Sole trader mileage and vat

Ellabobbin

Good evening,

I wonder if someone can confirm the correct procedure for the vat treatment of mileage expenses for me.

A new sole trader with very low business mileage has voluntarily vat registered (most sales to registered persons). Since private mileage will heavily outweigh business mileage I believe that it will be beneficial to claim on the mileage basis (under new simplified expenses ruling) rather than a proportion of actual costs.

Can he recover vat on the HMRC business advisory rates in the same way that a company can recover vat on employee mileage payments?

Many thanks

BIG WAL

I'm sure the answer is yes - but is it worth the effort ? Input VAT is on the advisory fuel rates and last
time I looked in 2011/12 depended on fuel type and engine size. For a petrol and a car between 1401
and 2000cc the rate was 18p. So input VAT would be 3p a mile.

I think he needs to keep fuel receipts too.

Might have changed, and the rates are very likely to be slightly different now, but I think that's the
correct position.