Mileage Allowances: the Official Scales in France, Spain and Italy, and What They Do Not Cover

What the scale is actually pricing

A mileage allowance is not a fuel refund, although almost everyone treats it as one. It is a composite estimate of what one kilometre of driving costs its owner: fuel or electricity, tyres, servicing, the share of the insurance premium attributable to the extra distance, and depreciation, which is usually the largest component and the one nobody feels. That is why the French figure for a five-horsepower car works out at about 0.64 euros a kilometre on the first 5,000 kilometres and only about 0.53 on 8,000 — the fixed costs are spread over more distance, so the marginal figure falls as you drive further.

The design difference between the three countries follows from what each is trying to be. France's scale is an income tax deduction that doubles as the ceiling below which an employer's allowance escapes social contributions — so it needs to reflect real cost fairly precisely, hence the horsepower bands and the degressive structure. Spain's figure is an exemption limit for an employer payment, not a computation of cost, so a single number is easier to administer and blunter in effect. Italy's tables are neither a deduction nor a cap but a published cost reference used for several purposes at once, including the company-car benefit, which is why they are per model rather than per category.

France: a scale that has stood still for three years

For the return filed in 2026 on 2025 income, the car scale runs: for three fiscal horsepower or less, the distance times 0.529 up to 5,000 kilometres, times 0.316 plus 1,065 from 5,001 to 20,000, times 0.370 above; for four, 0.606, then 0.340 plus 1,330, then 0.407; for five, 0.636, then 0.357 plus 1,395, then 0.427; for six, 0.665, then 0.374 plus 1,457, then 0.447; for seven and above, 0.697, then 0.394 plus 1,515, then 0.470. An electric vehicle gets a 20 % uplift on whichever line applies. Eight thousand professional kilometres in a five-horsepower car therefore give 4,251 euros, and 5,101.20 if the car is electric.

The scale has a second life that matters more to most people than the tax return. An employer who pays a flat mileage allowance can keep it out of the base for social contributions provided it stays within the fiscal scale and is justified: you need proof that the journey happened, a record of the kilometres, and the vehicle's registration document. Without those, the allowance is added to the contribution base and treated as pay. The important warning for 2026 is that the scale has not been revalued for the 2026 return, nor for the 2025 one — the last increase, of 5.4 %, was in 2023 — while insurance, servicing and vehicle prices have not stood still, so the scale is progressively less generous in real terms even though the printed numbers are the same.

Spain: one number, and what it hides

Since 17 July 2023 the amount an employer may pay free of income tax for the use of an employee's own vehicle is 0.26 euros for each kilometre travelled, provided the reality of the journey is evidenced, plus toll and parking charges that are receipted. It replaced 0.19 euros, a figure that had stood since 2005 and had become indefensible. The simplicity is real and so is the cost of it: the same figure applies to a small city car and to a large one, and to a driver doing 2,000 kilometres a year and one doing 25,000, even though the true cost per kilometre differs sharply between those cases.

The practical consequence is easy to see with a comparison. Eight thousand professional kilometres are worth 4,251 euros under the French five-horsepower scale and 2,080 euros at the Spanish rate — a gap of 2,171 euros for the same driving. That does not make the Spanish rule wrong; it means that in Spain the amount above the exempt figure, if your employer pays more, is simply taxable pay, and that an employee whose car is genuinely expensive to run is absorbing part of the cost. If your employer pays exactly the exempt figure and no more, the question worth answering is whether 0.26 covers your own car, which you can check against your actual annual costs divided by your actual annual kilometres.

Italy: a table per model, and a 2025 change that mattered

Italy sets no single rate. The Automobile Club d'Italia draws up national tables of running cost per kilometre by model each year by 30 November, the ministry publishes them by 31 December, and they take effect for the following tax year. For a business trip outside the municipality where the workplace is, the tax code offers three mutually exclusive systems: a flat daily allowance exempt up to 46.48 euros in Italy and 77.47 euros abroad, net of travel and transport; a mixed system where that allowance is reduced by a third if lodging or meals are also reimbursed and by two thirds if both are; and an analytical system reimbursing documented costs, with a further 15.49 euros a day of undocumentable expenses exempt, 25.82 abroad. In all three, a mileage allowance computed from the tables is exempt when properly evidenced.

