HMRC Mileage Rates 2026 in Liverpool: Step-by-Step Log for Airport, Port and Match-Day Shifts

The HMRC mileage rates 2026 give a self-employed driver 55p for each of the first 10,000 business miles in the 2026/27 tax year and 25p for every business mile after that. The hard part for a Liverpool private hire driver is not the rate. It is turning one messy day of airport runs, cruise terminal pickups, match-day surges and personal stops into a log that HMRC will accept.

This guide walks through that conversion step by step, using a full invented Saturday shift. It covers how to code each leg, how to handle the drop from 55p to 25p, and how to bring April-onwards journeys up to the new rate. If you want the Merseyside picture first, start with our Liverpool driver accountancy page.

Key takeaways

• For 2026/27, simplified mileage is 55p a business mile up to 10,000 miles, then 25p. The 55p rate applies from 6 April 2026; 45p applied before that date.
• Your driver app only sees part of your day. Your odometer sees all of it. A good log reconciles the two.
• Code every leg as business (B), private (P) or grey (G). Only B miles go into the running total until grey legs are settled.
• Track your running total weekly so you know the exact mile where 55p becomes 25p.
• Tolls, parking and drop-off charges on business jobs sit outside the mileage rate and are claimed separately.

What is a mixed-day mileage log?

A mixed-day mileage log is a record of one working day that splits the total miles your car travelled into business, private and undecided legs. It ties the odometer total to your driver app data, so every business mile you claim can be traced to a reason.

Which HMRC mileage rates 2026 apply to a Liverpool private hire car?

If you are self-employed and use simplified expenses for your own car, the rate for 2026/27 is 55p for each of the first 10,000 business miles and 25p for each mile after that. The rates are the same across the UK, so Liverpool drivers use exactly the same figures as everyone else.

According to GOV.UK's simplified expenses guidance for vehicles, the 55p rate applies for the 2026/27 tax year, up from 45p before 6 April 2026, while the 25p rate is unchanged. The same page says that once you use flat rates for a vehicle, you must keep doing so for as long as that vehicle is used in your business. That rule matters if you are weighing up a switch to actual costs.

HMRC's Business Income Manual page on simplified expenses for vehicles (BIM75005) explains that the flat rate covers the cost of buying, running and maintaining the car. That means fuel, insurance, servicing, repairs and road tax are already inside the 55p. You cannot add them again on top.

Why one Liverpool shift is harder to log than it looks

A typical Merseyside day pulls a private hire car in several directions. You might start with a pre-booked run out to John Lennon Airport in Speke, come back empty into the city, then pick up cruise passengers near the Pier Head. Later, a home game at Anfield or at the new Everton stadium at Bramley-Moore Dock can bring a short burst of surge pricing and lots of short, stop-start trips.

Each of these creates miles your app never records as a trip, yet many of them qualify under the HMRC mileage rates 2026. The empty run back from Speke, the crawl towards the stadium before kick-off ends, and the loop round to find a safe pickup point all add to the odometer. Mixed in are the private bits: a supermarket stop, a lift for a family member, the drive home with the app off.

There is also a licensing angle. Private hire journeys must be pre-booked, and only hackney carriages can be hailed in the street, a point Liverpool City Council's taxi licensing pages reinforce. For your log, that means business miles at the port or stadium should tie back to booked jobs or to time logged on and available in your app, not to hanging around hoping for a hail.

How should you code each leg of a mixed day?

Give every leg one of three codes: business (B) for miles driven to carry, collect or wait for fares while working; private (P) for anything personal; and grey (G) for legs where the answer depends on your circumstances, such as the first drive from home. Only B miles count towards your 55p and 25p claim.

The tax test behind this is whether a journey is wholly and exclusively for your trade. GOV.UK's travel expenses page for the self-employed says you cannot claim non-business driving or travel between home and work. HMRC's manual on the predictability of places of work (BIM37635) adds that a base of operations can be an area rather than a single place, and that each case turns on its facts. That is why the first and last legs of a driver's day sit in the grey column until your working pattern is clear.

