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

[Carryoultheway]

Never mind the extra costs of taking clients places

You need to speak to an accountant then as there are tax offsets you should be eligible for on the difference between the 16p and the max allowable rate. This is banded, so if I recall correctly could be up to 60 odd pence per mile up to a certain annual mileage.

Not sure of the latest rules, so you'd need to check.

You can claim a tax rebate on mileage though can you not? I did community care from 1996 to 2010 and claimed a healthy tax rebate every year for mileage

In the early 90's I was volunteering for a charity.
My mileage allowance was 45p a mile. I thought it was very generous. Fuel was around 40p per litre. I was, quite briefly, an umemployed single parent. That 45p per mile helped me keep my car on the road. It was, I know, generous.

I would not expect the allowance to be as generous now BUT .... NO CHANGE for well over 30 years and a 4 fold increase in fuel cost, with similar increases for maintenance and servicing is fucking ridiculous.

£1.80 would equalise it. 90p at least would be fair(ish)

45p doesn't anywhere near cover it.

Can you show your working out there @mumyes ? As various posters have shown on this thread that (despite it not going up for so long) still does cover all the costs, and is virtually 3x the cost of the actual fuel.

Get the bloody tories out.

Totally agree with this part though.

You can only claim a rebate if you are paid less than 45p per mile.

Say you are paid 30p, you can do a self assessment for the extra 15p to get tax relief on it (not the same as getting an extra 15p from HMRC, but you will save some money depending on your tax rate):

Your insurance is significantly higher if you properly notify your insurance company because you need to indemnify for business use, equipment, carrying passengers at work and extra mileage you drive. Using a car for business is different than domestic use.
The extra miles do depreciate your car value. Most essential car users when I worked for Leeds Council put on around 6 to 7k a year. So about 35k more when trading in after 5 years. You replace tyres, increased services due to reaching mileage limits, and the driving is around towns and cities as that is the job you are doing so increased stress on car and lower mpg.
Of course the real test is why don't they provide pool cars for these functions. Because it's cheaper to pay mileage, which indicates they are pushing a cost onto their employees, which they are.

It's not as generous as it used to be, but it's definitely enough.

It's nonsense to say it isn't even enough to cover fuel. Fuel is no more than 15-25p per mile depending what you are driving.

This.
We get 11p, and it's all rural and town driving. Mostly short journeys. Lots of stopping and starting, lots of being stuck in traffic and plenty of going round and round the various one way systems, looking for somewhere to park.
It's nowhere near enough to cover actual petrol costs.
It's set by the Local Authority, though. For most of the last year, my company added an extra 5p, but that was stopped a few months ago, as, they said, petrol prices have now stabilised.

Thank you to the PP that posted the graph and the mileage costs.
I'd recently kind of worked it out by putting in £10, when I got the 50miles left warning, and I got 60miles for that. So, I'd get £6.60 back, and pay the other £3.40 myself. So, fuel for work visits costs me about £17 a week. I think, in theory, that means some colleagues are working for less than minimum wage.

Insurance is not significantly higher, it's £20 a year sort of level, if that.

Well in that case your car is not available for work purposes. They can get you a hire car.

16p is the fuel only rate, so only relevant for company cars, or similar, eg if you receive a car allowance to cover the cost of buying and running a car.

No shit, Sherlock!

No shit, Watson!

Your insurance might be significantly higher but mine certainly wasn't when I first added business cover, it was about £20 iirc

Or course it's cheaper to pay mileage than have pool cars sitting around for most of the time mevr mind the logistical issies

It's often no difference in price

This. I always put in E5 and get a pretty bad MPG. But 45p still works out okay.

I process payroll for a care company & they have carers who have regular mileage claims of £250-300 per month - that's an additional 6,000 to 7,000 mikes a year after accounting for holidays. They cover very rural areas so it's also a lot of driving on back roads & around small villages.

The average mileage claim is around £150 per month but that's still an additional 3,500 miles a year just for work.

So carers can rack up a fair amount of miles depending on the area they cover.

Exactly this it depends on the needs of the service users mine travel far.

High mileage business driver here - I agree that the 45p a mile doesn’t cover the actual additional running costs.

For anyone saying it is subject to deductions - it’s not - it should be paid without tax

In terms of additional costs from using my car for business purposes - my insurance would be around £600 a year cheaper if I was just social, domestic and commuting. I buy premium tyres as otherwise cheap ones wouldn’t last. And lastly, I have to have my car serviced twice a year - with any other wear and tear costs on top (more miles means more general wear and tear)

In addiction to this, as I technically own my car with car allowance, there is a larger depreciation on the vehicle with it being higher mileage

Even more of a kick in the teeth is once you’ve done 10,000 miles in that tax year, you go down to 25p a mile! Do our cars suddenly cost less to run after that first 10,000 miles ??? Laughable really!!!

The average cost of a litre of petrol is £1.49.

= £6.64 per gallon.

Assuming your car does 40 miles to the gallon, that’s 16.6p per mile.

So 28.4p per mile covers wear & tear, insurance etc.

That (imo) is adequate.

It’s tax free for the first 10k miles.

Absolutely correct.

I think it depends on if you are paid for the time travelling between calls as well as the 45p a mile.
45p a mile in addition to an hourly wage then that's one thing, 45p a mile and not getting anything in between calls is another.
I seem to remember there being a couple of reports over the last few years where carers weren't getting paid for travel time between calls but I can't seem to find any definitive information on whether it's down to the company or an actual requirement.

I'm pretty sure its tax free how ever many miles you drive

How much do you pay for insurance altogether? That seems a really high additional amount just for adding business use

Are you a tradesperson?

I would say it is about subsistence level.

Remember that the 45p should only cover a proportion of your tax/maintenance/insurance costs because you also have the car for personal use.

If you have a fairly low spec small car like a Ford or Vauxhall it is Ok. If you have a luxury car like an Audi or Merc it probably wouldn't cover it.