HMRC to check business mileage records

Businesses are being urged to keep an accurate track of mileage covered by their employees following an announcement by HMRC that it will begin checking the records of small companies as part of a £120 million revenue drive over the next three years.

The treasury will investigate the records of 60,000 SMEs between now and 2015 in what are officially known as Business Record Checks (BRCs).

The BRCs are designed to crack down on poor record keeping and to catch out those taking advantage of mileage expense rates, so firms with a large grey fleet presence are at particular risk.

Following a pilot study, HMRC estimates that around 40% of company’s records are not up to satisfactory standards, while 11% are bad enough to warrant further investigation.