We set out the business-versus-private reasoning in more depth in our step-by-step guide to business miles for Manchester drivers. The table below applies those principles to legs you will recognise from a Liverpool shift.

Step-by-step: turning one mixed day into an HMRC-ready log

This is the routine we suggest to drivers who want to claim the HMRC mileage rates 2026 from a log that takes minutes, not hours. It works in a notebook, a spreadsheet or a mileage app, as long as each step is done the same way every shift.

1. Photograph the dashboard odometer before you leave home and note the time. This is your opening reading for the day.
2. Note each change of status as it happens: app on, app off, personal stop, back online. A dashboard photo or a two-second voice note is enough.
3. At the end of the shift, photograph the odometer again. Closing reading minus opening reading gives your total miles for the day.
4. Download or screenshot the day's trip history from your driver app. Add up the on-trip miles so you know how many miles carried passengers.
5. Split the day into legs using your status notes and code each leg B, P or G using the coding key above.
6. Check that B plus P plus G equals the odometer total. If it does not, find the missing leg before you move on.
7. Add the day's B miles to your running total for the tax year, and note whether that total has crossed 10,000.
8. Apply 55p to business miles up to 10,000 and 25p to every business mile beyond it, then file the photos and app report with that week's records.

Step 6 is the one most drivers skip, and it is the one that protects you. A log where every mile is accounted for is far stronger than a log that only lists business miles, because it shows you thought about the private ones too.

If you want a quick way to turn your business miles into a figure, our mileage calculator applies the current rates for you. It does not replace the log; it simply saves you doing the arithmetic.

Illustrative example: one Saturday shift for a Liverpool driver

This illustrative example uses an invented driver and our own figures. Aisha is a self-employed private hire driver licensed in Liverpool who uses simplified mileage on her own car. On Saturday 17 October 2026 there is a home match in the afternoon and a cruise ship in port in the morning.

Aisha's driver app shows 54 on-trip miles for the day. Her odometer shows 99. Her log explains the 45-mile gap: 27 business dead miles, 9 private miles and 9 grey miles. That reconciliation is exactly what HMRC would expect to see if it ever asked how the claim was built.

If Aisha were well below 10,000 business miles, the day's claim would be 81 x 55p = £44.55. Had she claimed at the old 45p rate, it would have been £36.45, so the new rate adds £8.10 of deduction for this one day. If her accountant later agrees the 9 grey miles are business, the figure rises to 90 x 55p = £49.50.

The HMRC mileage rates 2026 only pay 55p while you are under the threshold, though. Now suppose Aisha started the day with 9,960 business miles already logged since 6 April 2026. The first 40 business miles of the day take her to exactly 10,000 and are claimed at 55p, giving £22.00. The remaining 41 business miles are claimed at 25p, giving £10.25. Her claim for the day is £32.25, not £44.55.

How do you handle the switch from 55p to 25p?

Apply 55p to every business mile until your running total for the tax year reaches 10,000, then 25p to every business mile after that. The switch happens at a specific mile, which can fall halfway through a shift, so note the date and the leg where it happened rather than averaging the rate across the year.

Under the HMRC mileage rates 2026, a full-time Merseyside driver doing regular airport runs can reach the threshold well before the tax year ends, so a weekly total matters. The count is of business miles only, which is another reason not to mix grey legs into it. If a grey leg is later accepted as business, add it on the date it was driven, because that can move the switch point.

We cover the bookkeeping side of the threshold, including mid-month crossings and quarterly totals, in our guide to the 55p to 25p switch at 10,000 miles. The short version is to keep one running total per tax year, reset it on 6 April, and never spread the 25p rate evenly across months.

How do you catch up the 55p for journeys since 6 April 2026?

Recalculate every business mile driven from 6 April 2026 at 55p instead of 45p, up to your first 10,000 business miles. The extra deduction is 10p per mile on those miles. You do not need to rewrite each log entry; you need a clear note showing the old total, the new total and the difference.

