Reclaiming Petrol expenses from HMRC

Chopszuy

I have just become a carer, which means i am visiting homes up to about 10 miles of my own home (20miles return) but i will be doing this journey 3 nights per week, and then more journeys at weekends.

How do I claim this money back? I am part time, and they are aware that I am only there for 4 months but I dont really want to be losing loads on Petrol expenses because of this job.

I have looked through this forum , and other sites and some people say you get 40p per mile over 10,000 if you keep all receipts etc BUT does that mean i wont get anything if i dont reach 10,000? Im not going to make 10,0000 miles in 3-4months.

Can anyone help please?

Enfieldian

Do your employers pay nothing for the mileage that you do?

You can claim tax relief on 40p a mile UP TO 10,000 and then it drops (25p? not sure)

If your employer pays you 20p a mile then you claim tax relief on the difference, eg 20p x whatever rate you pay tax at.

fengirl_2

Don't forget that if you are not paying tax, then no tax relief is due.
You dont keep receipts, but you keep accurate records of all your business miles. The first journey out in the morning and the last journey home at night do not count as business miles, but any journeys you make between clienst counts as business miles.

TM1976

As none of these places are a permanent place of work you can claim tax relief on all these journeys. as it is business mileage.

Per the HMRC website the definition of business mileage is as follows:

Business mileage is mileage you travel doing your job. It can include travel to a temporary work place but it doesn't include:

• normal travel between home (or anywhere that is not a workplace) and your permanent workplace
• private travel

As fengirl states you need to actually pay tax before you can claim the relief. You don't get 40p per mile, what you do get, assuming you do less that 10,000 miles a year is:

((40p - (What your employer pays you per mile)) x the number of miles you have done in the year) x the rate you pay tax at.

There are websites that will work this out for you if you do a search on the internet.

Chopszuy

See im assuming I'd be going from home anyway, but im not too sure, so should i tell my bosses that i should claim from the office? would that make more sense?

My new bosses said they dont pay anything for Mileage and that we have to claim it back from HMRC, and as ive never done this before i was a little stuck.

Thanks for replying everyone, but one more thing...

The last thing you said TM 1976 says in brackets what your employer pays you per mile, but they dont pay anything towards car journeys and I wish id known sooner otherwise I wouldnt have bothered applying.

TM1976

As all your workplaces are temporary I would say you should claim from home. As you don't acually get anything from your employer you can claim tax relief on the whole 40p, which is worth 8p a mile in tax assuming you pay basic rate (20%) tax. This is up to the amount of tax you have paid in the tax year, so if you paid £200 of tax you can't get any more than £200.

You can make this claim though a P87 as normal but as you don't actually receive anything HMRC may ask you about your job and to see your mileage record. It's still a valid claim though so you should still do it.

fengirl_2

As you are not claiming mileage from your employer, then he doesn't need to be told what you are claiming. Have seen several posts from people doing similar jobs - some people have siad having to pay for motoring costs makes the job uneconomic.

TM1976

Totally agree that the cost of motoring is a real factor for anyone in accepting a job.

At least you can claim tax relief though, where as someone doing an 80 mile round trip commute would have to stand the petrol cost and themselves and get no tax relief at all, even though it had cost them more to get out to work.

Chopszuy

Aaah ok well the current P87 is only for the year ending APril 09 and i'll be in Oz by the time the next form is out :-( I'll see how it goes the next 2 weeks if its costing more than im hoping i'll just quit to be honest, the whole point of getting this job was that I need extra money to save, not spend on petrol .

Thanks for your help guys :-D

swanny78

I'm hoping someone can help me here. I have filled out a self assessment form for the first time (told to as I filled out a P87 form but expenses claim was over £2500).

The amount of business miles I have done is 10165
Total £ claim at 40p a mile for first 10000 and 25p thereafter is £4041.25
Company has already reimbursed me £1268.93
So deficit is £2772.21

What would I receive back from the tax office assuming I pay standard rate tax, the figure online is £609, is this right?

TM1976

If you are claiming for a tax year 07/08 or before yes.
If you are claiming for the year just gone no as the basic rate went down to 20% so you should be able to claim £554.44.