EV charging expense claims: what UK employees can claim, at what rate and with what evidence

How you claim EV charging in the UK depends first on whose car it is. A company car driver claims the electricity: either the actual cost of the kWh used at home, private miles included, or HMRC's Advisory Electricity Rate of 7p per business mile for home charging and 15p for public charging. An own-car driver claims mileage, not electricity: 55p per business mile for the first 10,000 miles since 6 April 2026, then 25p.

Paid within those limits, the reimbursement carries no income tax or National Insurance. Paid above them without evidence, the excess becomes taxable pay.

This guide sets out which route applies to which driver, how each rate is calculated, what evidence a claim needs, why a single flat rate overpays some drivers and underpays others, and how employers such as the 200+ client companies of Voltaback replace the monthly claim with a measured, automatic reimbursement.

The essentials in 30 seconds

• Company car at home: the employer can repay 100 % of the electricity used to charge it, private use included, tax and NIC free, as long as the payment covers only the car (s.239 ITEPA 2003).
• Company car, mileage route: 7p per business mile for home charging, 15p for public charging, since 1 September 2026. Business miles only.
• Own car: AMAP of 55p per mile for the first 10,000 business miles, 25p after. No electricity claim on top.
• Evidence: the car's kWh (not the whole household bill) and the tariff, or business miles and where the car was charged. No certified meter is required.
• The weak point: a flat rate pays the same to a driver on 6.5p/kWh and one on 30p/kWh. Over 10,000 business miles, the gap is about £650.

Which route applies to you?

Start with the car, then with where the charge happens.

The table shows why "EV charging expense claims" are really a company car question. For an own car, the mileage allowance already includes fuel, electric or not. Paying an own-car driver's home electricity on top is taxed as earnings, as HMRC's manual makes clear.

Source for the company car and own car rules: HMRC, EIM23900 and gov.uk, mileage rules for tax.

Company car: claiming the actual cost of home charging

This is the most complete route, and the one many drivers do not know exists. Because electricity is not "fuel" for the car fuel benefit, there is no tax charge when the employer pays for it. HMRC's guidance says reimbursement of electricity used to charge a company car at home is exempt under s.239(2) ITEPA 2003, and that the employer must ensure the payment covers only the company car.

Three consequences follow:

• Private miles are included. Business, private or mixed use, it makes no difference to the exemption. The split that matters is car versus household, not business versus private.
• The claim must isolate the car. The household's own consumption (cooking, heating, appliances) must not be in the amount.
• The price is the driver's own. A driver on an EV tariff at 6.5p/kWh overnight is repaid at 6.5p; a driver on the price cap at 26.32p/kWh is repaid at that.

How to calculate the claim

The formula is simple. The data is the hard part.

Claim = kWh used to charge the company car × the driver's price per kWh at the time of charging

• kWh: from a wallbox app, the car's own app, a smart cable, or software that reads the car. A whole-house bill does not separate the car.
• Price per kWh: the unit rate of the driver's tariff, at the time of each charge for time-of-use tariffs. The standing charge is a fixed household cost and is not part of the car's marginal cost.
• Time slot: on Economy 7, Octopus Go, Intelligent Octopus Go or Agile, the price depends on the hour. A charge at 1am is not priced like a charge at 6pm.

Worked example: one month, real cost

A driver covers 1,100 miles in a month in a company Kia EV3, business and private. The car takes 340 kWh from the home supply.

• 300 kWh are charged in the smart tariff window at 6.5p/kWh: £19.50.
• 40 kWh are charged at the day rate, say 28p/kWh: £11.20.
• Claim: £30.70, tax and NIC free.

The same driver on the price cap unit rate of 26.32p/kWh (October to December 2026) would claim 340 × 26.32p = £89.49. Both claims are correct: each reflects what the driver actually paid.

Company car: the Advisory Electricity Rate per business mile

The alternative is HMRC's Advisory Electricity Rate (AER), published quarterly with the advisory fuel rates. From 1 September 2026 it is:

HMRC builds the rates from 3.59 miles per kWh, weighted by company car sales, and electricity prices of 24.47p/kWh at home and 54p/kWh on public chargers. The rates are reviewed on 1 March, 1 June, 1 September and 1 December. Source: gov.uk, advisory fuel rates.

Three practical points:

• Business miles only. The AER repays business journeys. Private miles are not covered, although the employer can still repay private electricity at actual cost under s.239.
• Mixed charging can be apportioned. If a trip was powered by both home and public charging, HMRC accepts a fair and reasonable split of the mileage based on how much charging happened at each place.
• A higher rate needs proof. You can pay more than the AER only if you can show the actual cost per mile is higher. Without that evidence, the excess is taxable.