Many drivers kept logging at 45p over the spring and summer of 2026 because the rise was announced after the tax year had started. For Aisha, 9,960 business miles logged at 45p from April to mid-October would give £4,482.00. At 55p, the same miles give £5,478.00, an extra £996.00 of deduction. It is a deduction from profit, not cash back, so the tax effect depends on your own rates.

Our guide to catching up the backdated 55p sets out the recalculation in detail, including how to deal with mileage apps that still show 45p. The same method works for a Liverpool driver.

Reconciling your log with your odometer and driver app

The strongest logs we see do three checks every week. First, the odometer movement for the week matches the total of all logged legs. Second, the business miles are never fewer than the on-trip miles in the app, because you cannot carry a passenger on a private mile. Third, the business share of total miles looks sensible for how you work.

For a driver who uses the car only for work and a few errands, a high business share is normal. For a driver who also uses the car for family life, it will be lower. There is no fixed percentage HMRC expects; what matters is that the log explains your number. Keep the weekly photos and app reports for at least as long as GOV.UK requires.

According to GOV.UK's guidance on keeping business records, you must keep records for at least 5 years after the 31 January submission deadline for the relevant tax year. For 2026/27, that deadline is 31 January 2028 for online returns, so your 2026/27 mileage evidence should be kept until at least 31 January 2033. Our guide to mileage log records and bookkeeping covers the format and storage side.

Making Tax Digital and your weekly totals

If your qualifying income is above £50,000, Making Tax Digital (MTD) for Income Tax applies from 6 April 2026, with the threshold falling to £30,000 from April 2027 and £20,000 from April 2028, according to GOV.UK's MTD eligibility guidance. Under MTD you send quarterly updates through compatible software, so a weekly mileage total feeds straight into each quarter. Drivers below the threshold can still benefit from the same habit when they come to claim the HMRC mileage rates 2026 on their return.

Key terms

• Simplified expenses: a flat rate per business mile used instead of claiming actual car costs.
• Business mile: a mile driven wholly and exclusively for your driving trade, such as carrying passengers or moving to the next pickup while working.
• Dead miles: business miles with no passenger on board, such as the empty return from the airport.
• Grey leg: our term for a journey whose treatment depends on your circumstances, held aside until it is decided.
• Running total: your cumulative business miles since 6 April, used to find the 10,000-mile switch point.
• MTD (Making Tax Digital): HMRC's system of digital records and quarterly updates for Income Tax.

Common mistakes and what each can cost

Most mileage problems we fix are not dishonest. They come from shortcuts that feel harmless at the time. An inaccurate claim can lead HMRC to reduce your deduction, ask for extra tax with interest and, depending on how the error happened, consider a penalty.

How UK Driver Accountants helps

We work only with drivers, and we are independent of any ride-hailing app. Our bookkeeping service for drivers can take your photos, app reports and status notes each month, code the legs, keep your running total and flag the week you cross 10,000 business miles. We also recalculate any April-onwards mileage that was logged at 45p.

Fees are fixed and start from £20 a month, with the detail on our pricing page. If you are new to filing, our step-by-step Liverpool tax return guide shows where the mileage figure lands, and our Liverpool private hire accountant FAQ answers the common questions about working with us.

Turning your next shift into a clean log

The HMRC mileage rates 2026 reward drivers who keep good records. At 55p for the first 10,000 business miles, every properly logged dead mile from Speke, the Pier Head or Anfield is worth more than it was a year ago. Start with tomorrow's shift: two odometer photos, a note at each status change and a three-way code for every leg.

If you would like us to check your 2026/27 log, recalculate your spring mileage or set up a weekly routine, contact our driver tax team and we will take it from there.

Last reviewed 9 November 2026 by the UK Driver Accountants tax team

This article is general information and not personal tax advice. Your own position depends on how and where you work, so speak to a qualified accountant before relying on it. If HMRC has opened an enquiry or raised a penalty, we recommend professional representation.