Mileage / Fuel Relief claims & confusion!

[gavinmann]

Hi All.

I am wondering if someone could give me some guidance on claiming back fuel / mileage costs. Below hopefully should give you an idea of the situation I am in......

In August 2010 I started a new job (with the same company) where I was given a company car (actually a hire car but paid for direct by my company). The car was provided for personal and business use, but I was only able to claim mileage on business use. My company paid me back 12 pence per mile on all business mileage.

I was under the impression that I could claim back 40 pence per mile (up to 10,000) miles per each tax year. This was on the advise of an HMRC agent, and this link... http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/incometax/relief-mileage.htm (Tax relief for fuel when using a company vehicle
). Again, from the advice of HMRC I completed a P87 form, and sent this along with a copy of my P60. A number of weeks later HMRC wrote back to me to advise that the claim had been rejected due to the fact that the P87 form was used to claim cost for employees who use there own car. No other details were given in the letter. I can't find any other forms on HMRC website in relation to my issue, but the website does state that I am able to claim.

Please could someone kindly advise me on this matter? I am waiting for a HMRC technical agent to call me back to discuss, but I still think that I am not in the wrong here! Am I getting confused between mileage relief and fuel relief? Or is this the same thing? Should I have used the P87 form? If not could someone shed some light?

All help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

[RAL]

40p/25p (for 2010/11) is if you are using your own vehicle for work. As you are already provided the car, so you can not claim the difference between mileage (fuel ) 12p and authorised mileage rate.

[Gnome]

Just to add to RAL's comment, HMRC publishes specific mileage rates for use in Company Cars - these are now reviewed on a quarterly basis (I think the next review is due at the end of November).

Unlike the rates published for own car use (where you can claim further relief from HMRC if your employer pays less than the authorised rate) you cannot claim the difference from HMRC.

However, you can make a claim if the actual cost of fuel used for business purposes is more than the amount you are reimbursed by your employer, but at 12p per mile that won't be easy to prove.

Details here: http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/cars/fuel_company_cars.htm