How to keep and fill in a mileage log in Estonia

Before the first trip

• Check the car.The tax-free allowance is for an M1 or M1G passenger car that doesn't belong to the employer.
• Check that you qualify. Employees, public servants and management board members do. More: who gets the car allowance.
• Pick where you'll write.Paper, Excel or an electronic log — the law doesn't prescribe a form. With few trips, the free Excel template is enough. To choose, see the comparison.
• Note the odometer reading.That's the start reading of your first trip.

Filling in the log, row by row

Write the driver's name and the registration number once in the header. Every work trip then gets its own row. Take a drive from Tallinn to Tartu:

The purpose is where most mistakes happen. Some examples:

• «work», «client», «drive» → too vague;
• «Client meeting, Tartu», «Patient visit, Nõmme», «Flat viewing, Kalamaja» → good.

The most important rule: one trip's end reading is the next trip's start.A gap in kilometres means you drove privately in between — perfectly normal, and those trips aren't logged. An end reading higher than the next start means something was written down wrong. More on the fields: mileage log requirements. A whole filled-in month is in the example.

Example: one working week

You drive for work on Monday and Wednesday and use the car privately on Tuesday. The log has two rows, with a 42 km gap on the odometer between them — those are your own kilometres, and no allowance is paid for them.

The second row starts 42 km higher (48,871) than the first ended (48,829). That's Tuesday's private drive, and it's fine. The week's work kilometres are 112 + 36 = 148 km, or €74.00 of allowance.

At the end of the month

1. Add up the month's work kilometres: 183 + 162 + 128 + 31 = 504 km.
2. Multiply by €0.50: 504 × €0.50 = €252.00.
3. Check the cap. Above €550, the tax-free part is €550 and the rest is salary. For example, 1,224 km × €0.50 = €612, of which €62 is taxed.
4. Save the month as PDF or Excel and send it to your accountant.

At the end of the year

Nothing new happens for the employee. The employer declares the year's allowances on the INF 14 form by 1 February of the following year, based on those same monthly totals — tidy months mean a tidy declaration.

Several cars or several drivers

Each driver keeps their own log, because the allowance is paid to a person. If the same person drives different cars during a month, every trip needs that car's registration number so the odometer readings don't get mixed up. The simplest way is a separate sheet per car.

How an accountant checks the log

Before paying the allowance, it's worth reviewing the month. Five questions are enough:

• Does the header have the driver's name and the registration number?
• Does every row have a date, route, purpose and both odometer readings?
• Is every start reading at least the previous row's end reading?
• Do the distances match the routes?
• Is the month's total €550 or less?

If you find a mistake

Correct it with the real data, not a rounded or «about» figure. If a distance is wrong, check it against the route; if an odometer reading is wrong, use the readings on the rows before and after. In Excel, check after the fix that the monthly total updated and the €550 cap still applies.

Five common mistakes

1. No purpose. Without one, the trip isn't a work trip as far as the MTA is concerned.
2. «About» distances. «~180 km» or «128?» isn't a measured distance — and in Excel, text drops out of the sum.
3. Odometer doesn't follow on. If the readings don't chain, nobody trusts the kilometres either.
4. A forgotten trip. Filling in from memory at month-end loses the short ones. Tallinn–Keila is 31 km, or €15.50.
5. No cap. A formula like =km*0.5 happily pays out €612, though only €550 is tax-free.

Try spotting them yourself: the «Find five mistakes» game on the homepage.

Short answers

Do I have to fill it in every day?

The law doesn't set a day, but every trip must carry its own date. You make the fewest mistakes by logging each trip the same day, not at month-end.

Is a paper log acceptable?

Yes. The law asks for content, not form. The downside is doing the maths by hand, and the only copy riding around in the car.

Is Excel fine?

Yes, as long as no cell is left blank and the month never goes above €550. The free template already handles both.

What if I forgot to log a trip?

Add it as soon as you can, with the right date and the actual odometer readings. The longer you wait, the harder it is to remember the distance and purpose accurately.

Do private trips go in the log?

No. Only work trips are logged. Private kilometres show up as the gap between two work trips.

Does the tax board accept an electronic log?

Yes. An electronic mileage log is equivalent to paper or Excel as long as every required field is filled in.