HMRC Mileage Log Requirements for the Self-Employed (2026/27)

HMRC does not publish a mandatory mileage log form. It does expect a contemporaneous record of business mileage to support any claim made with the flat rate. In practice, that means a running log with the date, start and end points, the business reason and the miles for every journey. The log is kept for as long as the tax records are kept, and the yearly total feeds the car, van and travel figure on a tax return or a Making Tax Digital quarterly update.

This guide sets out what the rules say, what a usable log contains, which journeys count, how the 2026/27 rates work and how long the records are retained. It also covers petrol receipts, a common point of confusion when mileage is claimed.

TL;DR

• HMRC guidance says a contemporaneous record of business mileage should be kept to support any claim at the flat rate.
• Each log entry should show the date, start and end location, the business purpose and the miles driven.
• For 2026/27 the car and goods vehicle rate is 55p per mile for the first 10,000 business miles and 25p after that. Motorcycles are 24p.
• Fuel receipts are not needed for the same vehicle once the flat rate is used, but parking and public transport can be claimed on top.
• Business records are normally kept for at least five years after the 31 January submission deadline, and longer if an enquiry is open.

Table of Contents

• What HMRC expects from a mileage record
• What a mileage log should contain
• Which journeys count as business mileage
• 2026/27 mileage rates and a worked example
• Petrol receipts and other travel costs
• A mileage log template that works
• How long to keep mileage records
• Mileage and Making Tax Digital quarterly updates
• Our perspective
• Keeping travel records with Ledgery
• FAQ
• Sources

What HMRC expects from a mileage record

The starting point is the HMRC Business Income Manual. It states that it is important to maintain a contemporaneous record of business mileage to support any claim using the flat rate. Contemporaneous means the record is made at or near the time of the journey, not rebuilt from memory when the tax return is due.

The GOV.UK overview of simplified expenses says the same thing in plainer terms. A self-employed person who uses simplified expenses must keep records of business miles for vehicles over the year. At the end of the tax year, the flat rates are applied to the total, and the result goes into the expenses total on the Self Assessment return.

There is no prescribed format. A paper notebook, a spreadsheet, a mileage app or a column in bookkeeping software all work, provided the entries are complete and made as the year goes on. What matters is that the record could be handed to HMRC and each claimed trip could be understood without further explanation.

Simplified expenses are open to sole traders and to business partnerships with no companies as partners. They cannot be used by limited companies or by partnerships that include a limited company.

What a mileage log should contain

GOV.UK guidance on vehicle expenses lists the details that a record of each journey should capture: the date, the start and end locations (with postcodes where the guidance asks for them), the business reason and the distance. The GOV.UK page on vehicles used for work is written for employees, but the same details apply as a sensible standard for the self-employed. The Tax Confident guidance for small businesses also says to record where you went, the date, why you travelled and the miles when using a personal vehicle.

A practical log has these columns:

The purpose column carries the most weight. An entry such as “work” says nothing a reviewer can test. An entry that names the client, the task and the place can be matched to an invoice, an email or a diary. Odometer readings are optional but useful, because two readings that agree with the vehicle’s service history are harder to dispute than a round number.

Weekly totals and repeat trips

Some self-employed people make the same trip many times, such as a daily drive between two sites. Each trip can still be a row, or a repeated journey can be recorded with a clear date range and the number of trips, as long as the dates and the miles per trip are visible. The aim is a record that supports the yearly total line by line.

Which journeys count as business mileage

The test comes from HMRC’s guidance. The mileage rate is only available for journeys, or an identifiable part of a journey, that are wholly and exclusively for business purposes. It is not available for private journeys such as travel from home to work, or for journeys that serve both a business and a private purpose.

In day-to-day terms:

• Travel from home to a permanent workplace is ordinary commuting and is not claimable.
• Travel to a temporary workplace, between sites, or to meet clients can generally be claimed.
• A trip that combines a client visit with a private errand needs the business part to be identified. If it cannot be separated, the journey does not qualify as a whole.
• Travel for non-business driving is never claimable.

