To think 45p isn’t enough even to cover fuel

According to an online calculator my 3 litre Land Rover costs 21p a mile in fuel.

@NewLifter that's a bit bizarre. The first 45p should be tax free, I would raise this with your payroll/HR colleagues

Yoh should only be taxed on the excess (ie 10p per mile) element.

Well I get 55p a mile but after my deductions, there's not much left. Obviously 45p without deductions would be a better deal!

But if you were to have another graph detailing other expenses of running a car, particularly insurance the picture would be quite different. Insurance costs have gone through the roof in this time

Normally the rate is different depending on whether you are doing business miles in your own personal car (typically 45p a mile) or in a company vehicle or when you receive a car allowance on top of your salary when the mileage rate will be lower.
When I had a monthly car allowance payment my fuel per mile was 11p.

Have you ever opted to pay more for a used car with bigger mileage because it “might actually be better for them”? Usually lower mileage cars sell for more (plus go further between services, which have an associated cost).

I get a car allowance with work so my mileage is only paid at something like 15 or 17p a mile as a pure ‘fuel’ cost as they’re already theoretically paying for my car, so it so the c 30p that’s accepted as wear and tear cost and has always seemed fair to me.

The point some people are missing is insurance is likely to be more expensive as you need to tick business mileage rather than commuting if you travel to multiple locations as part of your job.

My company (a very, very large, multi-billion pound company) pay 16p a mile.

No it's not. Mileage up to 45p/mile should't be getting any deductions.

The bit people are missing though is that it gets dumped in with your pay therefore is subject to the same deductions - so you get far less. Given the wear and tear on your car, it's nowhere near enough.

Still needs to cover things like brake pads, tyres, the extra mileage means you'll need to service the car quicker than if you didn't use it for business purposes

42p is the usual rate to cover fuel, wear and tear in the car, insurance, tax etc. unless you're running a very thirsty car I don't see it being an issue. I get 42 p a mile and it more than covers my expenses

So environmentally it's better for it to be lower.

I hate to be that person but I worked for the council in the late 1980s and casual user allowance then was about 70p per mile. I then went on to essential user and got a lump sum plus about 30p per mile. Petrol was then about 40p per litre according to dr Google.

We used to make our wages up with mileage and would drive everywhere.

I’ve always thought this wear and tear stuff was a bit daft. It’s good for cars to be driven about. They’re not going to fall apart because you do an extra couple of thousand miles a year. It might actually be better for them.

I drive a 1.2L 7 seater. It costs about 17p per mile in petrol. So would leave 28p per mile for insurance, wear and tear, servicing etc.

What do you drive that costs more than 45p per mile in fuel alone?

How much does a full tank cost you, and how many miles would you get out of a full tank?

It's been about the same since I first starred claiming mileage about 20 years ago. The rate is set by HMRC though, employers can't pay more without it being taxed.

I don't know why it hasn't been increased?

If you click on the image you can see both axes

Ta daaah - a diagram
I was wondering this a few months ago - surprisingly, in 2011 when the current rate was introduced, petrol was hovering around the £1.40 mark - there's been a few dips and troughs in the intervening period, but it hasn't increased that dramatically since 2011 - I filled my car up about three weeks ago and paid £1.42 - think it's gone a bit higher since then.
this graph is RAC

I agree that it should go up, but it's still generous unless you're driving a very spendy car.

My car costs 15 p per mile on fuel tops. Business insurance costs hardly anything, a few quid a year.

If you get paid mileage at this rate for a few hundred/thousand miles a year, you actually get quite a lot of your fixed costs, that you'd have to pay anyway (tax, insurance, breakdown cover, MOT) paid for by your employer.

Assuming your car does a out 30mpg, your costs are about 23p per mile. Thus, you have 22p per mile to contribute towards wear and tear etc.

It's not fabulous, but it's not a disaster either.

If you are transporting a colleague you can claim upto 5p per Mike extra.

Passenger paymentsIf your employee carries another employee in their own car or van on a business journey, you can pay them passenger payments of up to 5p per mile tax-free.
You will not have to report this to HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) or deduct and pay National Insurance on them either.
There’s no equivalent to Mileage Allowance Relief (MAR) for passenger payments.

I've just looked it up and fuel alone is 15p per mile so that's 30p for every mile to save up

This accounts for all of that. 45p per mile is the generally accepted amount for taxes etc. fuel is no where near that. The rest goes for wear and tear. Insurance you would be paying anyway

The 45p includes that. It should be enough.