By
August 11, 2026
Can a UK Company Director Claim Mileage?
If you are a director of a UK limited company and use your own car for business journeys, you may be able to claim mileage from your company.
In many cases, yes — a company director can claim mileage for qualifying business journeys made in their own vehicle.
The company can reimburse the director using HMRC's approved mileage rates, provided the journeys qualify as business travel and appropriate mileage records are maintained.
However, you generally cannot claim business mileage for ordinary commuting between your home and a permanent workplace.
This guide explains when UK company directors can claim mileage, which journeys qualify, what records you should keep and how mileage claims can affect Corporation Tax.
A mileage claim allows a director or employee to be reimbursed when they use their personally owned vehicle for qualifying business travel.
Rather than asking the company to pay each individual motoring expense, the director records the number of qualifying business miles travelled.
The company can then reimburse those miles using the appropriate mileage rate.
The mileage payment is designed to contribute towards the costs associated with using the personal vehicle for business.
These can include costs such as:
You therefore do not normally claim the fuel cost separately for the same journey when using the approved mileage arrangement for your own vehicle.
Yes.
A director is generally treated as an employee for these purposes and can potentially receive mileage payments from their limited company for qualifying business journeys.
For example, you might use your personal car to travel:
The journey must genuinely qualify as business travel.
HMRC publishes Approved Mileage Allowance Payments, commonly known as AMAP rates.
For cars and vans, the long-standing approved rates are:
45p per business mile for the first 10,000 business miles in the tax year
25p per business mile after 10,000 business miles
Different approved rates apply to motorcycles and bicycles.
Because tax rules can change, directors should always check the latest HMRC mileage rates before making claims.
Suppose you drive your personal car 120 miles to visit a customer.
If the journey qualifies as business travel and you are still within the first 10,000 qualifying business miles for the tax year:
120 miles × 45p = £54
Your limited company could reimburse you £54 using the approved mileage rate.
The company records the £54 as a business travel expense.
You personally receive reimbursement for using your vehicle for company business.
Qualifying business mileage generally involves journeys you need to make while performing your employment duties.
Examples can include travel:
The reason for the journey should be recorded.
Usually not where the journey is ordinary commuting.
Travel between your home and a permanent workplace is generally considered ordinary commuting rather than business travel.
For example, if your company has an office in London where you normally work and you drive from your home to that office every morning, those journeys would generally not qualify for tax-free mileage reimbursement.
The fact that you are a company director does not change the ordinary commuting rules.
This can be more complicated.
Simply doing some company work from home does not automatically make every journey from your home a qualifying business journey.
Whether travel from home qualifies can depend on factors such as:
For owner-managed companies operating entirely from home, the circumstances should be considered carefully rather than assuming that every journey starting at home qualifies.
Travel to a temporary workplace can potentially qualify as business travel.
Broadly, a temporary workplace is somewhere an employee attends to perform a task of limited duration or for a temporary purpose.
For example, suppose you normally work from your company's office but spend three days at a customer's premises to complete a project.
The customer's premises could potentially be a temporary workplace.
The travel rules contain detailed conditions, however, including the well-known 24-month rule.
The temporary workplace rules can change where a director or employee expects to attend a workplace for a sufficiently long period.
Broadly, where someone attends a workplace to a significant extent and expects that arrangement to continue for more than 24 months, the workplace may cease to qualify as temporary.
The 40% rule can also be relevant when considering whether attendance is substantial.
These rules can become complicated for consultants, contractors and directors working on long-term projects.
If your company involves extended assignments at customer locations, consider checking the specific HMRC temporary workplace rules.
Usually, where the journey qualifies as business travel.
For example, imagine you normally work from your company's premises and drive 30 miles to a customer's office for a meeting before returning.
If the journey satisfies the business travel rules, those miles can potentially form part of a mileage claim.
Keep a record of:
Date – Client – Destination – Business reason – Mileage
This makes the purpose of the journey clear.
Potentially, yes.
Driving your own vehicle to meet a supplier, collect business materials or inspect goods can potentially represent qualifying business travel.
Again, the journey should genuinely be required for the company's business.
Potentially.
Travel to a conference, exhibition, trade show or qualifying business event can potentially qualify where attendance forms part of your company duties.
However, a personal event does not become a business journey simply because you happen to meet business contacts while there.
The primary purpose of the journey matters.
Potentially, where the airport journey forms part of qualifying business travel.
For example, if you drive your personal car to the airport to catch a flight for an overseas client meeting, the qualifying journey to the airport may potentially be included in your mileage claim.
Parking and other travel costs may also require separate consideration.
Yes.
If you personally own an electric car and use it for qualifying business journeys, the normal Approved Mileage Allowance Payment rules for cars can apply.
The mileage payment is not simply reimbursement for petrol or diesel.
It represents the broader cost of using your own vehicle for business.
This is different from the advisory electricity rates that can apply to company-provided electric cars.
Yes.
HMRC provides a separate approved mileage rate for motorcycles used for qualifying business journeys.
At the time of writing, the approved rate is 24p per business mile.
Check the latest HMRC guidance before making claims in case the rate changes.
Yes.
A director or employee using their own bicycle for qualifying business journeys can potentially receive mileage payments.
HMRC's approved rate has historically been 20p per business mile.
