Mileage logs: what the Swedish Tax Agency requires

Do you have to keep a mileage log?

The Swedish Tax Agency says that an ongoing and careful mileage log is a good way to show how the company's car is used, and that whoever uses the car should record all trips in detail.

The mileage log can be electronic or on paper. It can be supplemented with, for example, travel expense claims or diary notes.

Without a mileage log it is hard to show that the car has not been used privately more than the rules allow. That also applies to the work vehicle parked at the technician's home.

What should the log contain?

According to the Swedish Tax Agency, the mileage log must contain:

• Odometer reading at the start of the year
• Odometer reading at the end of the year

It should also contain:

• The car's registration number and the current year
• Date and odometer reading at the start and end of the trip
• Number of kilometres for each trip
• The address where the trip started and ended
• Purpose of the trip
• Which places, companies or contacts were visited (not needed for private trips)
• Notes on the driver and on refuelling or charging

How much may you drive privately?

A car benefit arises when the employee may use the company's car privately to more than a minor extent. The Swedish Tax Agency sets two limits, and both must be kept:

Eleven private occasions are therefore too many, even if they only added up to 200 km.

Trips between home and the place of work count as private trips. If the technician takes the car home every evening, those trips count towards the limits. It is you as the employer who decides where the place of work is, and there are special rules for on-call cars.

What happens if the log is missing?

Then it becomes hard to show that private use has stayed within the limits. If the limits are exceeded, the car is a taxable benefit, and the company pays employer's contributions on the benefit value.

If you have twelve work vehicles, you need to be able to show it for every employee who drives one of them.

The same applies to fuel. If the company pays the fuel for a benefit car, the employee should only be taxed for the fuel used on private trips. That requires records showing how much was driven privately and for work. Otherwise the employee is taxed on all the fuel.

Work vehicle or benefit car?

The terms are often mixed up. By work vehicle we mean here a car that is used for work and privately only to a minor extent. The Swedish Tax Agency also uses the word work vehicle (servicebil) for certain benefit cars, which can then get a lower benefit value.

Many companies have both types. Then different rules apply to different cars, and that is where it easily gets messy.

Paper, app or automatic?

There are three ways to keep a mileage log.

1. 1Paper in the gloveboxCosts nothing, but requires the driver to write down every trip straight away. The Swedish Tax Agency talks about an ongoing and carefully kept mileage log. A log for January written in March is neither.
2. 2An app the driver fills inEasier than paper, but the driver still has to remember to fill it in, and the odometer reading is entered by hand.
3. 3Electronic mileage logA device in the car records every trip automatically, both private and for work. The Swedish Tax Agency points out that it needs to be supplemented with, for example, which customers or companies were visited. That is why the driver gives the purpose of every business trip.

FAQ