Petrol 11 p a mile - tax back?

debtfree1day

Hi

My hubby does quite a bit of mileage with work and has done over the past 5 years. He gets a very poor 11p a mile (although also receives a nice £400 a month - taxable - car allowance)

I understand IR allow 40p a mile, and therefore he can claim back tax on every mile for the other 29p?

Q1 - Does that mean 100 miles for him is £11, but could have been £40 hence, he gets £29 of his earnings tax free?

Q2 - How can we possibly know how many miles he has done each year? His current employer have expense records on a website he can enter, but has only worked for them for 18 months. Previous employers no records, no p60 etc can be found :mad:

Q3 - is there a limit on what I can claim - either in terms of amount or period of time elapsed?

Q4 - How do I claim?

THANKS IN ADVANCE

Lisa

Conor_3

Q1. Yes.
Q2. Keep records? Check the expenses he's been paid? If he knows where he's been, they'll accept the mileage the AA website route finder returns.
Q3 No moeny wise but it lowers to 25p per mile (less what he gets) after 10,000 miles. You can only claim back the previous 6 years but if he's no records, I'd not bother.
Q4 Fill in and submit a P87 Tax Relief for Expenses of Employment. He'll need to deduct the money he's received for mileage from the amount. You can download it here: http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/forms/p87.pdf

Sailorgirl

Agree with Conor - I used to do a lot of business miles and had several hundred quid back from the taxman in the past.
If you do self-assessment online it is dead easy and they pay the money back into your bank account in a couple of days.
If its fairly consistent year on year they'll probably adjust his tax code.

debtfree1day

conor / sailorgirl

thank you very much

been through all the paperwork we can find, and for past two years have accurate record of what he has claimed. For previous years nothing, even though I know he will have done in excess of 5000 miles.

shall i forget this? or could I just claim a large figure like 6000, without having a b reakdown?

thx

lisa

Storm

On the P87 they just ask for the number of work miles, however they do random checks, and if your's is pulled out then you could be in trouble if you can't prove it. The company should surely have records for how many miles they've paid?

You might want to check on the tax board about the car allowance though - this may well be viewed as being why he only gets 11p per mile as the £400 is to cover additional wear & tear on the vehicle, insurance costs etc

On a basis of 5000 miles a year - expenses claimed will be £550, but with the £400 a month on top it comes to £1.07 a mile (83p a mile on £300 a month post-tax estimate)

If they do take the £400 a month into account then he could actually get a tax demand of the difference (on 83p a mile vs the 40p allowed it would be tax on £2150 of additional income = £537.50 @ 25%)

lexhipkins

another question on same theme ....what if it is a fully expensed company car with free private fuel ..

therefore you are paying tax for the benefit in kind of the car and for the fuel ..

if you then drive the car on company business (and log it all appropriately) can you still claim an allowance back on a P87 form for those business miles?

thanks

swebb

Where do you send the completed P87? Is it your employers local tax office and is the deadline the 31st August?

Leixlip1

Send it to your tax office - I've just sent forms for the past 6 years to mine. Staff there were very helpful!