The change worth knowing is what happened to trips inside the municipality. Until the end of 2024 the law exempted only transport costs evidenced by documents from the carrier, which in practice meant a taxi or a train ticket — a reimbursement for using your own car on a local errand was fully taxable. The delegated decree implementing the 2023 enabling act replaced that wording with travel and transport costs that are proven and documented, dropping the reference to the carrier. As a result, from 1 January 2025 a mileage allowance based on the tables is exempt even for a journey within the municipality, provided it is properly evidenced. Documented tolls are exempt as travel costs, and so is parking, where the receipt identifies the vehicle and the stay unambiguously.

What none of the three scales covers

The first exclusion is the biggest: the journey between home and your usual place of work is not business travel in any of the three systems. It is commuting, and whatever relief exists for it is a separate rule with separate limits. The second is the purchase of the vehicle. A mileage scale prices the use of a car you already own; it will not fund buying one, and if your job requires a car you would not otherwise have bought, the scale is not designed to make you whole. The third is anything unusual: an extra insurance premium for business use, a parking permit, a cleaning bill after transporting equipment. Some of these can be reimbursed separately on evidence, and asking is worth more than assuming.

The test for whether a scale is treating you fairly is arithmetic you can do in ten minutes. Add up a full year of running costs for your car — insurance, servicing, tyres, road tax where it applies, fuel or charging, and the difference between what the car was worth in January and what it is worth now — and divide by the kilometres you drove. Compare that number with what the scale pays. If the scale is higher, you are ahead and should keep driving; if it is lower, the difference multiplied by your professional kilometres is a real annual loss, and it is the number to put in front of an employer rather than a general complaint about the rate.

Frequently asked questions

My employer pays less than the scale. Can I claim the difference?

Not from the employer automatically — the scale is a tax and contribution ceiling, not an entitlement. What you can often do is claim the shortfall through your own tax return, where a country allows actual professional expenses to be deducted instead of a standard allowance. In France that means opting for actual expenses rather than the standard deduction, and it only pays if your total professional costs exceed that deduction. The comparison has to be done on your whole return, not on the mileage alone, and the arithmetic changes with your income, so run both versions before choosing.

Why does the French rate per kilometre fall as I drive more?

Because a car's costs are partly fixed and partly variable, and the scale reflects that. Insurance, road tax and a good part of depreciation happen whether the car moves or not, so the first thousand kilometres carry a heavy share of them and the ten-thousandth carries almost none. The band structure is an approximation of that curve: for a five-horsepower car, 0.636 a kilometre on the first 5,000 falls to an effective 0.53 at 8,000 and about 0.45 at 15,000. It also means the scale rewards concentrating professional driving in one vehicle rather than splitting it between two.

Do these scales apply to the self-employed as well?

Often, but under different conditions and with a separate scale in some cases. France publishes a mileage scale used by employees and by some non-commercial professions, and a distinct fuel-only scale for certain individual businesses on a simplified accounting regime — which is not the same table and is not interchangeable with it. A self-employed person under a flat-rate income regime usually cannot deduct anything separately, because the flat allowance is deemed to include vehicle costs already. Check which instrument applies to your status before adopting a figure you saw quoted for employees.

What records do I actually need to keep?

More than most people do, and the requirement is the same in spirit everywhere: evidence that the journey happened, evidence of how far it was, and evidence that the vehicle is yours. In France an employer relying on the exemption is expected to hold the vehicle's registration document and a record showing kilometres by day, alongside proof that the travel was professional; without them the allowance goes into the contribution base. Spain requires the reality of the journey to be justified. Italy asks that the mileage allowance be proven and documented, which after the 2025 change is what makes even a local trip exempt. A dated log naming the destination, the reason and the distance satisfies all three, and takes a minute a day.

Is an electric car better or worse under these rules?

Better in France, neutral in Spain, and model-dependent in Italy. The French scale adds 20 % for an electric vehicle, which on eight thousand kilometres in a five-horsepower car takes the figure from 4,251 to 5,101.20 euros — a recognition that the purchase price and therefore the depreciation is higher, even though the energy is cheaper. Spain's single figure makes no distinction at all, so an electric car with low running costs does relatively well against the 0.26 and a large one does badly. Italy's tables are per model, so the answer is whatever the table says for yours; there is no general rule to quote.