Mileage Allowance vs. Actual Vehicle Expenses (Fuel/Tolls): Which Should You Choose in 2026?

This is not a trivial question. For a self-employed nurse covering 40,000 kilometres a year, a delivery driver in a diesel van, or a sales rep chasing client meetings from one end of the region to the other, the choice between the French mileage rate schedule 2026 and actual vehicle expenses can represent a significant difference in deductible costs. And that difference translates directly into less — or more — income tax and social security contributions.

Everyone knows the problem with actual vehicle expenses: you have to keep every receipt. Every fuel fill-up. Every toll. Every garage invoice. Every oil change, every tyre, every service. And that is exactly why most self-employed professionals don't go down that road — not because it isn't worth it, but because the paperwork puts them off before they've even started.

The French Mileage Rate Schedule 2026: How It Works and Who Benefits

The French mileage rate schedule — commonly referred to as the mileage allowance (IK) — is a flat-rate scale published each year by the French tax authority. It lets you deduct your professional travel costs without having to produce a single fuel receipt: you simply multiply the number of kilometres driven for professional purposes by a coefficient that depends on your vehicle's fiscal horsepower rating.

This schedule covers, on a flat-rate basis, all vehicle-related costs: fuel, insurance, routine maintenance, and depreciation. In 2026, the rates continue the trend of previous years, with a slight upward adjustment to account for inflation on fuel and spare parts.

For a vehicle rated at 5 fiscal horsepower — the most common category among self-employed professionals — the schedule applies across mileage bands. For the first 5,000 professional kilometres per year, the rate is higher to offset fixed costs. Beyond that, it decreases slightly. Beyond 20,000 km, it stabilises at a floor rate.

Actual Vehicle Expenses: When the Option Really Pays Off

Actual vehicle expenses mean deducting the full amount of all professional vehicle-related costs, in proportion to the share of professional use. Fuel, insurance, maintenance, repairs, tyres, MOT, vehicle depreciation if you own it outright — everything goes in, provided the expense is documented and the professional portion is clearly established.

This is where the financial return can dramatically outstrip the mileage allowance. And this is also where rigorous record-keeping becomes non-negotiable.

Mileage Allowance or Actual Expenses: The Decision Table Most Sites Won't Give You

The practical rule of thumb — imperfect, but useful as a starting point — is as follows.

The French mileage rate schedule is generally more advantageous if you drive relatively little (fewer than 15,000 professional kilometres per year), if your vehicle is recent and fuel-efficient, if you use a vehicle for mixed purposes and cannot accurately track the professional share, or if you cannot commit to rigorously keeping all your expense receipts.

Actual vehicle expenses are generally more advantageous if you drive a lot (more than 20,000 professional kilometres per year), if your vehicle is a van or high-consumption vehicle, if your vehicle is used exclusively for professional activity, if you have high maintenance costs, or if you are on a lease with significant monthly payments.

Why Self-Employed Professionals Avoid Actual Vehicle Expenses — and Why They Shouldn't

If actual vehicle expenses are objectively more profitable for a large proportion of professionals who drive a lot, why do the majority still choose the mileage allowance?

The answer is simple: fear of paperwork. Actual vehicle expenses require you to keep every single vehicle expense receipt throughout the year. Every fuel fill-up. Every toll receipt. Every garage invoice. Every tyre purchase. And not just keep them — hand them over to your accountant in a usable format, with a clear link between each expense and the professional activity.

For a self-employed nurse coming home exhausted after a 10-hour round of patient visits, dealing with her fuel receipts is the last thing she wants to do. For a delivery driver rushing between drop-offs, gathering this month's toll receipts is a chore that gets pushed back — until "later" becomes "never."

The result: thousands of professionals choose a tax-suboptimal option every year, not through rational decision-making, but through surrender in the face of admin.

How ScanCompta Turns Actual Vehicle Expenses Into a Genuinely Accessible Option

The barrier to entry for actual vehicle expenses is the collection and input of receipts. ScanCompta tackles this problem head-on.

Every time you fill up, you photograph the pump receipt — before you even get back in the vehicle. Thirty seconds. ScanCompta's OCR engine reads the receipt: date, station name, number of litres, price per litre, total amount including VAT, deductible VAT broken down. That data is extracted, structured, automatically categorised under "professional fuel" and archived.

Same process for tolls: a photo of the booth receipt triggers automatic extraction of the amount and recoverable VAT. Same for the garage invoice: whether it's a till receipt for a quick oil change or a detailed invoice for a full service, the treatment is identical — OCR reading, data extraction, assignment to the "vehicle maintenance" category.

At the end of the month, your accountant doesn't receive a box of crumpled receipts. They receive a complete, structured vehicle expense log, with every line item identified, every receipt archived, and every VAT amount already broken down. The vehicle deduction work that used to mean an hour of manual data entry per month becomes a ten-minute validation.