P87 Mileage tax relief

StayFree

hi,
i am a complete newbie, this is my first post so please forgive any etiquette blunders.
I have a question about P87 tax reclaim on mileage. I have done this only once before, last year, but had been with my employer only part of a year so did not hit the £2,500 threshold for allowable expenses. This year i was paid just over 3k allowable expenses due to a lot of work related travelling but only get 23p per mile expenses after the first 4000 miles so claiming the difference would be well worth it BUT over £2,500 it hits self-assessment form territory, which i really am not sure I want to venture into. So, my question is - can I just fill in the form claiming the tax relief for just part of the year, therefore keeping me below the threshold? any advice much appreciated.

00ec25

why are you afraid of doing a tax return? Are you hiding something?

at the end of the day you are free to make no claim, partial claim or claim every penny you can get away with. Entirely your free will to choose what you do.

Dazed_and_confused

To be honest it could be argued completing a P87 is actually more complicated for most people than doing a self assessment return.

As you have done a P87 before a simple approach would be to complete the P87 and then just use the relevant figure (final amount you are claiming tax relief on I think) on the employment part of your return. I think on self assessment you are only required to provide a single figure of expenses you are claiming, not the whole breakdown like the P87 asks for.

As an employee you will likely find HMRC will have populated the form with your P60 details so the only other things you might have to enter are any savings interest you have received and enter your bank details so any refund due can be paid into your bank account.

Remember HMRC have a year from you filing the return to ask any questions they have about your return so you should keep details of how you arrived at your mileage expenses figure in case they ask about it at a later date.

StayFree

00ec25 wrote: »

why are you afraid of doing a tax return? Are you hiding something?

at the end of the day you are free to make no claim, partial claim or claim every penny you can get away with. Entirely your free will to choose what you do.

thanks for your reply - no, nothing to hide, just only ever paid tax through PAYE via my employer and had heard that self-assessment forms are complicated.

Dazed_and_confused

You only have to fill in the sections which apply to you, if you can manage a P87 I'm sure you will find a Self Assessment return fairly straightforward.

StayFree

Thank you for your advice, that's really helpful. Reassured by the fact that self-assessment form may be simpler - I had assumed they must be otherwise given the annual press coverage regarding delays to people filing them.