Claiming Mileage Expenses - Not Self Employed

Wookieman

Hi all

Firstly, apologies if a thread has already been opened around this but couldn't find one. Always used MSE but rarely post so pretty new to this.

I have worked for the same company for around 10 years now as an employee. I regularly travel to different sites which I can claim mileage expenses for through our Payroll, however 2 years ago they decided to reduce the amount they paid from 45p per mile to 40p per mile to be in line with our Swiss arm of the business.

They also cover hotel costs (they book them for us) and meal expenses which are always paid in full.

I understand I can make a claim for the 5p per mile difference from HMRC but I think I might have to do a Self-Assessment :undecided as my overall expenses reach above £2,500, which I've never done before having always been employed by a company.

My mileage for 2013/2014 was 6,547 and for 2014/2015 was 5,780 using a personal car (insured accordingly of course ) which means the difference equates to nearly £600!!! That's a good amount of money.

Truth is, I have no idea what I'm doing, if I can get it back and if so how?!?

I spoke to someone at HMRC who sent me a UTR for signing up to the online Self-Assessment, but having done this and asked for an activation code (which I'm waiting for), I have absolutely no idea where to go from here or if I should even bother.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Savvy_Sue

You don't 'get it back', you get back the tax you've paid on the 5p per mile. So if a 20% taxpayer, that's 20% of £600.

Wookieman

Apologies, I'm confused.

Currently, if I do a trip of 254 miles, I get paid £101.60 from work at 40p per mile. Before they changed how much they paid I would get £114.30 paid directly to me by my work.

I thought that as they Govn. had set the rate at 45p I would be able to claim for that difference from what I get and what the Govn set it at.

This is not an area I'm very clued up on so apologies for the questions.

Thanks

zygurat789

Wookieman wrote: »

Apologies, I'm confused.

Currently, if I do a trip of 254 miles, I get paid £101.60 from work at 40p per mile. Before they changed how much they paid I would get £114.30 paid directly to me by my work.

I thought that as they Govn. had set the rate at 45p I would be able to claim for that difference from what I get and what the Govn set it at.

This is not an area I'm very clued up on so apologies for the questions.

Thanks

Just think about it. Why would the rest of us (the government has no money of its own just our taxes) pay you just because yourfirm won't pay you a certain rate.
The government has fixed a rate, if you are paid more than this amount you have to declare it as extra (taxable) income and if you receive less than this rate then you can deduct it from your taxable income which would mean you would pay 20p less tax for every £1 below the set rate.
You can also claim 5p per mile for a passenger.
All this is in your own car.

Wookieman

Ah, yep, I get it now.

I'm actually quite embarrassed :embarasse.

Onwards and upwards as they say.

Thanks for clarifying.

zygurat789

Wookieman wrote: »

Ah, yep, I get it now.

I'm actually quite embarrassed :embarasse.

Onwards and upwards as they say.

Thanks for clarifying.

You're welcome.
Don't be embarrassed we see lots who have the same initial concept, you actually twigged faster than most.

quietriot

zygurat789 wrote: »

You can also claim 5p per mile for a passenger.

You can get it paid by the company tax-free, but if they don't pay you can't claim relief on it from HMRC.

zygurat789

quietriot wrote: »

You can get it paid by the company tax-free, but if they don't pay you can't claim relief on it from HMRC.

That's why I started a new paragraph so that there would be no confusion.

suzie246

Please be patient, it's been a long day trying to figure out how HMR have made a simple straight forward claim into a big question mark. Here goes.
In the tax year 2014/2015 my employers gave me an Expense Summary, along with a rebate form for £700 to reimburse fuel costs for a 6 month period. I decided to ring HMR as I hadn't heard back and they were happy to process it quicker over the phone as, they wouldn't look at my form until November! A shock in its self. [any way] he then worked out it would be nearer £1000 [GREAT].
He rang me back and said
" because I had payed tax when I shouldn't of, I believe to be £384.40? I would have that returned to me "
[BUT] this is the confusing part.
instead of my original £700, I am now being sent a cheque for just £263.00.
He did try hard to explain but confused me further. I was given the impression it made a difference if I was a tax payer/non taxer.
Reading above are they paying me back the tax I've payed and not the mileage costs?
I was working zero and VERY unsociable hours and on min wage. I consequently had to give my job up as a district carer because I could no longer substitute the fuel in advance to do my job.
At the moment I'm feeling a little cheated by my Ex employer for only paying 0.23p and then expect me to look after their clients at my own expense.
Any help appreciated in advance

zygurat789

suzie246 wrote: »

Please be patient, it's been a long day trying to figure out how HMR have made a simple straight forward claim into a big question mark. Here goes.
In the tax year 2014/2015 my employers gave me an Expense Summary, along with a rebate form for £700 to reimburse fuel costs for a 6 month period. I decided to ring HMR as I hadn't heard back and they were happy to process it quicker over the phone as, they wouldn't look at my form until November! A shock in its self. [any way] he then worked out it would be nearer £1000 [GREAT].
He rang me back and said
" because I had payed tax when I shouldn't of, I believe to be £384.40? I would have that returned to me "
[BUT] this is the confusing part.
instead of my original £700, I am now being sent a cheque for just £263.00.
He did try hard to explain but confused me further. I was given the impression it made a difference if I was a tax payer/non taxer.
Reading above are they paying me back the tax I've payed and not the mileage costs?
I was working zero and VERY unsociable hours and on min wage. I consequently had to give my job up as a district carer because I could no longer substitute the fuel in advance to do my job.
At the moment I'm feeling a little cheated by my Ex employer for only paying 0.23p and then expect me to look after their clients at my own expense.
Any help appreciated in advance

Read posts 4,5 & 6 above. These apply to you and your situation as I understand your description of it.

CeePeeBee

morning all, sorry to jump in on the back of somebody's thread.

I'm trying to understand Zygurat's post explaining the situation. My example is slightly different (but I'm sure technically it's the same - my head just hasn't twigged yet).

In previous tax years I've been getting 45p per mile for 10k, and 25p per mile for anything over 10k.

However, this year, they've changed this. I get a car allowance (which I always have) and 16p per mile regardless of the mileage.

I can't find anything relating to car allowance in terms of the mileage calculator on the Gov site, so I'm wondering whether that even pays into it. Obviously a drop of 45/25ppm to 16ppm is quite large, so I'm wondering whether I can claim at all?

Sorry if I'm being slow...I could blame it on it being a Monday..albeit it's Tuesday!

Cheers in advance