What is the approved mileage allowance payment?
Answered 11 March 2026
Here is a comprehensive answer on Approved Mileage Allowance Payments (AMAPs):
What the law says
Definition (s.229 ITEPA 2003)
A mileage allowance payment (MAP) is an amount (other than a passenger payment) paid to an employee for expenses related to the employee's use of a car, van, motorcycle, or cycle for business travel. A MAP is approved — and therefore exempt from income tax — if, for a tax year, the total of all such payments for the kind of vehicle in question does not exceed the approved amount calculated under s.230.
The exemption does not apply if the employee is a passenger in the vehicle, or if the vehicle is a company vehicle.
The Approved Amount (s.230 ITEPA 2003)
The approved amount is calculated as M × R, where M is the number of business miles travelled and R is the applicable rate:
| Kind of vehicle | Rate per mile |
|---|---|
| Car or van | 45p for the first 10,000 miles; 25p after that |
| Motor cycle | 24p |
| Cycle | 20p |
The 10,000-mile threshold for cars/vans applies to the total business miles across the employment and any associated employments in the tax year. The Treasury has power to amend the rates by regulations.
Mileage Allowance Relief (s.231 ITEPA 2003)
Where an employer pays less than the approved amount (or nothing at all), the employee is entitled to Mileage Allowance Relief (MAR) — a deduction equal to the shortfall between the approved amount and the total MAPs received.
HMRC guidance / practice
- MAPs that do not exceed the approved amount are fully exempt from tax; the employer is not required to report them to HMRC, though records of payments and business journeys must be kept.
- Where MAPs exceed the approved amount, the excess is taxable earnings and must be reported on form P11D.
- The excess over the AMAP is also automatically chargeable to NICs as earnings from employment.
- Payments within the AMAP rates are covered by a separate statutory exemption and are not affected by the general expenses exemption introduced in April 2016.
- Only MAPs can qualify as AMAPs. Other vehicle-related payments (e.g. insurance, road tax) are not MAPs and are taxable under normal rules.
Citation sources
Part 4 Employment income: exemptions Chapter 2 Exemptions: mileage allowances and passenger payments Mileage allowances Mileage allowance payments 229 1 No liability to income tax arises in respect of approved mileage allowance payments for a vehicle to which this Chapter applies (see section 235). 2 Mileage allowance payments are amounts, other than passenger payments (see section 233), paid to an employee for expenses related to the employee’s use of such a vehicle for business travel (see sec
The key features of the approved mileage allowance payments (AMAPs) system with regard to employers’ reporting requirements are as follows: where the mileage allowance payments (MAPs) do not exceed the approved amount and therefore all qualify in full for exemption from tax as AMAPs, the employer makes no report to HMRC of the amounts paid - as there’s a statutory exemption from tax (as opposed to a taxable amount that is balanced by an underlying deduction), a dispensation is not appropriate bu
Part 4 Employment income: exemptions Chapter 2 Exemptions: mileage allowances and passenger payments Mileage allowances Mileage allowance relief 231 1 An employee is entitled to mileage allowance relief for a tax year— a if the employee uses a vehicle to which this Chapter applies for business travel, and b the total amount of all mileage allowance payments, if any, made to the employee for the kind of vehicle in question for the tax year is less than the approved amount for such payments applic
Mileage allowance payments (MAPs) are: amounts (other than passenger payments) paid to an employee for expenses related to the use by that employee for business travel of a car, van, motor cycle or cycle Examples of MAPs are at EIM31210 and of the kind of expenses not covered by MAPs at EIM31215. Only MAPs can be exempt from tax as ‘approved mileage allowance payments’, or AMAPs. All other kinds of payment are taxable under the normal rules. MAPs are exempt if, or to the extent that, the total M
Part 4 Employment income: exemptions Chapter 2 Exemptions: mileage allowances and passenger payments Mileage allowances The approved amount for mileage allowance payments 230 1 The approved amount for mileage allowance payments that is applicable to a kind of vehicle is— M × R where— M is the number of miles of business travel by the employee (other than as a passenger) using that kind of vehicle in the tax year in question; R is the rate applicable to that kind of vehicle. 2 The rates applicabl