Claiming kilométrage costs against taxable income

Yes, you can claim kilométrage costs against your taxable income and you can do it by one of two methods; plus there is a separate method if you are self-employed.

Employees can claim either an allowance for frais professionnels professional expenses for the use of a car, motorcycle, scooter or, since 2016, a bicycle. This is done either automatically by the tax office at 10% of income or according to your actual expenses submitted with your déclaration de revenus if these are higher (called frais réels).

In the case of frais réels for a vehicle, you can take into account all the kilométrage if you live 40km or less from work. If you live farther away you may claim up to 40km, or more if you can give good reasons for the extra (care for an elderly relative etc).

You can deduct either: Actual costs (depreciation, maintenance, repairs, fuel, insurance, parking – but you must keep receipts for these for three years as you may be asked for justification); or, a simpler way – as long as your car is not rented – is to use a fixed calculation (called barème des frais kilométriques, or indemnités kilométriques) available from the tax site tinyurl.com/ybfur66w

If you are self-employed (travailleur indépendant) you can claim your real travel expenses if you are under the frais réel tax regime. This does not apply if you work under the micro-entrepreneur (former auto-entrepreneur) scheme or the micro-BIC/BNC regimes.

If the car was bought on credit, you can also deduct the annual interest, pro-rata with the proportion of work use as opposed to the personal usage.

This question was answered by Olaf Muscat Baron who is a Fellow of the Chartered Association of Accountants UK, a French expert comptable and an International tax advisor.He is the principal accountant of Fiscaly, an accountancy firm based in the Dordogne.

See www.fiscaly.fr or call 09 81 09 00 15