For a person who works from home, a trip from the home office to a client is normally a business journey. A person with a fixed unit or shop who drives there each morning is commuting. The line is less clear for people who work at several locations, and the log helps by showing the reason for each trip. More detail on separating personal and business costs is in the Ledgery guide on personal and business expenses for sole traders.

2026/27 mileage rates and a worked example

From 6 April 2026 the flat rate for cars and goods vehicles is 55p per business mile for the first 10,000 miles in the tax year and 25p per mile after that. This is up from 45p. Motorcycles are 24p per mile. These figures are on the GOV.UK simplified expenses vehicles page.

GOV.UK gives this example. A person who drives 11,000 business miles claims (10,000 × 55p) + (1,000 × 25p) = £5,750.

A smaller case shows the same arithmetic. With 3,200 business miles in a car, the claim is 3,200 × 55p = £1,760. The log supports that number only if its rows add up to 3,200.

Staying with the flat rate

The choice of method has consequences. Once a business adopts the mileage rate for a vehicle, it must be applied consistently from year to year for as long as that vehicle stays in the business. No actual running costs or capital allowances can be claimed for that vehicle. Anyone choosing between the flat rate and actual costs should decide before the first claim, not at the end of the year.

Petrol receipts and other travel costs

A frequent question is whether petrol receipts can be claimed alongside mileage. For the same vehicle, they cannot. The flat rate is a single figure intended to stand in for the running costs of the vehicle, so fuel, insurance, repairs and servicing are not claimed separately for it. Under the rule above, no actual expenditure can be claimed for a vehicle once the flat rate is used.

This means petrol receipts are not part of the evidence for a mileage claim. They remain useful only if actual costs are claimed instead. In that case, GOV.UK lists allowable vehicle costs such as insurance, repairs and servicing, fuel, parking, hire charges, vehicle tax and breakdown cover. Fines, penalty charges, non-business driving and travel between home and work are not allowed.

Other travel costs are treated separately. GOV.UK states that all other travel expenses, such as train journeys, and parking can be claimed on top of vehicle expenses when simplified mileage rates are used. Those items need receipts or tickets. A scanned image of a parking ticket or rail receipt is a simple way to keep them. Ledgery’s article on receipt scanning with OCR explains how that works.

A mileage log template that works

A template does not need to be elaborate. The columns in the table above are enough, and a spreadsheet with a total row and a rate cell is a common choice. Some people add a column for passengers carried and one marking whether the trip has been claimed, which helps when several people share a vehicle or a log is reviewed part-way through the year.

A few habits make a template reliable:

1. Write the entry on the day of the journey, or at the end of the week at the latest.
2. Record the odometer reading on 6 April each year so the annual total can be checked against it.
3. Use a different row for each vehicle, and keep one log per vehicle.
4. Name the client or the job in the purpose column.
5. Save a copy of the finished tax-year log with the other records for that year.

A record built in one sitting in January from a diary is weaker than one kept as the year goes. Keeping it up to date also spreads the effort across twelve months instead of a single evening.

How long to keep mileage records

Mileage logs are business records and follow the same retention rules. For a person who sends a tax return on or before the deadline, GOV.UK says records should be kept for at least 22 months after the end of the tax year, and that self-employed people must keep business income and cost records for longer.

The longer period is in HMRC’s Compliance Handbook. For tax-year returns, a person carrying on a trade or business keeps records until the latest of several dates. These include the fifth anniversary of 31 January following the year of assessment, the completion of any enquiry into the records, or the close of the enquiry window without an enquiry being opened.

For a 2026/27 return, the 31 January filing deadline falls in January 2028, so the five-year rule points to 31 January 2033. Many people keep a log for six years to stay clear of the cut-off. The format can be digital, provided the record can be produced in readable form.

Mileage and Making Tax Digital quarterly updates

Making Tax Digital for Income Tax changes how the totals are reported, not what evidence is held. In each quarterly update, a person with trading income provides totals for expense categories, including car, van and travel expenses. The mileage claim therefore appears as a running total in that category.

