For fifteen years, UK mileage maths started the same way: 45p a mile. That rate was set in 2011 and survived every fuel-price spike since — until now. For the 2026/27 tax year, gov.uk confirms the approved amount for cars and vans is 55p per mile for the first 10,000 business miles, then 25p after that. Motorcycles stay at 24p, bicycles at 20p, and you can still add 5p per mile for each colleague you carry on a business journey.
If you just want the number, the mileage calculator has the 2026/27 bands built in — including the 10,000-mile split, which is where most DIY spreadsheets go wrong. Here's how the system actually works.
AMAP in one paragraph
The Approved Mileage Allowance Payments scheme is a deal between you, your employer, and HMRC: if you use your own vehicle for business journeys, your employer can pay you up to the approved rate completely tax-free — no receipts for fuel, insurance, or wear-and-tear, because the rate is meant to cover all of it. Business journeys means trips you make in doing your job: client visits, site runs, travel between workplaces. The ordinary commute to your normal workplace doesn't count, and company-car drivers are on a different scheme entirely (advisory fuel rates, not AMAP).
The 10,000-mile split — and why your year-to-date total matters
The bands apply to the tax year, not to each claim. The first 10,000 business miles you drive between 6 April and 5 April attract 55p; everything after that attracts 25p. So a claim you make in February isn't priced by that month's driving — it's priced by where you already are in the year.
Concretely: if you've claimed 9,800 miles so far this year and submit a 500-mile month, the first 200 miles land in the 55p band (£110) and the remaining 300 fall to 25p (£75). Tools that ask only for this month's miles get this wrong; the calculator asks for your year-to-date figure and does the split properly.
When your employer pays less — or more
The approved rate is a ceiling for tax-free treatment, not an obligation:
- Paid less than the approved amount (or nothing)? You can claim Mileage Allowance Relief on the difference — tax relief on the gap between what the rates allow and what you actually received. Over a few thousand under-reimbursed miles, that's real money, and it's claimed through Self Assessment or HMRC's online service.
- Paid more? The excess over the approved amount is taxable and goes through payroll reporting. Generous employers aren't doing you a tax favour.
Both directions require the same thing: a record of the journeys, because the relief (and the tax-free treatment) is calculated from miles, not from fuel receipts.
The record HMRC expects
There's no prescribed form, but there is a clear expectation: date, where you went, why it was a business journey, and the miles — kept as you go, with your running year total visible so the band split can be checked. The free mileage log template carries exactly those columns with the running total automated; set the rate cell to 0.55 and it doubles as your claim sheet. And if the discipline is the problem rather than the format, Starlog keeps the log automatically — each trip recorded with its date, purpose, and distance, filed in your own Google Drive.
The takeaway
55p is the headline, but the mechanics decide your money: bands run on the tax year, passengers add 5p, under-payment is reclaimable, and all of it stands on the journey record. Run your trips through the calculator with your year-to-date figure, and let the log build itself from here — the first rise since 2011 is only worth something on miles you can prove.