Again, check the current HMRC rate before claiming.
It is important to distinguish between using your own vehicle and using a vehicle owned or provided by your limited company.
The 45p/25p Approved Mileage Allowance Payment rates generally relate to an employee using their own car or van for qualifying business travel.
If the company owns or provides the vehicle, different rules apply.
For example, HMRC publishes Advisory Fuel Rates and separate advisory rates for fully electric company cars.
Do not automatically use the personal vehicle mileage rates for a company car.
Generally, you should not claim the actual fuel cost in addition to the full Approved Mileage Allowance Payment for the same journey in your own vehicle.
The mileage rate is designed to cover the overall cost of operating the vehicle, not just fuel.
This includes an element for:
Claiming both could result in double reimbursement.
Potentially, yes.
Qualifying parking charges incurred during a genuine business journey can generally be considered separately from the mileage payment.
For example:
Business mileage reimbursement: £45
Client car park: £12
The parking cost may potentially be reimbursed separately where it was necessarily incurred for the business journey.
Keep the parking receipt where possible.
Qualifying tolls, congestion charges and similar costs incurred as part of genuine business travel may potentially be reimbursed separately from mileage.
However, penalties and fines are different.
For example, a parking fine incurred during a business journey does not automatically become an allowable expense simply because you were travelling for company business.
You should maintain a mileage log supporting your claims.
For each journey, record:
You might record a journey as:
15 June – London to Oxford – supplier meeting – 58 miles
rather than simply:
58 miles
The more clearly the business purpose is documented, the easier it is to support the claim.
Fuel receipts are not normally required simply to support an Approved Mileage Allowance Payment itself in the same way as claiming actual fuel expenditure.
However, VAT-registered companies seeking to recover VAT relating to the fuel element of mileage payments need appropriate VAT fuel receipts and must calculate the recoverable VAT correctly.
Therefore, keeping fuel receipts can still be important for VAT purposes.
A VAT-registered limited company may potentially recover VAT relating to the fuel element of qualifying mileage payments.
It cannot simply reclaim VAT on the entire mileage reimbursement.
The calculation generally uses HMRC's appropriate advisory fuel rate to identify the fuel element.
The company should also hold sufficient VAT receipts covering the fuel purchased.
VAT rules are separate from the Approved Mileage Allowance Payment rules.
Qualifying mileage reimbursements paid by the company can generally be included as business expenditure when calculating taxable profits.
For example:
Company profit before mileage expenses: £60,000
Qualifying director mileage reimbursements: £2,000
The company's accounting profit before further tax adjustments would be reduced accordingly.
The final Corporation Tax liability depends on the company's taxable profits after applying the relevant tax rules.
If your employer pays less than the approved mileage amount, you may potentially be able to claim Mileage Allowance Relief personally on the difference.
For example, if the approved amount for a journey is £45 but the company reimburses only £30, relief may potentially be available on the £15 difference.
This is tax relief rather than HMRC simply paying the director £15 in cash.
If your limited company reimburses mileage above HMRC's approved amount, the excess can potentially become taxable employment income.
For example, if the approved reimbursement is £45 but the company pays £60, the additional £15 may need to be treated appropriately through payroll.
Using HMRC's approved rates can therefore make mileage reimbursement simpler.
Yes.
Many directors prepare mileage claims monthly.
For example:
January – 420 business miles
February – 310 business miles
March – 550 business miles
The director submits a mileage report, and the company reimburses the qualifying amount.
Regular claims can be easier to manage than attempting to reconstruct an entire year's journeys at the end of the accounting period.
Before submitting a mileage claim, check:
Maintaining a consistent mileage log makes the process much easier.
Yes. A director can potentially claim mileage when using their personally owned vehicle for qualifying business journeys.
HMRC's approved rates for personally owned cars and vans have long been 45p per business mile for the first 10,000 qualifying miles in a tax year and 25p thereafter. Always check the latest HMRC rates before claiming.
Generally not where the journey is ordinary commuting between your home and a permanent workplace.
Potentially, depending on your working arrangements and whether the journey qualifies as business travel under HMRC's rules.
You would not normally claim actual fuel costs in addition to the full approved mileage payment for the same journey in your own vehicle.
Qualifying parking charges incurred during business travel can potentially be reimbursed separately.
Yes. Personally owned electric cars can qualify for Approved Mileage Allowance Payments in the same way as other personally owned cars.
A VAT-registered company may potentially recover VAT relating to the fuel element of qualifying mileage payments, subject to the relevant calculation and record-keeping requirements.
A UK company director can claim mileage when using their own vehicle for qualifying business journeys.
For personally owned cars and vans, HMRC's Approved Mileage Allowance Payment system provides a straightforward method for calculating how much the company can reimburse.
The most important distinction is between business travel and ordinary commuting.
Client visits, supplier meetings, conferences and qualifying temporary workplaces may potentially count as business travel. Regular journeys between home and a permanent workplace generally do not.
Keep a detailed mileage log showing the date, destination, number of miles and business purpose of each journey.
And remember: if the vehicle belongs to the company rather than personally to the director, different mileage and fuel rules apply.
Always check the latest HMRC mileage and travel guidance before making claims, particularly because rates and tax rules can change.
This article provides general information about business mileage for UK limited company directors and does not constitute tax, accounting or legal advice.
