Travel Expenses Advice Needed

[wiltsman]

I've been invited to visit a company to give my opinion on their new website. I am going to be paid for my input, also I can claim up to £20 in travel expenses.

The return journey to their premises is approx 85 to 90 miles, and I drive a supermini type of car.

I want to be fair in what I claim, I don't want to seem greedy, on the other hand I don't want to undercharge, because I know travel expenses are not just based on the price of petrol alone.

Can anyone give me some advice please?

[vallaw]

They're not over-generous - that's not even 25p per mile which would be quite low for a casual user mileage allowance.

[chelle7272]

I would claim the maximum. We use the same rates as the local authority for travel expenses, which is 40p per mile, they're offering less than that.

[VHG]

My wife gets about 45p a mile for casual rates when booking mileage. And she works for a charity.

Why do they set a limit of £20, surely it should be based on what it costs, after all they are asking YOU to go there to do work for THEM.

[mccfluff]

HMRC rates are currently 45p per mile for the first 10k which is for fuel, business insurance fair/wear and tear

i would charge them 45p and point them to the HMRC website
http://www.hmrc.gov.u.../mileage-expenses.htm

[factor-fiction]

Claim the full £20.

Companies typically pay around 40p a mile so that would be around £35. That figure is low as many companies have not ib=ncreased the rate anything like in line with fuel costs.

HMRC use 40p a mile, That's a stingey figure as it hasn't changed since 2002. The AA will probably say the true cost is nearer £1 a mile.

Even if you just claimed for petrol that would probably cost aroudn £15.

[mccfluff]

factor HMRC are paying 45p now and adjusting their co car mileage rates every 6 months

[factor-fiction]

Thanks- yes it seems the rate went up in April this year, but before that it was 40p and had been for many years. It's good that they are going to review it every 6 months going forwards.

[JonnyBoy12]

I would just like to mirror all the advice given on here. 25p per mile is positively prehistoric and I was paid more than that almost 20 years ago. I work for a charity doing unpaid work and they pay me 40p per mile, so you should claim more than that.

I would suggest a minimum of 45 pence per mile.

[Prudie]

Please note that in my branch of the civil service we can now only claim 25p a mile (reduced from 40 about 2 years ago)

[wiltsman]

Thank you all for your advice. It looks like I will be claiming the full £20.

I was surprised to see that Prudie working in the Civil Service had her claim per mile reduced by 15p per mile in the past two years. That doesn't seem fair!