In practice, the log must be kept up to date quarter by quarter. A person who only fills in the log once a year has no reliable figure to report in the first three updates. A quarterly routine works well: total the log at the end of each quarter, multiply by the rate (taking care with the 10,000-mile threshold across the whole tax year) and enter the amount in the car, van and travel category.

Keeping business spending apart from personal spending also makes the quarterly totals easier to prepare. Ledgery’s guide on whether a sole trader needs a separate bank account covers that point.

Our perspective

Mileage is one of the most common claims in self-employed tax returns, and one of the easiest to get wrong. The cause is rarely the rules. It is timing: the log is left until the end of the year, and the detail is gone by then.

We built Ledgery around the idea that tax records should be captured as they happen. Receipts are scanned from a photo, income and expense records are stored in one place, and quarterly updates for HMRC are generated from those records. Deadline alerts remove the need to remember when each update is due.

That approach fits mileage well. The log can stay in whatever form suits the vehicle and the work, and the resulting total sits alongside parking receipts, fares and other costs in the same record. Under Making Tax Digital, the whole set of figures is needed four times a year, not once, and a platform that brings bookkeeping, receipt scanning, Open Banking feeds and filing together reduces the number of places where something can be lost.

The filing stays in the user’s control. Nothing is sent to HMRC without the user submitting it, and an accountant can be given access where that helps.

The Ledgery Team

Keeping travel records with Ledgery

For sole traders and property owners, Ledgery combines AI-powered receipt scanning, income and expense record storage, invoice creation, deadline reminders and quarterly HMRC update generation. The first quarter is free, after which a monthly or annual subscription applies through the Simple, Grow or Pro plans. Ledgery supports sole trader and property income. It does not support limited companies or VAT. Details are on the Ledgery plans page.

Parking tickets, rail receipts and fuel receipts for actual-cost claims can be photographed once and stored with the rest of the year’s records, ready for the next quarterly update.

FAQ

Does HMRC require a specific mileage log format?

No official template is required. HMRC guidance asks for a contemporaneous record of business mileage, so any format works if it is made at the time and shows enough detail. The date, start and end points, business purpose and miles are the usual columns.

Can petrol receipts be claimed as well as mileage?

Not for the same vehicle. The flat rate replaces actual running costs, so fuel is not claimed separately once it is used. Parking, tolls and public transport fares can still be claimed on top. Fuel receipts matter only when actual costs are claimed instead of the flat rate.

Does the drive from home to work count?

No. Travel from home to a permanent workplace is commuting and is not business mileage. Journeys to clients, between sites or to a temporary workplace can generally be claimed, provided they are wholly and exclusively for business.

How many miles can be claimed at 55p?

For 2026/27, the first 10,000 business miles in a car or goods vehicle are paid at 55p per mile. Miles beyond that are 25p. The 10,000-mile threshold applies across the tax year.

How long should a mileage log be kept?

At least 22 months after the end of the tax year for an on-time return, but self-employed records are normally held longer. HMRC’s compliance guidance points to five years after the 31 January filing deadline, or until any enquiry is complete.

Sources

• HMRC Business Income Manual BIM75005: simplified expenses for motor vehicles
• GOV.UK: Simplified expenses if you’re self-employed
• GOV.UK: Simplified expenses, vehicles
• GOV.UK: Expenses if you’re self-employed, car, van and travel
• GOV.UK: Vehicles you use for work
• Tax Confident: How to keep records as a small business
• GOV.UK: How long to keep your records
• HMRC Compliance Handbook CH14530: record retention
• GOV.UK: Making Tax Digital for Income Tax update notice

Recommended

• Cash vs accruals: HMRC guide for UK sole traders
• Personal vs Business Expenses: What Sole Traders Can Claim
• Separate Bank Account for a Sole Trader: Do You Need One?
• Bank Charges and HMRC: What Self-Employed People and Landlords Can Claim