Without it there is no defensible line between the two.
Which arrangement you are in
| Car | Card pays for | What you owe or claim | Record needed |
|---|---|---|---|
| Yours | All fuel | Fuel provided is taxable; you can claim relief on the approved amount for business miles | Business/private split |
| Yours | Business fuel only | Same mechanics; the relief broadly covers the fuel and the rest of the approved amount | Business miles |
| Company | All fuel incl. private | Car fuel benefit, fixed charge from CO2, unless all private fuel is repaid by 6 July | Split, to decide whether to repay |
| Company | Business fuel only, or all private fuel repaid | No fuel benefit | Split, to calculate the repayment |
Every row needs the same underlying thing: how many of those miles were business.
The common thread
In every version of this, the fuel card removes the payment but not the question. Somebody still has to know how many of those miles were business, and the only way to know is to have recorded them as they happened.
Milometry keeps each vehicle separate and records every journey with its own classification, so the business and private split is a number you can produce rather than an estimate you defend.
Sources
- Advisory fuel rates (HMRC)
- Business travel mileage for employees' own vehicles (HMRC)
- Claim tax relief for your job expenses: vehicles you use for work (HMRC)
- Employment Income Manual EIM31330: Mileage Allowance Relief (HMRC)
- Employment Income Manual EIM31215: things which are not mileage allowance payments (HMRC)
- Taxable fuel provided for company cars and vans (480: Chapter 13) (HMRC)
- Income Tax (Earnings and Pensions) Act 2003, section 151: car fuel, nil cash equivalent (legislation.gov.uk)
- Tax on company cars (HMRC)
- Travel, mileage and fuel rates and allowances (HMRC)
General information, not tax advice. Fuel benefit rules are detailed and change: check current guidance before relying on this.
