How much should you charge per kilometer when sharing a car with people close to you?

Your neighbor borrows your car twice a week, your brother takes it on holiday, your flatmate uses it to get to work. Sooner or later someone asks: “how much do I owe you?” There is no single answer, but there is no arbitrary one either. Here are the official benchmarks and the real costs in six countries, along with the line you must not cross to stay within cost sharing.

Read this first. This article is general information, not individual tax or insurance advice. The figures were verified in August 2026 against the sources listed at the end, but official rates change every year and insurance conditions differ from one policy to the next. When in doubt, your tax authority or your insurer is the one to ask.

Three different numbers, easily confused

Search for “how much to charge per kilometer” and you will find figures that are wildly far apart. That is normal: they answer different questions.

The official tax rate exists to reimburse or deduct the business use of a private vehicle. It is designed for an employee or a self-employed person, not for two people close to each other sharing a car. Its value: it is a public figure, accepted by the tax authorities, that nobody can hold against you.

The full real cost per kilometer is calculated by national motoring clubs (TCS in Switzerland, ADAC in Germany, ANWB in the Netherlands, AAA in the United States, CAA in Canada) and by car budget studies. It adds up everything: depreciation, insurance, road tax, servicing, tires, fuel, repairs. This is what the car actually costs its owner.

The fair rate between people close to each other is what you are looking for. It should cover a fair share of the real cost, without ever producing a profit for the owner. That last condition matters most, and it comes back in every country below.

The legal boundary is similar in all six countries covered here: as long as you share real costs with no margin, there is in principle no taxable income, and standard car insurance most often keeps applying, subject to what your policy provides. As soon as there is a profit, or a regular activity that looks like renting, it becomes income to declare, and private insurance cover often stops.

Switzerland: 74 centimes per kilometer in 2026

The TCS publishes the per-kilometer cost of a typical passenger car every year. In its press release of 6 January 2026, it set the figure at CHF 0.74 per kilometer, down 2 centimes (2.6 %) on 2025.

The figure is based on a reference vehicle costing CHF 45,000 (up from CHF 44,400 the year before) driven 15,000 km a year. Fixed costs come to CHF 6,977 a year (down from CHF 7,077) and variable costs to CHF 4,135 a year (down from CHF 4,315), or a little over CHF 11,100 in total. The decrease comes from energy: fuel is down to CHF 1.71 per liter (from CHF 1.84) for a reference consumption of 5 liters per 100 km, and electricity is down 9 % to 28 centimes per kilowatt-hour for 18 kWh per 100 km. Comprehensive insurance premiums, on the other hand, rose sharply, by roughly 14 %.

That total splits into two useful benchmarks:

• about 28 centimes per kilometer are variable costs, generated by each trip actually driven;
• about 46 centimes per kilometer are fixed costs, which the owner pays even when the car does not move.

The tax authorities accept up to 75 centimes

From 1 January 2026, the federal deduction for using a private vehicle to commute rises from CHF 0.70 to CHF 0.75 per kilometer, as does the flat rate an employer may pay. The method is what is new: this deduction is now based on the per-kilometer price published every year by the TCS for the standard car. The tax ceiling and the real cost are therefore now aligned, to within a centime.

When it becomes taxable income

Switzerland has no published doctrine as explicit as the French carpooling rule. The general principle applies: reimbursing a share of actual costs produces no profit and is not income. If, on the other hand, the owner regularly collects more than their costs, the difference is income from renting out movable property, and potentially taxable. The prudent anchor is therefore to stay at the level of the real TCS cost and to charge no margin at all.

Insurance

In Switzerland, insurance follows the vehicle and not the driver: occasionally lending a car to someone close to you is in principle covered by the keeper’s liability and comprehensive policies. Three things to watch:

• regularity. Regular use by the same person must be reported to the insurer as a regular or secondary driver. At Zurich, cover under the “driving third-party vehicles” clause stops beyond 25 days per calendar year. Some insurers already treat two loans a month as regular use.
• no-claims bonus and excess. After an at-fault claim, it is the keeper whose no-claims bonus is downgraded. The excess can be charged back to the driver, and third-party driver insurance, taken out alongside private liability cover, lets the driver cover it.
• payment. Handing over the vehicle in exchange for money falls outside insured private use and can void cover.

