The HMRC mileage allowance just went up. For the first time since 2011, the Approved Mileage Allowance Payment (AMAP) rate has increased, from 45p per mile to 55p per mile for the first 10,000 business miles in a tax year.

Chancellor Rachel Reeves announced the change on 21 May 2026, backdated to April 2026. If you drive to client meetings for work, this is one of the more meaningful announcements to come out of today's statement.

What actually changed

The new rates for cars and vans are:

The change is backdated to the start of the 2026/27 tax year, so it applies from 6 April 2026 onwards. If you've already been logging miles since April, the new rate covers those too.

At the time of writing, the Government hasn't confirmed whether the rate above 10,000 miles is changing, or whether the flat rates for motorbikes (24p) and bicycles (20p) are affected. We'll update this article when that's clearer.

What it means in actual money

Let's say you drive 8,000 business miles a year. That's fairly typical for someone with a regular schedule of client meetings, not extreme by any measure.

Under the old rate, that was worth £3,600 in mileage allowance. Under the new rate, it's £4,400. That's an extra £800 a year. At the basic rate of income tax, that's £160 more back in your pocket from tax relief alone.

If you're closer to the 10,000 mile mark, the difference is more pronounced. At 10,000 miles exactly, you'd be claiming £5,500 instead of £4,500. That's a £1,000 increase in the allowance, worth £200 in tax relief at basic rate, or £400 if you're a higher rate taxpayer.

It's not a fortune. But it's not nothing, either. And the important bit: you only get it if you actually track the miles.

The 15-year freeze

The 45p rate was set in 2011. Since then, fuel prices have gone up, insurance has gone up, the cost of running a car has gone up, and the mileage allowance stayed exactly where it was. For 15 years, the real value of the allowance has been quietly eroding.

This increase doesn't fully close that gap, but it's a meaningful correction. And it's a particularly good moment to start paying attention if you've been one of those people who always meant to track mileage properly but never quite got round to it.

Who this applies to

The mileage allowance applies to anyone who uses their own vehicle for business journeys. That includes:

Additional rules apply for employees, including the temporary workplace and 24-month rules. Check with your accountant or HMRC's guidance if you're unsure whether your journeys qualify.

It doesn't apply to your regular commute. The journey from home to your normal place of work doesn't count. But if you're visiting clients, going to meetings at different sites, or travelling between locations during the working day, those miles qualify.

If your employer pays you a mileage rate but it's less than the approved amount, you can claim tax relief on the difference. If they pay you nothing, you can claim the full 55p.

The tracking problem hasn't changed

A higher rate is good news. But it doesn't solve the underlying issue that stops most people from claiming what they're owed: actually recording the miles.

HMRC expects a contemporaneous mileage log. That means dates, destinations, business purposes, and distances, recorded at or near the time of the journey. A rough estimate scribbled together the week before your tax return doesn't really meet that standard.

Most people know this. Most people also don't do it consistently. Not because they're lazy, but because logging every journey manually requires effort at the exact moment you're least likely to have spare capacity: when you're getting in the car and driving to the next meeting.

Where your calendar comes in

If you use Google Calendar or Microsoft Outlook and your meetings have addresses in them, you're already sitting on most of the data HMRC needs. The dates are there. The destinations are there. The business purpose is the meeting itself. The only missing piece is the distance, and that's one routing calculation away.

TravelSync was built to block travel time in your calendar automatically, so you don't get double-booked while you're driving. But as a side effect of calculating every route, it logs every journey. Distance, date, origin, destination. All of it, automatically, without you doing anything extra.

When you need your mileage report, it's already there. Pick a date range, export a CSV, and you've got a complete log with the HMRC rates already applied. At the new 55p rate for the first 10,000 miles, and 25p thereafter.

If you drive an electric vehicle, TravelSync applies the HMRC Advisory Electric Rate (7p per mile for home charging, flat, with the 15p public-charging rate available in Settings) instead.

A good moment to start

The rate increase is backdated to April 2026. If you connect your calendar now, TravelSync rebuilds the last two years of journeys, so the miles you've driven since April are already in the log.

A higher mileage rate means every untracked mile is worth more than it was last month. If you were already leaving money on the table at 45p, you're leaving more at 55p.

Worth noting: TravelSync's mileage export is a practical tool, not a certified tax document. Review it with your accountant and confirm it meets your specific situation. But it's a significantly better starting point than a spreadsheet you haven't opened since February.

Start tracking mileage at the new rate

TravelSync connects to your Google or Microsoft calendar, blocks real drive times before and after physical meetings, and logs every journey automatically. Export a clean mileage report with the new HMRC rates already applied, whenever you need it.

Try it free, no card needed. Start your free trial.