Tax/Expenses Allowances on Car Mileage

jimmo

Back in the days when I travelled for HMRC we used AA and RAC route planners to plan our journeys but always recorded odometer readings, not trip meter, for our expenses claims. The odometer readings invariably gave higher mileages than the route planners but our claims were accepted.

When I was auditing other people’s claims we used the same route planners to check claims and would not query anything which was marginally above the auto route figure.

In original claims the accepted standard was a log recording the odometer readings at the beginning and end of each business journey and if you do that from now on that really should be acceptable.

However if you want to amend previous claims you run the much greater risk of being challenged and required to produce contemporaneous records which you clearly don’t have.

Its up to you. On your figures I would guess that I would have accepted your amendments to earlier claims but if your particular taxman is a jobsworth or HMRC perceive any other risks in your profile that could tie you up in red tape for a year or two.