Before lending your car regularly, it is worth asking your insurer in writing what your policy actually covers. Our article on car sharing and insurance in Switzerland goes through the Swiss rules in detail: casco, vehicle liability, third-party driver cover, deductible and bonus.

France: the tax mileage scale as a ceiling

The mileage scale (“barème kilométrique”) is the official per-kilometer rate published by the French tax authority to value the use of a private vehicle: employees deducting actual costs and employers paying mileage allowances both rely on it. The full table is published in the official tax bulletin (BOI-BAREME-000001), and impots.gouv.fr offers an official calculator.

The 2026 scale, applying to 2025 income, is identical to previous years: it comes from the order of 27 March 2023 and has not been revalued since, with the tax authority pointing to falling fuel prices to justify the freeze. It covers fuel, depreciation, repairs, servicing, tires and insurance.

For sharing between people close to each other, the first band of the scale, the one for low annual mileage, gives the highest and clearest benchmark:

Tax horsepower	Rate up to 5,000 km a year
3 CV and under	EUR 0.529 per kilometer
4 CV	EUR 0.606 per kilometer
5 CV	EUR 0.636 per kilometer
6 CV	EUR 0.665 per kilometer
7 CV and over	EUR 0.697 per kilometer

Fully electric vehicles get a 20 % uplift on these amounts; plug-in hybrids are excluded. Above 5,000 km a year, the scale applies lower rates, detailed in the same bulletin.

The real cost: EUR 416 a month

Roole Data, the data observatory of the French motorists’ club Roole (the commercial brand of Identicar), publishes a yearly study of French car budgets. Its 10 October 2025 edition puts the average at EUR 416 a month, or roughly EUR 5,000 a year. The monthly breakdown: EUR 167 of purchase or financing, EUR 100 of fuel, EUR 45 of insurance, EUR 44 of residential parking, EUR 44 of servicing and EUR 16 of tolls.

The striking finding lies elsewhere: EUR 257 a month, close to two thirds of the budget, is owed even when the car does not move. That is the core argument for sharing. On a basis of 12,000 km a year, those EUR 416 a month work out at roughly 42 cents per kilometer all in, of which only about fifteen cents relate strictly to use.

What the tax authorities say

No French tax rule deals specifically with lending your car to someone close to you against reimbursement of costs. The only car-related cost sharing the authorities have quantified in black and white is carpooling, and that is the only reason it appears here: it is the closest case to yours in which the mileage scale officially plays the role of a ceiling. The tax doctrine and the service-public.fr fact sheet set three cumulative conditions for money received from passengers to remain non-taxable: the trip is made for the driver’s own purposes, the price asked does not exceed the mileage scale divided by the number of travelers, and the driver keeps a share of the costs.

That doctrine covers sharing a single trip, not handing over the wheel to someone who drives alone, so it does not transfer directly. At the other end of the spectrum the position is clear: peer-to-peer car rental through a platform is taxable from the first euro, as business income, under the micro-BIC regime with a flat 50 % allowance (minimum EUR 305) as long as annual receipts stay at or below EUR 83,600 over the 2026-2028 period. The tax authority adds that the activity becomes professional once it is carried out repeatedly within a calendar year.

The dividing line is therefore profit: if the person close to you reimburses a share of real costs and you gain nothing, you remain in cost sharing. If you collect more than your costs, it is rental income.

Insurance

Occasional lending is generally accepted by standard policies, since insurance follows the vehicle. Do check your policy clauses, though: exclusive driving (lending prohibited), lending restricted to family, exclusion of young drivers, higher excess when lending. A regular driver must be declared as a secondary driver, and after an at-fault accident it is the owner who takes the penalty. Here too, renting for money is not covered by a private car policy.

Germany: 30 cents as a prudent benchmark

Germany has two separate flat rates, and the lesser known one is the relevant one here.

The Entfernungspauschale, the commuting allowance, has been reformed: since 1 January 2026 it is EUR 0.38 per kilometer of distance from the very first kilometer, the old tiered system having been scrapped (until the end of 2025, EUR 0.30 for the first 20 km, then EUR 0.38 beyond). The cap remains EUR 4,500 a year for those who do not commute by private car. Note that it is calculated on the home-to-work distance, not on kilometers actually driven. The ADAC explains both flat rates on its Pendlerpauschale page.

