UK P87 Mileage Claims 2026/27 — Form 06/26 Deadline

HMRC has updated form P87 for the UK 2026/27 tax year after the Approved Mileage Allowance Payment rate for cars and vans increased to 55p per mile for the first 10,000 business miles. The key practical issue is which version of the form to use.

For a one-off transition, HMRC says it will accept either the 10/23 or 06/26 version of form P87 until 1 November 2026. From 1 November 2026, claims submitted on the old 10/23 version should not be used: use the 06/26 version. HMRC also says the 06/26 version should be used for in-year mileage claims.

P87 is only one part of the claim. The employee still needs eligible business journeys, contemporaneous mileage records, evidence of amounts paid by the employer and a valid route for claiming employment expenses.

Which P87 form should I use?

The transition concerns the form version, not the eligibility test. If the journey is ordinary commuting, if the employer reimbursed the full allowable amount, or if the expense was not necessary for the job, changing the form version does not make the claim allowable.

What is Mileage Allowance Relief?

An employee using their own car or van for qualifying business journeys can compare the approved mileage amount with the amount paid by the employer. If the employer pays less than the approved amount, the employee may be able to claim tax relief on the difference. The claim is not a cash refund of the full mileage amount: it is relief against taxable income, subject to the employee’s tax position.

For 2026/27, the approved rate for cars and vans is 55p per mile for the first 10,000 business miles and 25p for each business mile over 10,000. Motorcycles and bicycles have separate rates. The existing UK mileage allowance guide explains the wider rate and business-journey rules; this page focuses on the P87 form workflow.

When should I use P87 rather than Self Assessment?

HMRC’s postal P87 route is for eligible employment-expense claims within the stated limits. The current GOV.UK guidance says you can claim by post where your total expenses claim for each tax year is £2,500 or less, you are within the applicable time limit and you have paid tax in the year. If the claim is more than £2,500, HMRC says you need to complete a Self Assessment tax return.

You should also use Self Assessment where you already have a return-filing obligation and the expense needs to be claimed through that return. Do not submit the same expense through P87 and Self Assessment. That can duplicate the relief and create a correction problem.

What records should I keep?

Your mileage log should show the date, start and end points, mileage and business purpose for each journey. GOV.UK also says that mileage claims can require the start and end postcodes and a copy of the mileage log for each employment where there is more than one employment.

Keep the following together:

• the 06/26 P87 version used;
• mileage logs split by vehicle and tax year;
• the business purpose and destination for each journey;
• payslips or employer statements showing mileage payments;
• the calculation of approved mileage less amounts reimbursed; and
• any receipts or evidence for other employment expenses included in the same claim.

The record should allow HMRC to see why the journey was business travel and how the claim amount was calculated. A bank statement showing fuel purchases is not, on its own, a substitute for a business-mileage log.

Which journeys qualify?

Ordinary travel between home and a permanent workplace is generally commuting and does not qualify. Business travel can include journeys between workplaces, visits to clients or temporary workplaces and other journeys required by the employment, subject to the detailed rules.

Do not use P87 to claim private mileage, a normal commute or the same running cost twice. The approved mileage rate is intended to cover the relevant vehicle-running costs for the own-vehicle mileage. Company-car fuel and electricity claims follow separate rules.

Calculate the amount before completing the form

Build the calculation from the journey record, not from the amount you would like to recover. First total qualifying business miles for each vehicle and tax year. Apply the approved rate to the relevant bands, then subtract the mileage allowance actually paid by the employer. If the result is negative, there is no shortfall to claim under the mileage-relief method. If there is a positive shortfall, it is the amount to take into the tax-relief calculation, not the amount of cash HMRC automatically sends you.

For example, suppose an employee records 12,000 qualifying car miles in 2026/27 and the employer pays 20p per mile. Using the approved rates stated in this guide, the approved amount is 10,000 × 55p plus 2,000 × 25p, or £6,000. The employer payment is 12,000 × 20p, or £2,400. The illustrative shortfall is therefore £3,600. That does not mean the employee receives £3,600: the tax relief is calculated against the person's taxable income and tax position. The example also assumes that every recorded mile is qualifying business travel and that no other vehicle or policy condition changes the result.

