Anglican Financial Care has recently reviewed mileage rates for 2025-2026, and we also have a revised Visiting Minister Form from August to December 2025.

Rates Update August 2025 to July 2026

Please destroy any previous versions of forms you have kept, and use the new versions below. 

Background

Rates Update July 2025

In the year the operating costs for petrol vehicles have risen by 11.6%, and for both hybrid vehicles and electric vehicles by 3%.

The key cost drivers over the year were:

• Vehicle Price Increase: Up 20%, driven primarily by manufacturers opting to introduce higher-spec models and a broader range of electric vehicles to the market.

• Insurance Costs: Rose by 12% due to higher repair and replacement costs.

• Interest Rates: Averaged 5.94% from 1 April 2023 to 31 March 2024, declining to 5.45% for the period 1 April 2024 to 31 March 2025.

• Depreciation Impact: Vehicle depreciation has increased due to rising new car prices and economic uncertainty.

The suggested (maximum) reimbursement rates per kilometre are as follows (previous year’s rates in brackets):

* The flat rate can be paid for unlimited running (i.e. without the need to record annual mileage and be concerned about exceeding a chosen band).

The reimbursement rates take into account fixed annual costs (registration, WOF, insurance, and depreciation) and running costs (petrol/electricity, oil, tyres, and maintenance). Petrol and electric vehicles have similar fixed costs, with hybrid vehicles lower than the other two. However, petrol vehicles have the highest running costs, followed by hybrid vehicles, and electric vehicles the lowest. This mix of costs helps explain the relative reimbursement rates in the table above when comparing vehicle types.

Please see the end of this article for more information about using travel bands. 

Forms to Use

If you are currently using your own form to record mileage, you are welcome to continue using that. However, if you are on a Travel Band, your form must have all the information collected as set out in the Diocesan form.

All the forms (including mileage record forms for other bands if you don't have your own log book) are  available on our website at this link:  https://www.calledsouth.org.nz/diocesan-forms/ and look for the appropriate folder, or we have the following attached below: 

Diocesan Mileage and Expense Claim Forms (if you are submitting a claim form to Peter Mann House office for reimbursement)

All Mileage Record Forms attached below (link to main folder)

• Mileage record form - travel band up to 14 000 km (pdf or in Word)
  

• Mileage record form - travel band up to 20 000 km (pdf or in Word)

• Mileage record form - travel band up to 26 000 km (pdf or in Word)

• Mileage record form - casual running rate

Visiting Minister Forms (pdf and Word attached ) have also been updated, the new form covers August to December 2025. 

A note about using Travel Bands

We recommend that the use of any bands below are captured in your covenant.

The figures for the banded travel rates are MAXIMUM figures. The actual amounts to be paid are negotiated with the parish and included in the Covenant. Most Covenants use the casual rate rather than the banded rates as using the banded rates creates more administration as a log book has to be kept up to date and regularly reviewed to make sure that the Clergy person is still fitting in the appropriate band. It may be that a parish would like to review the allowance that their Clergy is currently being paid but there is certainly no expectation that the maximum allowance should necessarily be the actual allowance.

If the casual rate is not chosen, the following rules apply:

• The employee must provide a reasonable estimate for their annual running kms (personal, family and work related) for the year.

• The odometer reading at the beginning of the tax year must be recorded.

• The estimate determines the chosen band range.

• If the ACTUAL kms for the year exceed the chosen band range, then the kms above the chosen band range will be reimbursed as follows:

  For mileage beyond chosen band range:

  $0.39   (Petrol)

  $0.21 (Hybrid)

  $0.19 (Electric)

These rates and rules have been tailored to the circumstances of the church and do not correspond to other (higher) rates.

If it is decided that a band rate be chosen, there are some things to consider:

• Will the maximum band for ALL travel be exceeded? i.e even if an employee wasn’t to work an entire year, the maximum band still applies for that tax year so for example, if IRD chose to look at that person's income and allowances, they will have to be within the maximum travel band for that tax year, regardless if they have left our employment or not.

• The kms claimed and odometer reading will have to be closely monitored.

• The reimbursement rate can change each year, depending on the outcome of the review.

• If the person leaves our employment, it is up to them to record their odometer reading at the end of the tax year, and make sure the kilometers traveled haven’t exceeded the chosen band maximum.

Please note, all of the above only applies to the vehicle which mileage is being claimed on.

Please contact Dominique (by email) at the Diocesan office if you have any queries.