The Kilometerpauschale for business trips in a private vehicle stays at EUR 0.30 per kilometer actually driven in 2026 (EUR 0.20 for a two-wheeler). This is the closest thing to a “per kilometer driven” logic, and therefore the most defensible benchmark for sharing between people close to each other.

The real cost

The ADAC calculates full costs for close to 1,200 models on a basis of 5 years and 75,000 kilometers. For compact and mid-size cars, published figures put the full cost in a range of roughly EUR 0.40 to 0.58 per kilometer, everything included: depreciation, fuel, insurance, road tax, servicing, tires. The dominant item is depreciation, often 40 to 50 % of the total for a new car.

Free loan or rental: the EUR 256 threshold

German law draws a sharp line between Verleih, lending for free, and Vermietung, renting for money. Free lending between people close to each other generates no taxable income. Private renting, on the other hand, falls under “sonstige Einkünfte” within the meaning of section 22 no. 3 of the EStG.

The threshold to know is EUR 256 a year. It is a Freigrenze, not an allowance: below EUR 256 of annual income, meaning receipts minus costs, nothing is taxable; from EUR 256 up, the whole amount becomes taxable and must be declared in the SO annex, with actual costs deductible. The threshold applies to all your private rentals over the year, not per vehicle. Beyond a regular and organized practice, the risk becomes reclassification as a commercial activity, with the obligations that follow.

Insurance

As in Switzerland, liability and comprehensive cover attach to the vehicle: lending for free to someone close to you is covered by the keeper’s policy. An at-fault claim means a downgraded no-claims bonus and the comprehensive excess. The critical point is the same: as soon as money changes hands it is a rental, which must be declared and insured separately. Private liability insurance excludes motoring altogether through its “Benzinklausel”.

The Netherlands: 25 cents tax-free, and a much higher real cost

The 2026 tax plan initially set the tax-free mileage allowance at EUR 0.23, as in 2025. The government finally raised it to EUR 0.25 per kilometer, through a decision published in spring 2026 but backdated to 1 January 2026. It is the lowest tax-free ceiling of the six countries covered. Several websites, including the ANWB’s, still showed EUR 0.23 months after the increase: always check the date of the page you are reading.

The real cost according to Nibud and the ANWB

Nibud publishes monthly costs based on ANWB data from June 2025, updated by Nibud in June 2026, assuming ten years of ownership and fuel at EUR 2.19 per liter:

Category	Monthly cost	Annual mileage	Full cost per km	Variable share per km
Mini class	EUR 370	8,500 km	EUR 0.52	EUR 0.24
Compact class	EUR 432	9,000 km	EUR 0.58	EUR 0.25
Small mid-size	EUR 572	11,000 km	EUR 0.62	EUR 0.25
Mid-size	EUR 724	10,500 km	EUR 0.83	EUR 0.32

The gap with the tax-free ceiling is striking: at EUR 0.25 per kilometer, a Dutch owner does not even cover half their full cost.

No official scale for sharing between people close to each other

The Netherlands has no imposed scale for sharing between individuals. The recommended principle, notably from Milieu Centraal, is to share only real costs, with no profit, splitting fixed costs (purchase, servicing, insurance, road tax) according to each person’s use. The EUR 0.25 to 0.35 per kilometer figure sometimes quoted for “at cost” car sharing is Belgian in origin and is not a Dutch rule.

On tax, the Belastingdienst says that when you rent out goods, you usually owe no tax if the receipts do not exceed the costs you incurred. Sharing only real costs therefore produces no profit. Regular renting at a profit, for example through a platform, is a source of income and the profit is taxed. No specific rule covers sharing among people you know. Since 2023, the DAC7 directive has required platforms to report owners’ income to the tax authorities.

Insurance

Insurance follows the number plate, not the driver: lending your car to someone close to you who holds a valid license is covered. Dutch insurers are explicit that charging money for the use of the car is a rental, and standard car insurance no longer applies. There is a useful nuance, though: several insurers state that a simple mileage allowance covering fuel and wear remains acceptable. That is exactly the zone in which sharing between people close to each other should stay. Beyond it, caution is needed: Interpolis treats any money received for the use of the car as a rental, even a cost split with an acquaintance. Before sharing fixed costs, get written confirmation from your insurer, or look at Centraal Beheer’s Autodeelverzekering, designed for sharing within a fixed group. A regular driver must be declared here too.