The AER needs no energy data, which is its appeal. It does need a reliable business mileage log and the place each charge happened. Our guide to the company car mileage log covers what that log must contain.

Public charging: why 15p a mile often falls short

The public AER of 15p per mile assumes 54p per kWh, close to the average price of slow and fast public chargers. Rapid and ultra-rapid chargers cost more: Zapmap's index put them at 79p per kWh on average in September 2026, with leading networks ranging from 59p to 92p. Source: Zapmap charging price index.

A field engineer who covers 8,000 business miles a year on rapid chargers is underpaid by around £560 on the AER. Two clean solutions exist: repay public sessions at the receipt amount (the driver attaches the operator's receipt), or give the driver a company charge card so nothing is paid personally. HMRC also allows a rate above 15p when the higher cost per mile can be shown.

Our guide to the price of a kWh by charging place compares home, public and rapid prices in detail.

Plug-in hybrids: a different rule

The Advisory Electricity Rate is for fully electric cars. HMRC treats hybrid company cars as petrol or diesel cars for the advisory fuel rates, so the mileage route for a PHEV uses the petrol or diesel rate for its engine size.

The electricity a PHEV takes at home is still not "fuel" for the car fuel benefit. An employer can repay it at actual cost under the same s.239 logic as for a full EV, provided the payment covers only the car. That is where measurement matters most: a PHEV that is never plugged in costs the company petrol at the pump, and a policy that pays a flat amount for "charging" may be paying for charges that never happened.

How to make the claim: five steps for the driver

1. Check your route. Company car or own car; home, public or workplace charging; actual cost or AER, as your employer's policy says.
2. Collect the data for the month. kWh per charge and your tariff (actual cost route), or business miles and charging place (AER route), or operator receipts (public sessions).
3. Exclude what is not the car. Never claim the whole electricity bill, and never claim a session for another car charged on your supply.
4. Apply the right price. For a time-of-use tariff, price each charge at the rate of its time slot; leave the standing charge out.
5. Submit with the evidence attached, within the deadline in your company's expenses policy, and keep a copy.

If any step depends on estimates, the claim is fragile. That is the case for most manual claims, and the reason so many employers move to automatic measurement.

What an EV charging policy should state

A short written policy avoids most disputes. It should answer, in plain words:

• Which route applies: actual cost of home electricity, AER per business mile, or both (actual cost at home, receipts for public charging).
• What is repaid for private miles: under s.239, private electricity of a company car can be repaid tax free; the policy says whether the company does it.
• Which evidence is accepted: car data, wallbox app, operator receipts, mileage log.
• How public charging is paid: company charge card, receipts, or AER at 15p.
• How rate changes are handled: the AER changes on 1 March, 1 June, 1 September and 1 December; the policy says the new rate applies from that date.
• What happens for PHEVs: fuel card for petrol, actual cost for home electricity, or a stated alternative.
• How leavers are handled: final month's charging, and who keeps a company-funded wallbox.
• Data protection: what data is collected, why, and who sees it, in line with UK GDPR.

Own car: AMAP covers the electricity

A driver using their own electric car for work claims Approved Mileage Allowance Payments, exactly like a petrol or diesel driver:

• 55p per mile for the first 10,000 business miles in the tax year, from 6 April 2026 (45p before);
• 25p per mile above 10,000 miles.

No energy measurement is needed, and no electricity claim is added on top. If the employer pays less than the AMAP rate, the employee can claim Mileage Allowance Relief on the difference. If the employer pays more, the excess must be reported on a P11D or put through payroll. Source: gov.uk, rules for tax.

For an EV driver, 55p per mile is generous: at home off-peak rates, the electricity itself costs around 2p per mile. The rate is designed to cover all running costs, depreciation and insurance included.

One flat rate, two very different drivers

The AER is a fair average. That is its problem: it is exactly right only for a driver who pays exactly the price HMRC assumed. Every other driver is overpaid or underpaid.

Take two company car drivers who each cover 10,000 business miles a year, all charged at home, with HMRC's own 3.59 miles per kWh.

Driver A on a smart EV tariff at 6.5p/kWh: about £520 a year more than the cost

• Real cost per mile: 6.5 ÷ 3.59 = 1.8p.
• AER paid: 7p.
• Over 10,000 miles: £700 paid for about £181 of electricity, a gain of about £519.

That gain is not taxed when the employer pays the published AER. It is still money the company pays for electricity that was never bought, and it grows with mileage.

Driver B on a fixed tariff at 30p/kWh: about £135 a year out of pocket

• Real cost per mile: 30 ÷ 3.59 = 8.4p.
• AER paid: 7p.
• Over 10,000 miles: £700 paid for about £836 of electricity, a loss of about £136.

