| What are fuel scale charges and how much are they? | If you use a motor car in your business and claim back VAT on the road fuel then you must consider whether to pay scale charges or not. These charges are to cover any private element of the fuel bought e.g. getting to and from work in the vehicle is considered to be private and not business. By paying the scale charge you can recover ALL of the VAT on the road fuel both business and private. You do have the option not to pay the scale charge, but if you do so then you cannot recover the VAT on fuel on ANY vehicles used by your business whether cars or commercial vehicles. For more details of scale charges and amounts payable in different periods please see VAT Notice 700/64 - Motoring expenses. The Current Scale Charges are available for download from the document download table below. |
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Note that from 1 May 2007 the basis of the fuel scale charges changed from vehicle engine size and type to its CO2 emission rating. These new rates should be used for accounting periods beginning on or after 1 May 2007. From 1 May 2008 new rates apply (see list below).
There are 2 websites you can use to find the emission rating of vehicles built since 1997
http://www.smmt.co.uk/co2/co2search.cfm
http://www.vcacarfueldata.org.uk/search/search.asp
For vehicles which do not have a CO2 emissions rating you may use a set figure based upon the vehicles engine capacity
| Engine capacity | | Rating |
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| Up to 1400cc |  | a rating of 140 or less |
| Exceeding 1400cc but not exceeding 2000cc | | a rating of 175 |
| Exceeding 2000cc | | a rating of 240 or more |
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