MileageCalculator
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Your mileage claim, done the IRD way

2025–26 kilometre rates with the Tier 1 / Tier 2 apportionment handled properly — enter your business and total kilometres and get the exact claimable amount.

2025–26 IRD rates Tier split done correctly One click onto an invoice
km
km
You can claim
$6,000.00
Tier 1—
Tier 2—
Business share—
Vehicle—

2025–26 IRD kilometre rates. Tier 1 covers the business share of the first 14,000 km of total travel; Tier 2 the rest.

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How the IRD kilometre rate method works

If you use your own vehicle for business, Inland Revenue lets you claim a flat rate per business kilometre instead of tracking every fuel receipt, service bill and depreciation schedule. One number per kilometre, and the record-keeping burden collapses to a list of trips.

The rates come in two tiers because owning a car has two kinds of cost. Tier 1 ($1.20/km for petrol vehicles in 2025–26) bundles fixed costs — depreciation, insurance, registration — with running costs, and applies to the business share of your first 14,000 km of total annual travel. Tier 2 (37c petrol) covers running costs only, for travel beyond that. The threshold sits on total kilometres, not business kilometres, which is the detail nearly everyone gets wrong and the reason this calculator asks for both numbers.

What counts as business travel

Travel between jobs, to clients, to suppliers, and between your workplace and a second workplace all count. The commute from home to your regular workplace does not — it is private travel no matter what is in the boot. If you work from home as a genuine base of operations, travel from home to clients generally counts, which is one of the quiet advantages of a home office.

Keep a record as you go: date, destination, purpose, kilometres. A 90-day representative logbook every three years locks in your business-use percentage; without records IRD caps what you can claim. Ninety seconds a day is what the whole method costs.

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On-charge it to a client

The claim lands on an invoice as a described mileage line, ready to send.

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Price travel into your rate

If you drive a lot, your hourly rate should know about it. Work out what to charge.

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Claim it automatically

Hnry tracks expenses like mileage and folds them into the tax it files for you.

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Mileage questions, answered

What are the IRD kilometre rates for 2025–26?
Tier 1: $1.20/km for petrol and diesel-free vehicles, $1.30 for diesel, 90c for petrol hybrids and $1.22 for electric vehicles. Tier 2: 37c petrol, 38c diesel, 24c hybrid, 23c EV. Tier 1 applies to the business share of the vehicle's first 14,000 km of total annual travel; Tier 2 beyond that. The rates were set in June 2026 for the 2025–26 income year.
How do the two tiers actually work?
The 14,000 km threshold is measured on the vehicle's TOTAL travel for the year, not just business trips. Tier 1 — which includes fixed costs like depreciation, insurance and registration — applies to your business-use share of those first 14,000 km. Tier 2, covering running costs only, applies to the business share of everything beyond. This calculator does that apportionment for you.
Do I need a logbook?
You need a record of your business travel. A logbook kept for a representative 90-day period every three years establishes your business-use percentage; without any records, IRD limits the claim to 25% business use or 3,500 km at the kilometre rate, whichever is less for the method you use. A dated list of trips with distances and purpose is the minimum worth keeping.
Kilometre rate or actual costs — which is better?
The kilometre rate is dramatically simpler: no fuel receipts, no depreciation schedules. Actual costs can produce a larger deduction for expensive vehicles doing high business kilometres. The catch is that once you choose the kilometre rate for a vehicle you generally must keep using it for that vehicle, so the decision is worth a conversation with your accountant in year one.
Can I charge mileage to a client?
Yes, if your terms allow it — many contractors bill travel at the IRD rate as a disbursement line on the invoice. Use the 'Add to an invoice' button and the claim lands as a properly described line item. Note that if you are GST registered and on-charging mileage as part of your service, GST generally applies to it like any other charge.
Does my employer have to use these rates?
Employers commonly reimburse employee vehicle use at the IRD kilometre rate because reimbursements at or below it are tax-free to the employee without further evidence. An employer can pay more with justification, or less. If you are the employee, this calculator tells you what the standard tax-free reimbursement looks like.

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