HMRC AMAP for Self-Employed Tradespeople: Cars, Vans, and Method Choice

Cars: AMAP or actual expenses

If you use a personal car for your sole trader trade business, you choose between HMRC's flat-rate mileage method (simplified expenses: 55p per mile for the first 10,000 business miles, 25p after) or actual expenses (fuel, insurance, road tax, repairs, MOT, depreciation, and finance interest). HMRC raised the flat rate from 45p to 55p on 6 April 2026, the first change since 2011.

The flat rate suits lower-mileage tradespeople with modest vehicles: it is simple, requires only a mileage log, and produces a predictable deduction. A tradie doing 8,000 business miles a year claims 8,000 x 0.55 = 4,400 pounds.

Actual expenses can produce a larger deduction for newer, higher-cost vehicles or for tradespeople driving 15,000 or more business miles a year. You track all vehicle costs and calculate a business-use percentage (business miles divided by total miles) to apply to those costs. HMRC guidance on simplified mileage expenses is at gov.uk/guidance/simpler-income-tax-simplified-expenses.

Vans: the flat rate applies too, with one condition

HMRC's flat-rate mileage method covers goods vehicles (vans) as well as cars, at the same rate: 55p per mile for the first 10,000 business miles and 25p after. This is a common misconception - many tradespeople assume a van is locked into actual expenses. It is not.

The one condition: you cannot use the flat rate for a vehicle you have already claimed capital allowances on, or that you have already put through the accounts as a business asset. If you bought the van and claimed capital allowances on it, you stay on the actual-expenses method for that van (fuel, insurance, road tax, repairs, and capital allowances, apportioned by business-use percentage). Once you choose the flat rate for a given vehicle, you keep using it for that vehicle for as long as it is in the business.

Many electricians and plumbers use a van for tools and materials plus a separate car for client meetings. You can run one vehicle on the flat rate and the other on actual expenses - each vehicle is treated separately, so pick the method that produces the larger deduction for each.

Choosing the method: decide in year one

The choice is made per vehicle, and it effectively locks in year one. Once you use the flat rate for a vehicle you continue with it for that vehicle; once you claim capital allowances or actual expenses for a vehicle, you cannot later move that vehicle onto the flat rate. So the decision at the start of a vehicle's business life is the one that matters.

The practical rule: before you claim anything on a new vehicle, calculate both methods. Newer, higher-value vehicles often benefit from actual expenses in the early years because capital allowances on the purchase price can produce a large deduction. Simple, lower-value, or high-mileage vehicles usually come out ahead on the flat rate. Run both numbers before you commit, because the first claim sets the path.

Which trips count: the wholly and exclusively test

As a sole trader you are taxed on your trade profits, so the test for a deductible trip is whether the travel is incurred wholly and exclusively for the purposes of the trade (section 34 ITTOIA 2005; HMRC guidance from BIM37600). This is the self-employed test - the employee 'temporary workplace' and 24-month rules do not apply to a sole trader's own business travel.

In practice, a tradie travelling from a home base to client job sites, between jobs, and to suppliers is making wholly-and-exclusively business journeys, and that mileage is deductible. Where it gets tested is travel with a mixed or private purpose, or travel between home and a single regular place of business that HMRC may treat as your base rather than a business trip (the point at issue in Samadian v HMRC). If home is genuinely your business base - where you organise the work, quote jobs, and store tools and materials - travel from there to client sites is business travel. Keep a log that records the business purpose of each trip.