The same choice in six countries: whether you can use your own running costs instead of the published rate, what each agency published for 2026, and what the claim needs either way.
United StatesStandard mileage rate · 2026
United KingdomApproved mileage amount · 2026-27Source: GOV.UK AMAP rates (2026-27)
CanadaReasonable per-kilometre allowance · 2026Source: Government of Canada 2026 automobile allowance rates
AustraliaCents per kilometre method · 2026-27
New ZealandKilometre rates · 2025-26Source: IRD kilometre rates 2025-26
South AfricaPrescribed rate per kilometre · 2026-27| Country | Figure in force | The alternative | Who decides |
|---|---|---|---|
IRS United StatesStandard mileage rate · 2026 | 72.5 cents per mile January 1–June 30, 76 cents per mile from July 1 | Actual expenses × business-use share, claimed on Schedule C | The taxpayer, per vehicle: the first year decides which options stay open |
HMRC United KingdomApproved mileage amount · 2026-27 | 55 pence per mile for the first 10,000 business miles, 25 pence per mile after Source: GOV.UK AMAP rates (2026-27) | Self-employed only: actual costs with capital allowances | The employer for a reimbursement; a sole trader or partnership chooses flat rates or actual costs |
CRA CanadaReasonable per-kilometre allowance · 2026 | 73 cents per kilometre for the first 5,000 km, 67 cents per kilometre after, 77 cents per kilometre and 71 cents per kilometre in the territories Source: Government of Canada 2026 automobile allowance rates | Self-employed only: actual costs × business kilometres | The employer sets the allowance; self-employed filers deduct actual costs on Form T2125 |
ATO AustraliaCents per kilometre method · 2026-27 | 91 cents per kilometre, capped at 5,000 work kilometres per car | Logbook method: actual costs × work-use share, with written evidence for each cost | The taxpayer, per car and per income year |
IRD New ZealandKilometre rates · 2025-26 | 120 cents per kilometre for the first 14,000 km, 37 cents per kilometre after. Diesel vehicles are on their own published rates: 130 cents per kilometre and 38 cents per kilometre. Source: IRD kilometre rates 2025-26 | Actual running costs × business-use share with a logbook | The claimant, per vehicle: one method for as long as you own the vehicle |
SARS South AfricaPrescribed rate per kilometre · 2026-27 | ZAR 4.95 per km on up to 8,000 business km (the simplified rate) | The cost scale: fixed cost ÷ total kilometres, plus fuel and maintenance | The taxpayer: the simplified rate is an option only where actual costs are not claimed |
Figures as published by the IRS, HMRC, the CRA, the ATO, the IRD and SARS for the year in force. The US and UK figures are per mile; Canada, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa publish per kilometre. Each figure links to the publication it came from.
The six countries this site covers all price business driving with a published rate per mile or kilometre, and every one of them offers a route built on your own running costs instead — but who may take it, and when, differs. The United States and Australia let a claimant choose each year, the United States between the IRS standard mileage rate and the actual expense method, Australia between cents per kilometre and a logbook. New Zealand offers three routes for the same vehicle: a logbook with the IRD kilometre rates, actual costs, or 25% of running costs when no logbook is kept. In the United Kingdom and Canada the published figure is mainly a benchmark for employer payments — HMRC's approved amount and the CRA's reasonable per-kilometre rate — while self-employed filers in both countries claim actual costs, and in South Africa the SARS prescribed rate is an option against a travel allowance where actual costs are not claimed. Which side pays more always comes down to the same two numbers: what a mile or kilometre costs you, and how much of your driving is for work.
Whichever agency publishes the rate, the comparison turns on what the published figure covers and what a claim on real costs would require. Six countries, one test.
| Dimension | Published rate | Actual costs |
|---|---|---|
| What the published figure covers | Running costs are bundled in, so nothing on that list can be claimed again | Everything you can evidence, cost by cost, at your own business-use share |
| What you have to keep | A trip log with date, destination, purpose and distance | The same log, plus receipts, invoices and lease or loan documents |
| What decides the winner | Cost per mile or kilometre driven, compared with the rate divided by your business-use share | The same test, read the other way: does the real cost per unit clear that line? |
| How long the choice lasts | Usually a year at a time, but the lock-ins differ by country and by whether the car is leased | Usually until the vehicle or the flat-rate election changes |
| What it suits | An average car, moderate costs, the simplest defensible claim | An expensive or heavily used car, and a driver who already keeps every cost record |
The table above is the whole first-screen answer: what each agency publishes, what a claimant can use instead, and who decides. The rest of this page is how each of those six systems works in practice, starting with the two that offer a genuine annual choice.
