Free UK mileage log and HMRC mileage allowance calculator

Log each business journey (date, where it started and ended, why, and the miles), then print the log or save it as a PDF. The calculator turns your business miles into what HMRC's flat rates allow, whether you're self-employed (simplified expenses) or an employee using your own vehicle (approved mileage allowance payments and Mileage Allowance Relief): 55p a mile for the first 10,000 miles in cars and vans for 2026 to 2027 (45p before 6 April 2026), 25p after that, 24p for motorcycles and 20p for bicycles. No account, no email, no watermark.

Rates and rules checked against GOV.UK, HMRC's Business Income Manual and legislation.gov.uk on 2026-10-11. Not written by an accountant.

The short answer

• Cars and vans, 2026 to 2027: 55p a business mile for the first 10,000 miles, 25p after that. Up to and including 2025 to 2026: 45p and 25p (GOV.UK: Simplified expenses, vehicles, GOV.UK: approved mileage rates).
• Motorcycles: 24p a mile. Bicycles: 20p a mile, for employees only; simplified expenses don't list bicycles.
• Self-employed: the flat rate replaces the vehicle's actual running and buying costs, and “You can claim all other travel expenses (for example train journeys) and parking on top of your vehicle expenses.” (GOV.UK)
• Employees: if your employer pays less than the approved amount, you can claim Mileage Allowance Relief on the difference; if they pay more, the extra is taxable (GOV.UK: rules for tax).
• Keep a record: “It is therefore important that a contemporaneous record of business mileage is maintained to support any claim using the flat rate.” (HMRC BIM75005) The log below is one.

HMRC mileage rates calculator

Pick the tax year and whether you're self-employed or an employee, then type your business miles or press Use the miles from the log above. It starts with GOV.UK's own example: 11,000 business miles, self-employed, in 2026 to 2027.

Each line is rounded to the nearest penny. Checked against HMRC's examples: GOV.UK's 11,000 miles gives £5,750 (above); BIM75005's 12,000 miles gives £5,000 at the 2025 to 2026 rates and £6,000 at the 2026 to 2027 rates.

1. What your mileage log should show

• Employees claiming Mileage Allowance Relief: “When you claim, you must send HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) copies of your mileage logs.” GOV.UK says they must include the reason for every journey, the postcode for the start point of every journey and the postcode for the end point of every journey (GOV.UK: vehicles you use for work).
• Self-employed using the flat rate: “It is therefore important that a contemporaneous record of business mileage is maintained to support any claim using the flat rate.” (BIM75005), that is, a record made at the time.
• How long to keep it (self-employed): “You must keep your records for at least 5 years after the 31 January submission deadline of the relevant tax year.” (GOV.UK: business records)

So the log asks for both ends of every journey (“From” and “To”: a place, or the postcode if you're claiming as an employee), the business purpose and the miles, and refuses a journey without them. It groups business miles by tax year, because the rates are set per tax year.

2. Which journeys count

• Self-employed: the flat rate is only for journeys, or an identifiable part of one, made wholly and exclusively for the business. “It is not available for private journeys, such as travel from home to work, or for journeys that serve both a business and a private purpose.” (BIM75005; ITTOIA 2005 s. 94F(5)). GOV.UK lists travel between home and work among the costs you can't claim (car, van and travel expenses).
• Employees: “This does not include travelling to and from your work, unless it’s a temporary place of work.” (GOV.UK)

3. Self-employed: simplified expenses for vehicles

• What it is: “Calculate your vehicle expenses using a flat rate for mileage instead of the actual costs of buying and running your vehicle, for example insurance, repairs, servicing, fuel.” It's for cars (not ones designed for commercial use, such as black cabs), goods vehicles such as vans, and motorcycles (GOV.UK).
• What the rate covers: “The mileage rate covers the costs of buying, running and maintaining the vehicle, such as fuel, oil, servicing, repairs, insurance, vehicle excise duty and MOT.” It also covers depreciation. But “The mileage rate does not include incidental expenses incurred in connection with a particular journey, such as tolls, congestion charges and parking fees.” Those are allowable on top when they're solely for business (BIM75005).
• Capital allowances: “You cannot claim simplified expenses for a vehicle you’ve already claimed capital allowances for, or you’ve included as an expense when you worked out your business profits.” (GOV.UK; ITTOIA s. 94E)
• Once chosen, it sticks: “Once you use the flat rates for a vehicle, you must continue to do so as long as you use that vehicle for your business.” HMRC adds: “The business can only change to or from an ‘actual’ basis when a vehicle is replaced.” (BIM75005; ITTOIA s. 94D(4))
• The 10,000-mile band is shared: if the business's cars and goods vehicles do more than 10,000 business miles in the period between them, the higher rate is available for only 10,000 of those miles (ITTOIA s. 94F(3)). So type all of them together in the calculator.
• Passengers: “The number of people in the vehicle does not affect the rates.” (BIM75005)

4. Employees: approved mileage allowance and Mileage Allowance Relief

• The approved amount is your business miles for the year times the rate for the vehicle; “It does not matter if your employee uses more than one vehicle in a year - it’s all calculated together.” (GOV.UK: rules for tax). The 10,000-mile band counts all your business miles by car or van for the employment in the tax year (ITEPA 2003 s. 230(3)).
• Paid more than that: the employer reports the excess on form P11D and adds it to your pay, so it's taxed. Paid less (or nothing): “your employee will be able to get tax relief (called Mileage Allowance Relief, or MAR) on the unused balance of the approved amount” (GOV.UK). “The AMAP rate is advisory, and employers can choose to reimburse more or less.” (HMRC policy paper)
• Claiming: “You can claim for the current tax year and the 4 previous tax years, if you’re eligible.” “If you complete a Self Assessment tax return, you must claim through your tax return instead.” (GOV.UK)
• E-bikes: “the same as the bike rates if it’s an electrically assisted pedal bike”; any other electric bike takes the motorcycle rate (GOV.UK).
• Passengers: employers can pay 5p per passenger per business mile for carrying fellow employees, tax-free. “Only payments specifically for carrying passengers count and there is no relief if you receive less than 5p or nothing at all.” (GOV.UK) The calculator leaves passenger payments out.

