Mileage log requirements
What an Estonian mileage log (sõidupäevik) has to contain for €0.50/km to stay tax-free — and the mistakes that turn the allowance into ordinary salary.
Updated:
Six things for every trip
The law doesn't prescribe a form. Paper, Excel or an app all work, as long as this data is there.
- Driver's nameWho drove. If several people use the same car, each trip carries its own name.
- Registration numberWhich car. An M1 or M1G passenger car that doesn't belong to the employer.
- Odometer at the startMust equal the previous trip's end reading. A gap means a trip went unrecorded.
- Odometer at the endEnd minus start is the trip length — the allowance is calculated from it.
- DateA real date, not «early October». 31.09 won't do — that day doesn't exist.
- Route and purposeFrom where to where, and why. «Work» says nothing; «client meeting, Tartu» does.
Monthly rules
- Up to €0.50 per kilometre is tax-free.
- Up to €550 per calendar month in total. Anything above that is salary and is taxed.
- Without a mileage log the whole allowance is salary, with income and social tax. More on the car allowance page.
- The employer declares the allowances once a year on the INF 14 form by 1 February of the following year.
Paper or Excel, the mistakes are the same.
Any one of them can mean the allowance is treated as salary and taxed. Here are the four most common.
«About» isn't a distance
DrivLog takes the address from Google Maps and calculates the exact distance. No need to open a map separately.
An empty cell is taxable
The tax board wants the driver's name, registration number, odometer readings, date, route and purpose for every trip. DrivLog won't let you skip any of them. The odometer moves forward by itself.
A formula doesn't know the rules
The tax-free cap is €550 a month. Excel will calmly pay out €612 — and €62 of that is really salary that has to be taxed. DrivLog applies the cap for you.
No more month-end maths
Kilometres, the €0.50 rate and the €550 monthly cap are calculated for you. Export to PDF or Excel and send it on.
What people look at
Your accountant and the MTA don't read a mileage log like a novel. They check whether it hangs together: does the odometer move forward steadily, does the distance match the route, are the purposes real purposes, and is every month suspiciously exactly €550? A log filled in on the day passes that by itself. One written from memory at month-end usually doesn't.
If you want to keep the log yourself, the free template already has the right fields. The step-by-step guide is on how to keep a mileage log.