The United States: a rate per mile, raised in the middle of 2026

The American benchmark is the IRS standard mileage rate, the figure used to deduct or reimburse the business use of a private vehicle. It moved twice in 2026, which is rare: USD 0.725 per mile from 1 January, set by Notice 2026-10, then USD 0.76 per mile from 1 July, the increase justified by fuel prices and published as Announcement 2026-11. Converted, that is about 45 cents and then 47 cents per kilometer. Anyone keeping a log for 2026 has to split it on 30 June and apply each rate to its own half of the year.

As in the four European countries, this rate exists for business travel, not for two people close to each other sharing a car. Its value is the same: it is a public number, published by the tax authority, that nobody can call excessive.

The real cost: USD 12,863 a year

AAA has published its Your Driving Costs study since 1950. The 2026 edition, released on 15 September 2026, averages five top-selling models in each of seven vehicle categories, over five years and 75,000 miles, for a weighted average sticker price of USD 39,376. It puts the cost of owning and running a new car at USD 12,863 a year, or USD 1,071.92 a month, up USD 1,286 from 2025. At the study’s 15,000 miles a year, that works out to about 86 cents per mile, roughly 53 cents per kilometer.

The AAA breakdown splits into the same two benchmarks used throughout this article:

• about 29 cents per mile are variable: 17.3 cents of fuel and 11.7 cents of maintenance, repair and tires. That is roughly 18 cents per kilometer;
• about USD 8,500 a year is fixed: USD 4,422 of depreciation, USD 2,098 of insurance, USD 1,184 of finance charges and USD 802 of license, registration and taxes. About two thirds of the budget, owed whether the car moves or not.

Note how close the two sides are: 76 cents of standard mileage rate against 86 cents of real cost. The official figure covers most of what a new car actually costs, but no longer all of it, as rising insurance and depreciation pushed the real cost up faster than the rate.

What the IRS says

There is no IRS rule on lending your car to someone close to you against a share of the running costs. The closest published position is the car pool one, in Publication 463: what passengers pay you in a nonprofit car pool counts as reimbursement of your expenses, not as income, and it only becomes income if you run the car pool for profit. The logic is exactly the French one: no profit, no income.

Beyond that, two rules matter. Rent is income, and the treatment of an activity that is not run for profit is blunt: you report the income and you cannot deduct a loss from the activity. Renting out personal property for profit but outside a business is reported on Schedule 1, with the related expenses on the deduction line facing it; a genuine business goes on Schedule C, with self-employment tax on top.

Finally, do not mistake the Form 1099-K threshold for a tax-free allowance. For 2026 it is back to more than USD 20,000 and more than 200 transactions, after the 2025 law change, with four states (Maryland, Massachusetts, Vermont, Virginia) at USD 600. It decides when a platform has to send a form, not when income becomes taxable. Germany’s EUR 256 is a real exemption; the American USD 20,000 is not.

Insurance

Insurance follows the car in the United States too, through what insurers call permissive use: someone close to you who borrows the car with your consent is generally covered by your policy, which pays first, their own policy sometimes acting as backup. Three limits:

• permissive use means occasional. Insurers describe it as infrequent borrowing, some putting a number on it, around a dozen trips a year. Anyone who drives your car regularly, and any licensed driver living in your household, is meant to be listed on the policy.
• the claim stays with you. The deductible and the claims record follow the vehicle, so an at-fault accident by the borrower lands on your premium.
• money changes the contract. Personal auto policies carry a public or livery conveyance exclusion and exclude a vehicle rented out to others. That is precisely why peer-to-peer rental platforms, now regulated in more than twenty states, carry their own commercial cover for the rental period: your policy does not.

The American line is therefore the same as everywhere else. Splitting fuel and wear with someone close to you is not a rental; a price and a stream of drivers is.

