SE63641 – Tax treatment of fire-fighters: motor mileage allowances

Motor mileage allowances are paid to Fire Officers who use their own cars for business journeys. Up to 1991/92 the Local Authority Fixed Profit Car Scheme tables were used for Fire Officers (see SE65800 onwards). But from 1991/92 fire officers have no longer necessarily been paid at the same rates as local authority employees.

Important note:

Both the statutory rules and the administrative arrangements for dealing with mileage payments are replaced by the new statutory scheme for approved mileage allowance payments (AMAPs) that applies from 2002/03 onwards. Full guidance on the AMAP scheme is at SE31250 onwards.

Rules up to and including 2001/02

If you establish that for any particular tax year, fire brigade employees were reimbursed for business travel at the same level as local authority employees paid at the centrally negotiated Local Government Management Board rates, then you can use the Local Authority Fixed Profit Car Scheme tables for that particular year (see SE65800 onwards). But if fire officers were paid at any other rates, then you will need to

• draw up separate Fixed Profit Car Scheme tables, or
• agree a Car Allowances Enhanced Reporting Scheme, or
• agree a dispensation

as appropriate.

See SE30200 onwards for a comprehensive overview of the tax treatment of mileage allowances paid to employees who use their own cars for business journeys – including descriptions of how the Fixed Profit Car Scheme and Car Allowances Enhanced Reporting Scheme work.