MilesheetGermany pays 30 cents a kilometre, from the very first one
No threshold, no banding, and a completely separate allowance for the commute. The German system is simpler than Britain's in one way and stricter in another.
Update, April 2026: the UK approved rate for cars and vans rose from 45p to 55p a mile for the first 10,000 business miles. The 25p rate above that, and the 5p passenger payment, are unchanged. This post describes the position as it stood when it was written.
A British driver reading the German rules for the first time usually notices the same two things: the number is smaller, and there is no 10,000 line to worry about.
The business rate
For a business journey in your own car, Germany allows a Kilometerpauschale of 30 cents per kilometre. Every kilometre, from the first, at the same rate. There is no threshold, no banding, and no annual reset to track.
The figure is not set by a tax circular that changes with fuel prices. It is anchored in law: the income tax act points at the highest travel allowance in the federal travel expenses act, and that act sets 30 cents. Changing it means changing legislation, which is why it moves rarely.
At the time of writing, 30 cents a kilometre is roughly 42p a mile once you convert both the currency and the distance. That is close enough to Britain's 45p that the headline gap is mostly an illusion of units.
The commute is a different allowance entirely
This is the part that catches people out, and it is the opposite of the British approach.
In Britain, ordinary commuting between home and a permanent workplace is simply not claimable. It is outside the system.
In Germany, the commute has its own allowance, the Entfernungspauschale, and it works on different arithmetic:
- It counts the distance one way, not the round trip
- It applies regardless of how you travelled, including on foot or by train
- It is a deduction against income, not a tax free payment from an employer
So a German worker with a long commute gets something for it. A British worker with the same commute gets nothing. That is a genuine structural difference, not a rounding error.
Motorbikes, and the passenger question
Germany historically paid a supplement for carrying colleagues, the Mitnahmeentschädigung. The 2014 reform of the travel expense rules dropped it. There is no passenger supplement in the current German system.
Britain's 5p per passenger mile is unusual internationally. Most countries do not pay it, and assuming it exists because it exists at home is a reliable way to overstate a German claim.
The two systems side by side
| Germany | UK | |
|---|---|---|
| Business rate | 30 cents per km, flat | 45p per mile, then 25p |
| Threshold | None | 10,000 miles |
| Resets | Calendar year | Tax year, from 6 April |
| Commute | Own allowance, one way | Not claimable |
| Passenger supplement | None | 5p per passenger mile |
| Set by | Legislation | HMRC guidance |
What it means for a record
The absence of a threshold makes the German log simpler in one respect: you never have to know your running total to value a journey. Every kilometre is worth the same, so a trip recorded in March is worth exactly what the same trip is worth in November.
It makes it harder in another. Because the commute has its own allowance with its own arithmetic, a German record has to separate business travel from commuting cleanly, and record the one way distance for the latter. Lumping them together loses the distinction the deduction depends on.
Milesheet ships the German scheme, so a driver on it sees kilometres, euros and the 30 cent rate throughout, rather than a British rate wearing a euro sign.
Sources
- § 5 Bundesreisekostengesetz: Wegstreckenentschädigung
- Ordinary commuting and private travel (490: Chapter 3), for the British comparison
- Travel, mileage and fuel rates and allowances (HMRC)
General information for drivers in Germany and the UK, not tax advice. Rates change: check the current figure with the authority you are filing under.