Canada: 73 cents per kilometer, the clearest official figure of the six

Canada publishes exactly the number this article is about: a limit expressed per kilometer driven, for the use of a personal vehicle. For 2026 the Department of Finance raised it by one cent, on 14 January 2026: an employer may pay, tax free, CAD 0.73 per kilometer for the first 5,000 kilometers of the year, then CAD 0.67 per kilometer. In the Northwest Territories, Yukon and Nunavut, add four cents: 77 and 71 cents. Anything paid above those limits becomes a taxable benefit for the person receiving it.

The two tiers are worth noticing. The first kilometers are paid more because they carry the fixed costs; the later ones less, because by then only running costs remain. That is the same reasoning behind the choice between an occasional rate and a full-cost rate further down this page.

The real cost

Canada has no annual per-kilometer publication equivalent to the TCS’s. The CAA Driving Costs calculator plays that role, model by model and province by province, much as the ADAC’s does in Germany.

The national anchor comes from Statistics Canada. In the Survey of Household Spending for 2023, published on 21 May 2025, private transportation, essentially owning and running a vehicle, cost the average household CAD 10,292 a year, of which CAD 2,567 went on gasoline and other fuels. Transportation as a whole took 15.8 % of household spending, second only to shelter. Alberta households spent the most on private transportation, CAD 12,188, Quebec ones the least, CAD 9,597.

That figure covers a household, and some households run two vehicles, so it is not a cost per car. It does give the order of magnitude: at 15,000 kilometers a year, the federal first-tier rate of 73 cents would pay out around CAD 11,000. As in Switzerland, the official ceiling and the real cost sit close together, which makes the ceiling a safe anchor rather than an optimistic one.

Tax

The Canada Revenue Agency has published nothing on lending a car to a relative against a share of the costs. The general rule applies: recovering part of what the vehicle costs you is not a gain, whereas collecting more than it costs you is income to declare.

Two Canadian markers are worth keeping in mind. Since 1 January 2024, platform operators have had to report their sellers’ revenue to the CRA under Part XX of the Income Tax Act, the Canadian equivalent of the European DAC7 rules, with the first returns filed by 31 January 2025. And renting out a vehicle is a taxable supply for GST/HST purposes: past CAD 30,000 of taxable revenue over four consecutive calendar quarters you lose small supplier status and have to register and charge the tax. Cost sharing between people close to each other stays clear of both.

Insurance

The Insurance Bureau of Canada states the rule plainly: insurance follows the vehicle, so if someone borrows your car with your permission and has a collision, your policy is generally the one that pays. The consequences follow the owner too: your deductible, your claims history, your future premium.

Two Canadian specifics. Disclosure first: anyone who drives your vehicle regularly must be declared to your insurer, and living under your roof does not put someone on the policy automatically. Then the provinces: basic cover comes from a public insurer in British Columbia, Saskatchewan and Manitoba, and in Quebec bodily injury is handled by the SAAQ regardless of fault, so the rules to check are provincial before they are national. In British Columbia, ICBC sells Unlisted Driver Protection against the one-off charge that follows a crash caused by a driver you had not listed.

The boundary is the familiar one: a personal policy does not cover commercial use. Renting the car out, or driving it for a delivery or ridesharing service, calls for a commercial policy.

The six countries side by side

Country	Official ceiling per kilometer	Real cost benchmark	Sources	Year
Switzerland	CHF 0.75 (federal deduction and employer flat rate)	CHF 0.74 per km	Federal Department of Finance, TCS	2026
France	Mileage scale: EUR 0.529 to 0.697 depending on horsepower	EUR 416 a month, about 42 cents per km over 12,000 km	DGFiP, Roole Data	2026 (scale), 2025 (cost)
Germany	EUR 0.30 (business trip), EUR 0.38 (commuting)	EUR 0.40 to 0.58 per km (compact and mid-size)	EStG, ADAC	2026 (tax), 2025-2026 (ADAC)
Netherlands	EUR 0.25 (tax-free allowance, backdated to 1 January 2026)	EUR 0.52 to 0.83 per km depending on category	Belastingdienst, Nibud and ANWB	2026 (tax), 2026 (cost)
United States	USD 0.725 per mile until 30 June, USD 0.76 from 1 July (IRS standard mileage rate)	USD 12,863 a year, about 86 cents per mile or 53 cents per km	IRS, AAA	2026 (tax), 2026 (cost)
Canada	CAD 0.73 per km for the first 5,000 km, then CAD 0.67 (tax-free allowance limit)	CAD 10,292 a year per household on private transportation	Department of Finance Canada, Statistics Canada	2026 (tax), 2023 (cost)

