What You Can Claim
If you travel for your Amazon business — visiting suppliers, attending trade shows, driving to stores for retail arbitrage, or travelling to your prep centre — the mileage and associated travel costs are legitimate business expenses. They reduce your taxable profit and therefore your tax bill. But the rules about what qualifies need to be understood correctly.
HMRC Mileage Rates
If you use your personal car for business travel, you can claim HMRC's approved mileage rates: 45 pence per mile for the first 10,000 business miles per year, and 25 pence per mile thereafter. These rates cover fuel, wear and tear, insurance, and maintenance — you claim the rate rather than actual costs. Keep a log of business journeys including date, destination, purpose, and miles driven.
What Counts as Business Travel
Travel to suppliers, wholesalers, and trade shows counts. Travel to retail stores for sourcing counts. Travel to your prep centre or warehouse counts. Travel to meetings with accountants, mentors, or business partners counts. Regular commuting to a permanent workplace does not count — but if you work from home and travel to various business locations, those journeys are business travel.
Other Travel Expenses
Beyond mileage, you can claim parking fees, tolls, and congestion charges incurred during business travel. If business travel requires an overnight stay, hotel costs and reasonable meal expenses are claimable. Public transport costs for business journeys are also deductible. Keep receipts for everything.
Record Keeping
HMRC can ask for evidence of business travel claims. Maintain a mileage log — a simple spreadsheet recording each business journey with date, start point, destination, purpose, and distance. Apps like MileIQ or Freeagent can track journeys automatically using your phone's GPS. Good records protect you in case of an HMRC enquiry and ensure you claim everything you are entitled to.