OllyK

Anybody familiar with making a claim to the tax office for mileage expenses? As I understand it, your company can pay you up to 40p per mile, however if they don't you can claim back the difference from the tax office. Seems a bit of a money for old rope situation to me, does anybody know if that's actually how it works or if not how much you can actually claim?

MK5

no idea - i'm happy with the 40p a mile i get (its only 2 miles round trip to do the banking!!)

urban

iTrader: (1)

You're allowed a maximum of 40p per mile for the first 10,000 miles.
Its 25p thereafter.

If you're employer pays less, you may claim tax relief on the difference.

Do a search on HMRC. It'll all be on there.

Shaun

OllyK

I'd be happy with 40p but I only get 12p which doesn't even cover petrol.

SJ_Skyline

Olly, I've had to do this for the last couple of years (21p/mile allowance).

It's actually tax relief on the difference you claim back so it's never as much as you expect (I just had mine through for last tax year, £90 on about 2000 miles) It all depends on how far you have driven, how much you have been reimbursed and what tax code you fall under.

You need to download and complete this form and send it to your tax office. They may come back to you and ask for additional evidence to support your claim. I keep a spreadsheet of all my business journeys: distance, amount claimed, who I was visiting, etc. A copy of this has been adequate.

OllyK

Sure, I appreciate that and from what I have been able to find - Employees using own vehicles for work: examples: no mileage allowance payments it suggests that the relief would be:
40p x miles - 12p x miles.
i.e. the difference between what I get and what I could get. But is that the actual amount payable to me or is that the sum I then get some kind of tax relief on charged at some other percentage / rate.

Working on the straight difference I was expecting about £1000 back, today I got a cheque for £7.77

OllyK

Yup - that's the form I filled in. But seeing as I get 12p a mile and have done close on 5000 miles I was expecting a bit more than £7, it was hardly worth the effort in filling the form and the postage.

SJ_Skyline

The chances are then that your tax code is taking the mileage into account and you're paying less tax per month to offset this. I did roughly 2000 miles in FY06 and the same in FY05. In 05 my rebate was about £450 and last year only £90. My tax code has changed so I suspect that this is factoring in the mileage...

Either that or the exchequer is robbing me blind - and they wouldn't do that now would they?

OllyK

Great! 12p a mile and get a whole £7 back, going to have a chat with FD about getting the basic rate upped I think!

urban

iTrader: (1)

While on the subject on HMRC.
If you have a company pension scheme which you're in and you're on the higher rate of tax, then make sure and claim back the higher rate of tax on the contributions.

Makes quite a bit of difference to your tax code.
The first few times, they'll refund the difference, but then when they see you're not trying to pull a fast one, they offer you a higher allowance on you're tax code to cover the difference.

Shaun

Devildog

You need to qualify that Shaun.

If you are in a company scheme, it is usual practice for the contributions to be deducted before tax, in which case nothing to claim back. You are of course correct if the deductions are made from taxed income.

You should definately be claiming tax back on contributions paid from taxed income.

Gutmann pug

It's worth bearing mind that if they change your tax code and you don't do the miles you could end up owing them

BigGT3Fan

I also heard a vicious rumour that this was being phased out ? We all claim the difference between the paultry 12p we get paid by work and the 40p the IR will give you, i.e. 28p x 16000 miles for me would work out at a nice amount TVM.

However, I heard this will be stopped next year?

Anyone else confirm?

Alex

urban

iTrader: (1)

Sure, sorry. Correct me if this is completely wrong please.

The way it works here is that the company pays 5% of salary into the scheme.
I also pay 5% of salary into the scheme.
The pension company claim the basic tax relief on my behalf, and I claim the difference between this and the higher rate directly from the Tax man.

In the last couple of years they've just upped my tax code to cover the relief.

Shaun

urban

iTrader: (1)

But this is when people get the wrong end of the stick.
They'll only give you tax relief on the value.
So, the value is 0.28 * 10000 = £2,800
and 0.13 * 6000 = £780
Total is £3,580 which will be approx £895

Shaun

BigGT3Fan

sorry, expressed the calc wrong, but I was still told the IR are to remove this ?