Van expenses: simplified mileage or actual costs

The mileage rates, and HMRC's own example

The rates on the vehicles page, read on 17 October 2026:

• For the 2026 to 2027 tax year, cars and goods vehicles are 55p a mile for the first 10,000 miles, then 25p. Motorcycles are 24p.
• Before 6 April 2026, cars and goods vehicles were 45p a mile for the first 10,000 miles, then 25p. Motorcycles were 24p.

HMRC's note on the increase (opens in a new tab) says the rise from 45p to 55p, on the first 10,000 miles, takes effect from 6 April 2026. Do not reprice a 2025 to 2026 log at 55p.

HMRC's example on the vehicles page, for the 2026 to 2027 rate: 11,000 business miles is 10,000 times 55p (£5,500) plus 1,000 times 25p (£250), so £5,750. That example is HMRC's. It is not a guess at your miles.

Actual costs, and the cost of the van

If you do not use the flat rate, the travel page allows the business part of costs such as insurance, repairs and servicing, fuel, parking, hire charges, vehicle tax, and breakdown cover. The same page still blocks non-business driving, fines, and travel between home and work.

Where a cost is part business and part personal, the expenses overview (opens in a new tab) allows only the business part. HMRC's phone example on that page is a £200 bill of which £70 is business. The same split applies to a van you also use off the tools. The business share comes from the miles you recorded.

Buying the van is a separate line from the fuel.

If you use traditional accounting, the travel page says you claim capital allowances on the vehicle. The annual investment allowance (opens in a new tab) is £1 million. You deduct the full value of a qualifying item in the period you buy it. You cannot claim the annual investment allowance on a car. You also cannot claim the full value of an item you use outside the business. You reduce the allowance for that private use.

HMRC's 2026 helpsheet HS252 (opens in a new tab) says you cannot claim capital allowances on cash basis, except for cars. On cash basis, the travel page says a car is still a capital allowance if you are not on simplified expenses, and every other vehicle is an allowable expense. A van is that other vehicle. Once the van has gone through as an expense, or through capital allowances, the vehicles page says the flat mileage rate is no longer available for it.

From the 2024 to 2025 tax year, the records guide (opens in a new tab) says cash basis is the default. You opt out if you want traditional accounting. Which basis the books are on is a fact from your records, not a guess a draft should make.

HS252's own example of a van, which is an illustration on that helpsheet and not a forecourt price: you buy a van for £10,000 and sell it 3 years later for £4,000. The net cost was £6,000. If you claimed £10,000 of annual investment allowance when you bought it, and the pool balance is nil because you claimed that allowance on everything, the £4,000 you sell it for is a balancing charge added to your profits.

The same helpsheet says items used for business and private purposes go in their own single asset pool. If you do not claim the full cost through the annual investment allowance, the writing down allowance is 18% on the main pool and 6% on the special rate pool. You cannot claim the annual investment allowance on an item you bought for another reason before the business started to use it. In that case the pool gets the lower of the original cost and the market value on the day the business started to use it.

The return these figures feed is the one in the Self Assessment guide. If the van year is also a Making Tax Digital year, the quarterly dates are in the Making Tax Digital guide.

An example of the arithmetic, labelled as an example

The pounds in this section are an example so the two columns are easy to read. They are not your van. They are not a rate HMRC has set. Replace every figure with your own receipts and your own miles.

Example only:

• Insurance £1,000, servicing £500, and fuel £2,000. Those three add up to £3,500.
• Suppose the mileage log shows that 8 in every 10 miles were business miles. The business share of £3,500 is £2,800. That is £3,500 times 0.8.
• Beside that, HMRC's own flat-rate example is repeated so the two methods sit on one page: 11,000 business miles at the 2026 to 2027 rates is £5,750. The flat rate stands in for buying and running that van. The £2,800 does not. On the actual-cost route, the van itself is still to come, as a capital allowance or, on cash basis, as an expense, and only for the business share.

Do not add £5,750 and £2,800 together. They are two different methods for one van. The checker is the comparison, and it still does not produce the figure for the return.

A mileage log

HMRC does not publish a mileage-log form on the vehicles page. The records still have to support the miles you claim. A chat tool can lay out journeys you have already written. The columns in the prompt are a layout for those notes.

Turn these notes into a mileage log. UK English. One line per journey. Columns: date, from, to, business miles, purpose. Do not invent journeys, miles, or places. If the miles are missing, write MISSING. Do not multiply by a rate. Do not decide that a trip from home counts.

Tax year:
Notes:
[paste only journeys you are happy to share]

Explain this mileage sum in plain English. UK English. Use only the miles and the rate I type. Do not look up a different rate. Show the first 10,000 miles and the miles after that as separate lines. If the miles are missing, write MISSING. Do not compare this with actual costs unless I have typed those costs.

Tax year:
Business miles:
Rate for the first 10,000 miles:
Rate after 10,000 miles:

Check the multiplication yourself. HMRC says (opens in a new tab) you keep the records for at least 5 years after the 31 January deadline for that tax year.