What a kilometre is worth
Most tax authorities publish a flat rate that covers fuel, wear, insurance and depreciation together, so you do not have to apportion the real running costs of the car. The rates below were the published figures at the time of writing and are revised periodically — check the current one before you file.
| Country | Flat rate | Note |
|---|---|---|
| United Kingdom | 45p per mile, first 10,000 miles; 25p after | The threshold is per tax year, not per client. |
| United States | IRS standard mileage rate, per mile | Reset every January; the alternative is actual costs, and you generally cannot switch back and forth freely. |
| Switzerland | CHF 0.70 per kilometre, commonly accepted | Cantonal practice varies; the federal guidance is the starting point. |
| Germany | €0.30 per kilometre for business journeys | A higher rate applies to the commuting allowance in some years. |
The flat rate is usually generous for an older, cheap-to-run car and ungenerous for a new one. If your vehicle is expensive and heavily used for work, actual-cost accounting may be worth the extra bookkeeping — but it means keeping every fuel and service receipt, and a business-use percentage you can defend.
A worked year
A photographer in the UK drives to shoots twice a week, averaging 62 miles each way including the return, for 44 working weeks. That is 88 journeys, 5,456 miles, all under the 10,000-mile threshold: 5,456 × £0.45 = £2,455.
At a 20% marginal rate that is roughly £491 of tax, and at 40% it is £982. It is also, in practice, the single largest deduction many location-based freelancers have — and the one most often reconstructed from memory in March, which is the worst possible way to arrive at a number you may be asked to prove.
What the record has to show
- Date of the journey.
- Start and end point. Postcodes or addresses, not “client”.
- Distance in miles or kilometres.
- Business reason. Client name and what you went to do.
- Whether it was rebilled to the client, because a journey you have already been paid for is not also a deduction against your own income.
The commute is the recurring trap. A journey from home to a place you regularly work is usually private travel, not business travel, even when the place belongs to a client. Travel between two client sites, or from your office to a client, normally qualifies. The distinction turns on whether the destination is a habitual workplace, and it is worth getting right before you claim three years of it.
Keeping it without a spreadsheet
Flowzivo treats a journey as an expense like any other: date, client, distance and rate, with the amount calculated for you and the rate stored so a change next January does not retroactively rewrite last year's figures.
Mark it billable and it waits in the client's record until you next invoice them, so the trip you made in February is on the invoice you raise in March rather than remembered in December. Everything totals into the expense report with the rest of your costs.
Log the expense instead of reading about it
The demo is the real product with example data in it. No account, nothing to install, and anything you add you can keep when you sign up.
No account to look around. Example data, and anything you add is yours to keep.
Questions
Do I need an app that tracks me by GPS?
No. Tax authorities want a contemporaneous record, not satellite evidence. A line entered the same day with the addresses and the reason on it is a contemporaneous record. GPS apps are convenient if you drive constantly and irritating if you do not.
Can I claim mileage and rebill the client for it?
You can do either, not both for the same journey. If the client reimburses you, the money is income and the travel is a matching cost — it nets out. Claiming it again as a deduction is claiming the same cost twice.
What about a bike, or a train?
Bicycle rates exist in several countries and are usually small but real. Public transport is simpler: it is an ordinary receipted expense, so keep the ticket and log the fare rather than working out a distance.
How long do I keep the log?
As long as you keep the rest of your records — commonly six years in the UK, three to seven elsewhere. Because it is the deduction with the least paper behind it, it is the one worth keeping longest.