Driver B funds part of the company's fuel bill. And if the employer tries to fix it by paying more than 7p across the board, the excess is taxable for every driver who cannot show a higher cost.

Who gains, who loses

The break-even is about 25p/kWh. Below it, the driver gains; above it, the driver pays. The same table also explains why drivers on cheap overnight tariffs favour the AER, and why an employer with a large fleet often pays more than the electricity costs.

Our guide to what it costs to charge an electric car at home gives the cost per charge for popular models.

Fleet example: 40 company EVs, two policies

Take 40 company EV drivers, each covering 12,000 miles a year, of which 8,000 are business miles. Twenty are on a smart EV tariff at 6.5p/kWh, twelve on the price cap rate of 26.32p/kWh and eight on a fixed tariff at 30p/kWh.

The budget is almost the same. What changes is who it goes to: under the AER, a large part pays drivers on cheap tariffs for electricity they never bought, while drivers on standard tariffs fund their own private miles. Under actual cost, every driver is repaid exactly what the car consumed, and company car drivers no longer weigh up whether to charge at home.

What evidence should a claim include?

HMRC does not prescribe a form or a device. It expects reasonable evidence that the payment matches a real cost, and, for a company car at home, that it covers only the car. There is no requirement for a certified meter or an accuracy threshold.

What does not work well:

• A copy of the household electricity bill. It shows the home's consumption, not the car's.
• A before-and-after comparison of bills. It mixes in seasons, heating and household changes.
• A screenshot from an app once a month. It shows a total without vehicle, time or price.

On measurement: Voltaback relies on the home's MID-certified meter, not on a standalone cable meter.

How long to keep the records

Employers must keep payroll records, including expenses and benefits, for at least 3 years from the end of the tax year they relate to. A claim that cannot be traced back to its data three years later is a claim that cannot be defended.

Tax treatment: when a reimbursement becomes taxable

Two notes. First, the employer-funded home chargepoint for a company car is not taxed either, under s.239(4). Second, for a salary sacrifice car, the same company car rules apply: the electricity is not part of the salary sacrifice package, so the employer can still repay it on top, tax free.

VAT on charging claims

• Home charging: domestic electricity in Great Britain is zero-rated for VAT from 1 October 2026 to 31 March 2027, then returns to 5 %. Northern Ireland stays at 5 %. With no VAT on the bill, there is none to reclaim. Source: gov.uk, temporary zero rate of VAT for domestic electricity.
• Public charging: public chargers charge 20 % VAT. When an employee pays and claims it back, ask for a VAT receipt from the operator; your accountant will confirm what the business can recover.

What manual claims really cost

A monthly claim looks free. It is not.

• Driver time: finding the kWh, the tariff and the receipts, filling the form. Typically 15 to 30 minutes a month per driver.
• Finance time: checking each claim, chasing missing evidence, correcting errors, answering questions.
• Errors in both directions: household kWh included by mistake, the wrong tariff applied, sessions forgotten.
• Silent cost: drivers who give up claiming small amounts, then resent the company car scheme.
• Audit exposure: claims built on estimates are hard to defend three years later.

For a fleet of 50 company EVs, 20 minutes per claim per month adds up to more than 200 hours of driver time a year, before finance has checked a single line.

The broader process, from policy to payroll, is in our guide to managing and reimbursing home charging for a fleet. The international view of reimbursement rules is in our home charging reimbursement guide.

Replacing the expense claim with a measured reimbursement

Voltaback removes the claim altogether. It is 100 % software, with no hardware to fit:

• It reads each charge from the car (more than 48 brands connected): kWh, time, place.
• It values each charge at the driver's own tariff, including time-of-use and half-hourly prices, or applies the AER per business mile with the charging place measured.
• It separates car from household automatically, which is the condition of the s.239 exemption.
• It produces a monthly statement per driver and a monthly export ready to import into your payroll software.
• It keeps drivers' privacy: the company never receives geolocation; data is processed under UK GDPR and Voltaback is ISO 27001 certified.

Measurement accuracy has been audited by an independent third party at 1.22 % relative error.

Drivers see their sessions in the driver app. Finance sees one statement. See how home charging reimbursement works in practice.

Stop processing claims, start measuring charges

An EV charging expense claim is the symptom of a data gap: the company does not know what each car consumed, so it asks the driver. Once each charge is measured and priced automatically, drivers are repaid exactly what they spent, finance has its evidence, and nobody fills in a form.

Book a demo to see the monthly statement your payroll team would receive for your own fleet.