The US is the clearest version of the choice. The standard mileage rate pays a flat amount per business mile — 72.5 cents per mile for January 1 to June 30, 76 cents per mile from July 1 — and bundles fuel, oil, repairs, tires, insurance, registration and depreciation into it. Actual expenses take the same costs from your records and multiply them by the share of the year's miles that were business.
The trap is the timing rather than the arithmetic. For a car you own, the standard rate has to be chosen in the first year the car is available for business use; start with actual expenses and the standard rate is gone for that car. A leased car keeps whichever method you start with for the whole lease period.
The ATO's cents per kilometre method pays 91 cents per kilometre for the 2026-27 income year, capped at 5,000 work kilometres per car. It needs no receipts, but it does need a record of how the kilometres were worked out, and the rate covers every car expense including the decline in value — nothing else can be claimed on top.
The logbook method claims the work-related share of all car expenses instead. It needs a valid logbook covering a continuous 12-week period that represents normal use, odometer records for the income year, and written evidence for the costs. A logbook that stays representative can generally support claims for up to five years, which is what makes the heavier setup worth it for a high-cost car.
The CRA figure is a reasonableness test for employer allowances rather than a deduction method: 73 cents per kilometre for the first 5,000 km, 67 cents per kilometre after, 77 cents per kilometre and 71 cents per kilometre in the territories. An allowance based only on business kilometres, paid at or below that rate, can be received tax-free when the other conditions are met — the rate is the ceiling, not a guarantee.
A self-employed driver does not use the allowance figure as a deduction. Motor vehicle expenses are pro-rated by business kilometres: business kilometres ÷ total kilometres × the year's costs, claimed on Form T2125. Business parking and supplementary business insurance are the two items that can be claimed in full rather than pro-rated.
For an employee using their own car, HMRC's approved mileage amount is the benchmark: 55 pence per mile for the first 10,000 business miles, 25 pence per mile after. An employer can pay that amount without it becoming taxable income for the employee, and where the employer pays less, the employee can claim tax relief on the shortfall rather than deducting the running costs themselves.
A self-employed sole trader or partnership has a choice the employee does not: use flat rates for the vehicle — the same figures for cars and goods vehicles, and the published motorcycle rate — instead of the actual costs of buying and running it. Flat rates cannot be used for a vehicle that has already been claimed as capital allowances or included as an expense, parking is claimable on top, and once a vehicle is on flat rates it stays there while it is used in the business.
New Zealand publishes kilometre rates after each tax year ends on 31 March, and the rates include depreciation: claim them and you cannot take a separate depreciation deduction, or a depreciation recovery, on that vehicle. The rates run in bands: 120 cents per kilometre for the first 14,000 km, 37 cents per kilometre after. Diesel vehicles are on their own published rates: 130 cents per kilometre and 38 cents per kilometre.
There are three ways to allocate vehicle costs. Keep a logbook and use the kilometre rates; add up actual costs, with records that show the reason for each business trip and its distance; or, if no logbook is kept, claim 25% of the running costs — with the caveat that the percentage may have to be substantiated. A vehicle that is not petrol, diesel, hybrid or electric has to use the actual costs method, and whichever method you use, it stays with the vehicle for as long as you own it.
SARS publishes a rate per kilometre that may be used against a travel allowance or advance where actual costs are not claimed. For 2026-27 it is ZAR 4.95 per km on up to 8,000 business km (the simplified rate). It is an option at the taxpayer's: it applies where no other vehicle compensation is paid beyond parking and toll fees, and the Act limits it to business distances below 8,000 kilometres for the year of assessment.
The alternative is the cost scale: the vehicle's fixed cost divided by the total kilometres driven that year — pro-rated when the vehicle is used for business for part of the year — plus fuel and maintenance costs where the taxpayer carried them. No fuel cost can be claimed if the employer bore it, and no maintenance cost if a maintenance plan covers it. Either way, the business distance has to be substantiated by a logbook.