5. The rates by tax year (and the 45p to 55p change)

* Bicycles: approved mileage allowance payments for employees only.

• Why 2026 to 2027 is different: the rate for the first 10,000 miles went from 45p to 55p. HMRC's policy paper says “The increase is retrospective taking effect from 6 April 2026.” (Increasing mileage rates). The change is in Taxation (Energy and Vehicles) Act 2026, s. 2, which substituted “55p” for “45p” in ITEPA s. 230(2) and ITTOIA s. 94F for 2026-27 and later tax years.
• Accounting periods that aren't the tax year: “When calculating the taxable profit for a tax year, a business should use the mileage rates that apply to that tax year.” HMRC's two examples work the same 12,000 miles at £5,000 (2025 to 2026 rates) and £6,000 (2026 to 2027 rates) (BIM75005).
• Next year: “The government has already committed to a review of these rates beyond 2026 to 2027 and will set this out at the Budget 2026.” (HMRC). We'll add 2027 to 2028 when it's published, not before; journeys dated outside the tax years 2024 to 2025 through 2026 to 2027 show as “other dates” in the log.

If you'd like your invoices, payments and expenses in one place, our paid Freelance Billing Kit by Small Rows (US$12, one-time) has an expenses tab with an optional UK category list, where the total from this calculator can go in as one "Car, van and travel expenses" line. It doesn't keep a mileage log; it's a record-keeping tool, not tax advice.

Where the sources differ

We read the pages listed under Sources on 2026-10-11. A few details don't line up neatly; here's how this page handles them:

• An employer example still at 45p. GOV.UK's rules-for-tax page shows 55p “from 6 April 2026” in its table, but its example still works 12,000 miles as “10,000 x 45p plus 2,000 x 25p” = £5,000 (GOV.UK). That's right for tax years before 2026 to 2027; for the same miles the calculator gives £5,000 for 2025 to 2026 and £6,000 for 2026 to 2027.
• “Cars and vans” or “cars and goods vehicles”. The employee rules say cars and vans; simplified expenses (and GOV.UK's employee relief page) say cars and goods vehicles. Same rates. The calculator labels follow whichever you pick.
• Year or accounting period. For the self-employed, the Act counts the 10,000 miles in the business's accounting period (s. 94F(3)), while the rates are those of the tax year (BIM75005). The calculator works one tax year at a time; if your accounts don't run 6 April to 5 April, HMRC's BIM75005 examples show how to apportion.
• Page dates. GOV.UK's simplified-expenses page carries an old “updated” date (2020-08-19) but shows the 2026 to 2027 rate; HMRC's manual and rates table were updated 2026-05-21. All of them, and the Act, agree on 55p.
• Rounding. HMRC doesn't say how to round miles × rate when miles aren't whole. The calculator rounds each line to the nearest penny (half up); HMRC's whole-mile examples come out exact.

How the calculator works

• Car and van miles: the first 10,000 at the year's higher rate, the rest at 25p; motorcycle miles at 24p; bicycle miles (employees only) at 20p. Each line is rounded to the penny.
• Self-employed: plus parking, tolls and congestion charges. Employee: compared with what your employer paid, to show the amount you can claim relief on, or the taxable excess.
• Use the miles from the log above copies the log's business miles for the chosen tax year into the line for the log's kind of vehicle.

What it doesn't do

• It doesn't save or send anything. There's no account and no history; print or save the PDF.
• It doesn't decide what counts as a business journey, or work out actual costs, capital allowances, passenger payments, company cars or fuel benefit.
• One vehicle per log, at most 60 journeys per page of the log, up to 3,000 miles per journey. No GPS, no maps, no automatic distances.

Related free resources

• US mileage log and IRS mileage rate calculator and the Canadian vehicle logbook (kilometres, CRA rules), if you also drive for work there.
• UK self-employed National Insurance calculator: Class 4 and Class 2 on your profits.
• UK Self Assessment payments on account: whether you pay in advance, and how much.
• UK VAT registration threshold checker: your rolling 12-month turnover.
• All free tools.

Sources

GOV.UK guidance, HMRC's Business Income Manual and legislation.gov.uk, read on 2026-10-11. The rates are under review for 2027 to 2028; check the live pages before you rely on them.

• Self-employed: Simplified expenses: vehicles · BIM75005 · Car, van and travel expenses · What records to keep · How long to keep your records
• Employees: Business travel mileage: rules for tax · Tax relief: vehicles you use for work · Travel: mileage and fuel rates and allowances
• The 2026 change: Increasing mileage rates (policy paper) · Taxation (Energy and Vehicles) Act 2026 (c. 26), s. 2
• Legislation: ITTOIA 2005 s. 94D · s. 94E · s. 94F · s. 94G · ITEPA 2003 s. 229 · s. 230

GOV.UK "updated" dates when read: rates table 2026-05-21; BIM75005 2026-05-21; policy paper 2026-06-17; rules for tax 2015-02-18; vehicles you use for work 2024-10-14.

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