How can I claim my vehicle & related expenses?
If you have a business (including if you are self-employed), and you use your own car for work purposes, you can claim back some of your vehicle expenses. If you have a car that you only use for business purposes you can claim all of the vehicle running costs as a business expense, if you are claiming 100% of your vehicle expenses you must have another separate vehicle available for your private use.
If your car is used for both business and private use, you will need to work out how much of the running cost of the car is for business reasons (excluding travel between home and work) and how much is personal.
Running costs include:
- petrol,
- repairs and maintenance,
- insurance,
- Warrant of Fitness,
- registration,
- road use charges and
You can also claim a deduction on the depreciation of your vehicle.
You have a few options for working out your vehicle expenses for business purposes:
- Without a log book, you are able to claim 25% back of the vehicle running costs.
- Keep a note of your business mileage, the use Inland Revenue’s table of kilometre rates. This table gives you the rates for petrol or diesel, petrol hybrid, and electric vehicle; as well as rates for the first 14,000kms and for travel over 14,000kms in a year. (This method excludes any GST claims, and also depreciation claims)
- Keep a log book over a 90-day period, of your vehicle’s mileage for private use and for business use. This enables us to establish a business percentage, keep a record of the actual costs of running your vehicle – we are able to claim the established business percentage of these costs.