Every business mile you drive in your own vehicle can be claimed at the HMRC approved mileage rate, but only if you have the records to back it up. A mileage claim form is the document that captures those records, whether you submit it to your employer for reimbursement or retain it as evidence for a P87 tax relief claim.
Below is a free mileage claim form template that meets HMRC requirements. You can copy it into a spreadsheet, print it, or use it as a reference for the fields your mileage app should be capturing.
What Fields Must a Mileage Claim Form Include?
HMRC does not prescribe a single official template for mileage records. However, the information you log must be detailed enough to survive an enquiry. Since October 2024, P87 claims require supporting evidence including postcodes for journey start and end points. In practice, every compliant mileage claim form needs these fields:
- Date — the day the journey took place
- Start location — the postcode or address you departed from
- Destination — the postcode or address you arrived at
- Business purpose — a brief note explaining why the journey was necessary (e.g. “client meeting”, “site visit”, “training course”)
- Miles driven — the distance for that individual journey
- Cumulative total — a running count of business miles in the current tax year, so you can track the 10,000-mile threshold where the rate drops from 45p to 25p
Optional but useful columns include vehicle registration, passenger names (relevant if claiming the 5p passenger supplement), and the amount claimed in pounds.
Free Mileage Claim Form Template
Copy the table below into Google Sheets, Excel, or print it on paper. Each row represents one business journey.
| Date | From (Postcode) | To (Postcode) | Purpose | Miles | Cumulative | Rate | Amount |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 07/04/2026 | M1 1AA | M60 0AB | Client meeting — Apex Ltd | 12 | 12 | 45p | £5.40 |
| 08/04/2026 | M1 1AA | LS1 4AP | Supplier review — Leeds | 42 | 54 | 45p | £18.90 |
| 10/04/2026 | M1 1AA | SK9 5AF | Staff training day | 18 | 72 | 45p | £8.10 |
| 14/04/2026 | M1 1AA | WA1 1DP | Site inspection — Warrington | 24 | 96 | 45p | £10.80 |
Period total: 96 miles — £43.20
Remember to adjust the rate column once your cumulative total passes 10,000 miles. From that point, subsequent miles are claimed at 25p rather than 45p. Add a subtotal row at the end of each month or quarter, depending on how frequently you submit claims to your employer.
How Employers Use a Mileage Claim Form
Employers are not legally required to use a specific mileage form, but they are required to keep records of Mileage Allowance Payments (MAPs) they make. Most employers create an internal expense form that employees complete after each journey or at the end of each month.
A typical employer workflow looks like this:
- Employee fills in the mileage claim form with date, postcodes, purpose, and miles
- Line manager reviews and approves the claim
- Payroll reimburses the employee, usually at 45p per mile or the employer’s own rate
- Records are retained for at least six years in case of an HMRC enquiry
If an employer reimburses at less than the HMRC approved rate — for example, 25p per mile instead of 45p — the employee can claim the 20p shortfall as Mileage Allowance Relief. That is where the P87 form comes in. For a deeper look at what happens when employer rates fall below the HMRC threshold, see our guide on employee mileage reimbursement below the HMRC rate.
Employers who manage a fleet of staff using their own vehicles often find that a standardised mileage claim form reduces disputes, speeds up approvals, and creates a clear audit trail. The template above works equally well as an internal employer form — simply add columns for line manager signature and payment date if your payroll process requires them.
Using Your Mileage Log to Support a P87 Claim
The P87 is the form employees use to claim tax relief on unreimbursed work expenses, including mileage. You are eligible if your total expenses are £2,500 or less and you do not already file a Self Assessment return.
Since October 2024, HMRC requires supporting evidence with every P87 submission. For mileage claims, this means a copy of your mileage log showing the postcodes of journey start and end points and the reason for each trip. A vague summary is no longer sufficient.
Your mileage claim form doubles as this evidence. When completing the P87, you transfer the annual totals:
- Total business miles driven in your own vehicle
- Total amount your employer reimbursed (if any)
- The shortfall you are claiming relief on
HMRC then adjusts your tax code so you pay less tax going forward, or issues a refund. Keep your mileage records for at least five years after submission.
It is worth noting that from December 2024, P87 claims can be submitted online through HMRC’s Government Gateway using their iForm system. Postal submissions are still accepted but must use the latest version of the official form. For a full walkthrough, see our P87 form step-by-step guide.
Why Manual Forms Fall Short
Paper forms and spreadsheets technically satisfy HMRC requirements, but they come with practical problems that cost you time and money:
- Forgotten journeys — if you do not log a trip on the day it happens, you are likely to forget it entirely. HMRC expects contemporaneous records, meaning entries made at the time of the journey or shortly after.
- Missing postcodes — the new P87 evidence rules require postcodes. Filling these in from memory weeks later is error-prone.
- No cumulative tracking — manually updating a running total across hundreds of rows invites arithmetic mistakes, especially around the 10,000-mile threshold.
- MTD compliance — from April 2026, sole traders earning above £50,000 must keep digital records under Making Tax Digital. A paper logbook alone will not meet this requirement.
A GPS mileage app like Tripbook solves every one of these problems. Tripbook records each journey automatically with GPS-verified start and end points, calculates your running total, and exports HMRC-ready reports in CSV or PDF format. There is nothing to remember and nothing to reconstruct.
Switching From a Template to Tripbook
If you have been using a spreadsheet template and want to move to automatic tracking, the switch takes less than a minute. Download Tripbook from the App Store, enable GPS tracking, and every journey is captured from that point forward. You can tag trips as business or personal with a single swipe, add a purpose note, and export a complete mileage log whenever you need one.
For employees, the exported report contains every field your employer’s expense form requires. For sole traders, it provides the digital record that Making Tax Digital demands. Either way, you spend less time on paperwork and claim every mile you are owed.
For more on HMRC record-keeping rules, read our business mileage record-keeping guide. To understand how the 45p and 25p rates work in detail, see our HMRC mileage rate 2026 explainer.
