Mileage and Travel
Travel is usually the largest single claim a locum vet makes and it is the one most often overstated. The rules are not complicated, but they depend on facts that change as your working pattern changes.
On This Page
- The Basic Position
- How to Claim
- Keeping Records That Stand Up
The Basic Position
Travel between your business base and a temporary workplace is business travel. Travel between home and a permanent workplace is ordinary commuting and is not allowable, and that remains true even where you are self-employed.
For a locum moving between different practices, most journeys are to temporary workplaces. For a locum who has covered the same practice three days a week for two years, the position is much less clear and HMRC may well take the view that the practice has become a regular workplace.
How to Claim
- Simplified mileage rates
- A flat rate per business mile covering fuel, insurance, servicing and depreciation. At the time of writing the approved rates for cars are 45p per mile for the first 10,000 business miles in the tax year and 25p per mile after that. Check the current rates before relying on them.
- Actual costs
- Claiming the business proportion of real vehicle running costs plus capital allowances. More work, and sometimes better for an expensive vehicle covering high mileage. Once you choose the mileage basis for a vehicle you must keep to it for that vehicle.
- Other travel
- Train, parking and tolls on business journeys are claimed at cost. Parking fines are not allowable however unavoidable they felt.
Keeping Records That Stand Up
A mileage log needs the date, the journey, the purpose and the miles. A phone app that records journeys automatically is fine provided you categorise them promptly. A figure estimated in January for the whole year is exactly the kind of claim that does not survive an enquiry.
Last reviewed 3 August 2026. [REVIEWER DETAILS REQUIRED BEFORE PUBLICATION]
Sources
Frequently Asked Questions
I work at the same practice most weeks. Can I claim the mileage?
Where is my base if I work from home?
Get Your Travel Position Checked
If a large part of your claim is mileage to one regular practice, it is worth reviewing before HMRC does.