MilometryTerritory driving: when 25,000 miles a year is the job
The 10,000-mile threshold arrives by late summer, the car wears out in three years, and the arithmetic is different from everyone else's.
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.
Updated 27 September 2026: the car and van rate rose from 45p to 55p for journeys from 6 April 2026 (announced 21 May 2026). Figures below use 55p.
Field sales, area management, regional service engineering. Jobs where the driving is not incidental to the work, it substantially is the work. The tax treatment was not designed with them in mind.
The threshold arrives early
The approved rate for cars and vans is 55p a mile for the first 10,000 business miles in the tax year and 25p after. For an employee the 10,000 is counted per tax year, per employment, across all the cars and vans used for that job. At 25,000 business miles a year you pass 10,000 in about the fifth month of the tax year. Everything after that is at 25p.
The blended rate works out at 37p a mile. Someone doing 8,000 miles gets the full 55p on all of it. The higher-mileage driver, whose costs are demonstrably greater, is paid a lower average rate per mile.
That is the structural quirk of the system, and it is why high-mileage drivers should be the most diligent about claiming everything they are entitled to. There is less margin in it than the headline rate suggests.
When the threshold arrives
| Annual business miles | 10,000 reached | Blended rate | Approved amount |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10,000 | 5 April | 55.0p | £5,500 |
| 15,000 | early December | 45.0p | £6,750 |
| 20,000 | early October | 40.0p | £8,000 |
| 25,000 | end of August | 37.0p | £9,250 |
| 30,000 | early August | 35.0p | £10,500 |
| 40,000 | early July | 32.5p | £13,000 |
Assuming even mileage through the year. The point of the table is the middle column: the driver doing 40,000 miles is paid an average of 32.5p for driving that costs them considerably more than the driver doing 8,000.
Three things worth knowing if this is you
Know where you stand against the threshold. Check where you are against 10,000 so each trip is banded correctly. The count restarts on 6 April. That needs a running total through the year, not a single figure worked out at the end.
Your car is a consumable. At 25,000 miles a year a car does 75,000 in three years, and depreciates accordingly. If you are choosing between a company car and your own, run the numbers on your actual mileage rather than a typical one. The answer for a high-mileage driver often differs from the office default.
Real MPG matters more. At 25,000 miles, a 5 mpg difference between the brochure figure and reality is hundreds of pounds a year. It also changes whether 55p is generous or thin.
Where high-mileage claims go wrong
Reconstructing at year end. Nobody remembers 800 journeys. A reconstruction produces round numbers and impossible days, which is a pattern that tends to invite questions, and the sums here are large enough for one.
Missing the short hops. The long runs get remembered. Three miles between two customers in the same town, twelve times a week, does not, and over a year it is thousands of miles.
Commuting mixed in. With no fixed office the position may be favourable, but if there is a base you attend, those journeys are not claimable and a large claim containing them is conspicuous.
The practical answer
Automatic recording, sorted weekly, with regular customers tagged so most of it classifies itself. At this mileage the difference between a log that keeps itself and one that depends on you is not convenience. It is whether the claim is defensible at all.
Sources
- Travel, mileage and fuel rates and allowances (HMRC)
- Claim tax relief for your job expenses: vehicles you use for work (HMRC)
- EIM31240: approved mileage allowance payments, the rates (HMRC manual)
- Increasing mileage rates (HM Treasury and HMRC policy paper)
- 490: Tax and National Insurance contributions for employee travel (HMRC)
- How long to keep your records: employees and others filing a tax return (HMRC)
- How long to keep your records if you're self-employed (HMRC)
General information, not tax advice.
