Your car is your biggest single business cost, so getting this part right matters more than almost anything else in your accounts. Every mile you drive between lessons still costs you money, even on quiet weeks.

Choosing The Mileage Allowance Or Your Actual Vehicle Costs

You can claim the mileage allowance or your actual running costs, but not both on the same car. Driving instructors claim vehicle costs in one of these two ways, and getting the choice right can make a real difference to your tax bill.

From 6 April 2026, the mileage allowance rose to 55p per business mile for the first 10,000 miles, dropping to 25p after that, the first change to this rate in over a decade. Dual control cars do not always sit neatly inside the standard mileage scheme, so we check which method suits your actual costs before you claim anything.

We also look at your vehicle expenses directly, including fuel, insurance, repairs, servicing, tyres and any dual control modifications, and work out which approach leaves more in your pocket. Where a car has been bought outright, capital allowances can also form part of that decision, and we will walk you through whether that applies to you.

Keeping A Mileage Log HMRC Will Accept

A proper mileage log is the difference between a claim that holds up and one that gets challenged later. We show you a simple way to record business use and private use as you go, rather than trying to rebuild months of journeys from memory in January.

A basic log just needs three things:

• The date and purpose of each journey
• The mileage covered
• Whether it was for business purposes or personal use

Unlike paper records kept in the glovebox, a simple spreadsheet is far easier to check and far harder to lose.

The true cost of running a driving lesson is higher than most instructors think once you add fuel, insurance, tax, unpaid admin, and the gaps between pupils. Over 60% of ADIs report pupils taking breaks of three weeks or more, and 56.2% say pupils want lessons less frequently than before, so your income can swing month to month even with a full diary.

The gaps between lessons, cancellations and no-shows all add up too. Instructor pricing has moved fast recently. Back in 2022, 74.3% of ADIs charged £35 or less an hour, but by 2025 that had dropped to just 20.6%, with half now charging £36 to £40 and nearly half raising prices in the past year alone. We help you work out your actual costs per teaching hour and check your prices still leave a real profit once vehicle costs are properly accounted for, rather than guessing and hoping it balances out.

Good bookkeeping is not glamorous, but it is what keeps your accounts accurate and your accountants able to do their job properly. We set you up with accounting software that logs your lesson income, franchise fees, fuel, and other business expenses as they happen, rather than leaving it all for one big catch-up. We also help you track smaller day-to-day expenses like phone bills and printing, which add up more than most instructors expect.

Office supplies, advertising, and training courses all count as legitimate business expenses too, and we make sure nothing gets missed. You can settle your invoice by bank transfer, and everything is set out clearly so you always know what you are paying for and why.

We also file your year-end accounts on time, every time, and record income from block bookings, single lessons, and intensive courses the same way. It is a full service covering your books, your software, and your tax, not a once-a-year scramble.

Most instructors we work with tell us the same thing: once records are complete and up to date, tax stops feeling like a mystery. Independent instructors and driving schools with several cars both get the same level of care from us.

We work exclusively with driving instructors, so we are not learning your business as we go. We know what a dual control car costs to run, how franchise fees affect your profitability, and why your income does not arrive in neat monthly amounts like a salary.

Clients come to us because they want accountants who already understand lesson income, test day charges, and cancellation fees without it needing explaining from scratch. That saves you time and stops small mistakes turning into a bigger tax bill down the line. As an experienced accountancy firm, we look after everything from day-to-day bookkeeping to your year-end accounts, and clients stay with us because the service does not change once they sign up.

Many instructors who join us have been managing everything themselves for years, often working long hours, and simply have not had time to look at their own finances properly. We are here to change that.