The published rate is a price per unit. Your own cost per unit driven is total costs divided by total distance, and only the business share of that is deductible. So the actual-cost side wins only when your cost per unit driven is higher than the published rate divided by your business-use share.
At a 70% business-use share, for example, the US second-half rate of 76 cents per mile has to be beaten by a car costing more than about $1.09 for every mile it drives. That is a genuinely high bar, which is why the standard rate wins for most drivers — and why the answer changes for an expensive car used mostly for work.
Run the same division in whichever currency applies to you. The units change; the test does not.
No agency here accepts a reconstruction at filing time in place of a record made as you drove. What differs is how much evidence sits behind the distance figure.
The order matters: the first two steps produce the figures the rest of the decision uses.
Not as such. It is an IRS method, and the figure is set from the IRS's own cost study. Other countries publish the same shape of number: HMRC's approved mileage amount in the UK, the CRA's reasonable per-kilometre rate in Canada, and the ATO's cents per kilometre rate in Australia. What travels between them is the idea of a published rate per unit; the amount does not.
No. Each agency publishes its own figure, and a claim has to use the figure for the country and year it belongs to. Using the IRS rate where HMRC applies would misprice the claim in the claimant's favour or against it, depending on the currency and the year.
The United States, Australia and New Zealand all let a claimant choose, and self-employed drivers in Canada claim actual costs as the normal route rather than the published rate. In the UK, employees are reimbursed under the approved mileage amount while a self-employed sole trader or partnership chooses flat rates or actual costs — but not both for the same vehicle. In South Africa the prescribed rate is an option against a travel allowance, and the alternative is the cost scale, which is only available where actual costs are not claimed.
The kilometre rates stand in for the running costs and depreciation of the vehicle: claim them and you cannot take a separate depreciation deduction on it, and you have to stay on the same method for as long as you own the vehicle. Keep a logbook so the rates can be applied to real business kilometres; without one, the claim is limited to 25% of the running costs, and the percentage itself may have to be substantiated.
No. It is the simplified rate, an option for a travel allowance where actual costs are not claimed, and the Act limits it to business distances below 8,000 kilometres for the year of assessment. The alternative is the cost scale: the vehicle's fixed cost divided by its total kilometres, plus fuel and maintenance where the taxpayer carried those costs — and no fuel or maintenance claim at all where the employer bore them or a maintenance plan covers the vehicle.
Yes. A published-rate claim needs the trips; an actual-cost claim needs the trips plus the receipts. The one thing that changes is how much history a log can cover: in Australia a valid logbook that stays representative can generally support claims for up to five years.
Cents per kilometre is a simplified method, and the cap is what keeps it simple: the ATO accepts a set rate for a limited distance without receipts for running costs. Drive more than that for work and the logbook method is the route that can claim the extra kilometres, because it is built on your actual costs and business-use percentage.
The US and UK rates are per mile; the Canadian, Australian, New Zealand and South African rates are per kilometre. That matters when you compare them: a per-kilometre rate is lower than the equivalent per-mile rate for the same journey, which is why the numbers should be read in their own unit rather than side by side.
The standard mileage rate, the actual expense method, and the restrictions that decide which one a US driver may use.
The flat-rate option for self-employed drivers, the vehicle types it covers, and the rule that a vehicle on flat rates stays on them.
The business-kilometre pro-ration for self-employed filers, with the items that are claimed in full.
The 5,000-kilometre cap, the record the method needs, and the expenses the rate already covers.
The 12-week logbook, the five-year validity while use stays representative, and the requirement to have a valid logbook to use the method.
New Zealand's three routes (logbook with the kilometre rates, 25% of running costs, or actual costs), the depreciation the rates already include, and the rule that one method stays with the vehicle for as long as you own it.
The prescribed rate for business travel against an allowance, published only for the distance the taxpayer substantiates with a logbook.
The full US comparison, including the break-even table and the first-year election.
What HMRC's approved amount shows next to what an employer actually paid.
The Australian choice between the capped rate and a logbook claim.
The New Zealand rates in force, banded by distance.
The South African prescribed rate and what it covers.
Why a self-employed Canadian claims actual costs rather than the allowance figure.
The record every one of these systems is built on.
Open the calculator, rate guide, or template that matches the side of the comparison you want to act on next.