NHS Mileage - welcome to bizarro land

chrichard

My wife works for the NHS and travels a fair bit, she's been told by some of her colleagues that she can claim tax relief on her mileage expenses. Looking through her payslips there is an unclear breakdown of mileage payments, and from what I can see they are taxed as income. The payments come in under the headings: reg user allowance, alternative user m, reg user tas, business miles tasnt, pub trans rate etc. - these are all payments for the same thing, often grouped under different headings in the same month. The headings all have rates attached to them but they seem to change from month to month as well.

Has anyone any experience in tackling something like this or work for the NHS and know what any of this rubbish means? I understand that with a p87 form the goverment will provide tax relief on mileage payments of less than 40p per mile, in NHS land does this apply when they are paying public transport rate for portions of a claim?

TM1976

chrichard wrote: »

My wife works for the NHS and travels a fair bit, she's been told by some of her colleagues that she can claim tax relief on her mileage expenses. Looking through her payslips there is an unclear breakdown of mileage payments, and from what I can see they are taxed as income. The payments come in under the headings: reg user allowance, alternative user m, reg user tas, business miles tasnt, pub trans rate etc. - these are all payments for the same thing, often grouped under different headings in the same month. The headings all have rates attached to them but they seem to change from month to month as well.

Has anyone any experience in tackling something like this or work for the NHS and know what any of this rubbish means? I understand that with a p87 form the goverment will provide tax relief on mileage payments of less than 40p per mile, in NHS land does this apply when they are paying public transport rate for portions of a claim?

What matters is what your wife is doing mileage wise.

If she's travelling by car she can claim tax relief on the difference between that and 40p/25p per mile regardless of how the NHS term it.

If she's actually travelling on public transport she can claim tax relief on the difference between her actual public transport cost and what the NHS have paid her.

The easiest way is to add up the total expenses amount she has had and divide it by the number of miles she has done, then just apply that through the P87.

Mikeyorks

chrichard wrote: »

Has anyone any experience in tackling something like this or work for the NHS and know what any of this rubbish means?

The NHS provide details to their employees on request and in Staff Handbooks etc?

I suspect the existing payment is being taxed because it already exceeds the HMRC guidance. Additionally the regular user allowance is probably an extra lump sum. So it certainly doesn't sound to be 'payments for the same thing'. You need more detail before you even consider a P87. As NHS rarely short change on expenses.

TM1976

The NHS does indeed pay a bewildering array of mileage variations, some of which are above and some are below the 40p per mile rate. There are also some lump payments. Not really sure why you would get them all together, the best way I can see to do it is to average our the per mile rates and it'll come to a net expense at the bottom of the P87. If you get a positive amount you should be able to claim some tax relief.

LemonLady

I was just browsing online regarding NHS mileage rates and came across this post. I do a fair bit of travel as part of my job in the NHS so I shall try and clarify for you what your wife SHOULD be getting paid.

Firstly, there are 2 different types of rate she could be getting paid. Regular user rate and standard user rate. Basically if she travels more than 3500 miles a year as part of her job OR if she does less than that but half or more of her working week is spent away from her base, then she will be entitled to the regular user rate. This means that every month she will receive a lump sum payment in her wage. For me who drives a car that is a 1300cc, this means I get a lump sum payment of £52.16 per month and I then get 36.9p per mile upto 9000 miles per year, and then 20.1p per mile for anything over 9000 miles per year. Personally speaking, the Trust I work for doesn't split this on a pro rata basis (although some Trusts do)... so I can travel 2000 miles a month for 4 months and get the higher rate for those 4 months.... but once I pass 9000 miles i'll then get the lower rate for the remainder of the year. I suspect that unless her mileage is VERY high and she travels over 9000 miles a year, then she will be getting in excess of HMRC guidelines.

Anything under 3500 miles per year, or you don't spend alot of time away from base is classed as 'standard user rate' which means she won't get a lump sum payment but on a car 1001 - 1500 cc pays 47.3p upto 3500 miles and 20.1p thereafter

Hope this helps a little

taxing

Nothing to add here but do have a question - I thought that the NHS had a leasing scheme of sorts for car users (or maybe it's essential car users) - was a wee while ago I came across it so may have changed since.

I seem to recall that there was an interaction between the leasing costs(which were underwritten by the NHS) & mileage rates paid but I may have mis-remembered all this. Anyone??

Regards.

LemonLady

I don't really know much about the lease schemes other than they are locally agreed and it depends on who you work for. Some Trusts give you a fuel card - others pay you locally agreed expenses

To the OP - i'm sorry for jumping on your thread but can someone tell me if i'm missing something here?

Say for instance I have travelled 18,000 miles in the last tax year for work purposes? (Its probably very close to this - I need to check my claim forms). HMRC say 40p per mile upto 10,000 miles, and 25p per mile after that? Working on the figures I quoted a couple of posts ago am I working this out correctly?

9000 miles at 36.9 a mile = a difference of 0.031 per mile 9000 x 0.031 = £279
1000 miles at 20.1 a mile = a difference of 0.199 per mile 1000 x 0.199 = £199
8000 miles at 20.1 a mile = a difference of 0.049 per mile 8000 x 0.049 = £392

Total £870 - £625 (which is the annual regular user lump sum I get) = £245 - is this the amount of money I should get back?

Maths really isn't my strongest point! Carol Vorderman I ain't!

ceeforcat

The amount you would get back on the above figures would be £49 i.e 20% of £245. I assume you are a basic rate taxpayer.

santy02

can some one tell me about food tax relief ?

LemonLady

ceeforcat wrote: »

The amount you would get back on the above figures would be £49 i.e 20% of £245. I assume you are a basic rate taxpayer.

I am indeed a basic rate tax payer - I assumed however that mileage allowances were tax free *confused*

ETA - I *think* I understand it now! D'oh! However, can I claim for the full £870 as the lump sum payment is subject to tax and NI through PAYE?

00ec25

LemonLady wrote: »

I am indeed a basic rate tax payer - I assumed however that mileage allowances were tax free *confused*

ETA - I *think* I understand it now! D'oh! However, can I claim for the full £870 as the lump sum payment is subject to tax and NI through PAYE?

the regular user lump sum is indeed a taxable payment and you have already paid tax on it via your payroll. It is irrelevant to the mileage calculation. The lump sum is the same as a one off bonus payment it is simply extra taxable pay, the only condition being you have to do mileage above the threshold to "earn" it

on the mileage calculation itself your maths is fine, but as you now realise you claim £[EMAIL="870@20%"]870 x 20%[/EMAIL] = £174 as the refund due for being paid a rate below the 40p/25p