Keep the arithmetic auditable. Show the mileage band, rate, employer payment and difference separately. If the employer uses a different reimbursement rate for different journeys, calculate each group separately. If more than one vehicle is used, do not blend car, motorcycle and bicycle miles into one total. The approved rates and thresholds belong to a tax year, so do not carry a 2026/27 rate into an earlier or later claim without checking the applicable HMRC material.

Employer payments and unreimbursed mileage

An employer can pay less than the approved amount, the approved amount or a different amount under its own policy. The P87 claim concerns the relationship between qualifying mileage and the amount actually paid, not whether the employer's policy feels generous. Obtain a payslip, mileage statement or written employer record showing the payment and the period it covers. If the employer paid a lump sum without identifying mileage, ask payroll how it was calculated before treating it as a mileage reimbursement.

Do not claim the same expense twice. An employee cannot normally use the approved mileage method for a journey and then add fuel receipts for that same own-vehicle mileage. Other employment expenses may have separate rules and can be included only where the form and HMRC guidance allow them. Keep them in separate lines so that a mileage correction does not accidentally alter an unrelated expense claim.

If the employer later reimburses a shortfall or corrects the mileage record, update the calculation. A P87 claim should describe the final eligible position for the tax year, not an earlier estimate. If the employer pays more than the approved amount, the excess can have its own employment-tax treatment; it is not automatically transformed into an employee relief claim.

P87 timing, amendments and multiple employments

Check which tax year the journeys belong to and whether the claim is being made during the year or after it ends. The form transition described above is separate from the statutory time limit for making or correcting an employment-expense claim. Use the current GOV.UK route for the relevant year and retain confirmation of what was submitted. Do not rely on the date you printed a form if HMRC received a different version later.

Employees with more than one employment should keep separate logs and employer-payment evidence. A qualifying journey for one job cannot automatically be assigned to another job, and the P87 route may ask for information about each employment. If one employment already requires Self Assessment, take care not to claim the same mileage through the other route. Ask HMRC or a tax adviser where the employment-expense facts span several jobs or the claim exceeds the postal-route limit.

If HMRC rejects or queries the claim, respond with the journey log, employment details, employer payment evidence, rate calculation and form version. A rejection may concern the journey, the amount, the route, missing records or the tax year rather than the P87 version itself. Correct the underlying evidence before resubmitting. Keep the correspondence and any amended calculation with the original claim.

Common P87 mistakes

The most common mistake is treating a home-to-permanent-workplace journey as business mileage. The next is claiming the approved rate as a cash refund instead of calculating tax relief on the unreimbursed difference. Other errors include using the wrong tax year, applying the first-band rate to every mile, forgetting employer payments, omitting a second employment, submitting P87 while the same expense is already on Self Assessment, and adding fuel receipts to the flat-rate mileage claim.

The form is also not a substitute for evidence. A calendar entry saying “client visit” may not show the start point, destination, distance or business reason. A bank statement may show fuel purchases but not which miles were business journeys. Keep records that another person could understand without asking you to reconstruct the trip months later.

Before submitting, perform four checks: the route is correct, the tax year is correct, the mileage total reconciles to the log, and the employer-payment total reconciles to payroll. Then save the exact form version, calculation and supporting documents. This process is useful even when the claim is small because the same evidence may be needed for a correction or HMRC query.

Frequently Asked Questions

This guide reflects HMRC’s P87 and 2026/27 mileage material checked on 20 September 2026. Use the latest HMRC form and route for the tax year being claimed, and keep the supporting mileage evidence in case the claim is reviewed.

Official sources

• HMRC — Agent Update 147: P87 transition arrangement — form-version transition information.
• GOV.UK — Claim tax relief for your job expenses by post — postal P87 route, limits and process.
• GOV.UK — Claim tax relief for your job expenses: vehicles you use for work — qualifying journeys and vehicle expense rules.
• HMRC — Increasing mileage rates — approved mileage allowance rates.
• HMRC — P87 form — form and claim fields.

This guide is general educational information for UK employees in the 2026/27 tax year. HMRC’s current form, the journey facts, employer records and the taxpayer’s filing position control the claim. It is not a guarantee of tax relief or a substitute for professional advice.