Three findings run through all six countries. Sharing real costs without profit is not taxable income, whereas renting with a margin is. Insurance follows the vehicle everywhere, so free lending is generally covered, but charging money voids standard cover, and the line between a cost contribution and payment depends on each insurer. Finally, in Germany and the Netherlands the full real cost clearly exceeds the tax-free ceiling, Switzerland and the United States have their two figures within a cent of each other, Canada’s sits in the same range, and France stands apart: its scale is set high enough to cover the full cost of an average car, which is exactly what makes it a comfortable ceiling.

The differences lie elsewhere. France and the United States are the only two to publish a rule on sharing car costs, and in both cases it is a carpooling rule. Germany is the only one to set a clear threshold where taxation kicks in, the EUR 256 Freigrenze, which the American USD 20,000 is often mistaken for although it only triggers a form. The Netherlands has the lowest tax-free ceiling, far below the real cost. Switzerland now indexes its tax ceiling on the real cost published by the TCS. Canada is the only one to pay the first kilometers of the year better than the rest, and the United States the only one to have changed its rate in the middle of the year.

Which rate to choose for your situation

If the person uses the car occasionally, a few trips a month, charge the variable share: the fuel and wear their kilometers directly generate. That is about 28 centimes per kilometer in Switzerland, about fifteen cents in France on the Roole basis, 24 to 32 cents in the Netherlands depending on the vehicle category, and about 29 cents per mile in the United States on the AAA basis, roughly 18 cents per kilometer. In Germany, the EUR 0.30 business-trip rate plays that role as a simple benchmark: it generally covers the variable share while staying well below the full cost. In Canada, where no national variable figure is published, the honest equivalent is your own fuel receipts plus a few cents for servicing and tires. The owner absorbs the fixed costs, which they would pay anyway.

If the person uses the car heavily, several times a week or for a significant share of annual mileage, the variable share is no longer enough: the owner ends up funding insurance, road tax and depreciation alone on a car they only half use. Move towards the full cost instead: CHF 0.74 in Switzerland, the mileage scale in France, EUR 0.40 to 0.58 in Germany, EUR 0.52 to 0.83 in the Netherlands depending on category, about USD 0.86 per mile in the United States, and in Canada the federal rate of CAD 0.73 per kilometer. In the Netherlands, first check that your insurer accepts it: several only allow an allowance covering fuel and wear.

If you would rather not pick a rate at all, there is another approach: add up every real expense on the vehicle over the year and split it among the members of the circle in proportion to the kilometers each has driven. You then need no scale at all, only a reliable record of kilometers and expenses. That is the principle behind cost sharing in Co-oto. To see what either approach produces over a year, run the numbers for your own car. For the full picture of what owners and drivers save, read how much you can save by sharing a car.

If the vehicle belongs to an organization, the same arithmetic applies: an association or a small company sharing a pool car reimburses kilometers on exactly these scales, with one difference, the record is also kept for the organization’s own accounts.

Four safeguards

Never make a profit. This is the rule that governs everything else: the tax nature of the money you receive and the validity of your insurance. Staying at or below the real cost is the necessary condition on both fronts. For insurance, it is not always enough: have your insurer confirm it.

Keep a written record. A message is enough, as long as it states the period, how the reimbursement was calculated and the fact that this is cost sharing. A record of kilometers and expenses beats memory, and it heads off most misunderstandings between people who know each other.

Watch the thresholds. In Germany, staying under EUR 256 of annual income after costs removes the tax question entirely. In France, do not turn lending into regular renting. In Switzerland and the Netherlands, do not collect more than your costs. In the United States, remember that the USD 20,000 of Form 1099-K is a reporting threshold and nothing more. In Canada, GST/HST registration starts at CAD 30,000 of taxable revenue, well beyond anything cost sharing produces.

Tell your insurer. Check the exclusive-driving clause and the one on young drivers. Declare any regular driver as a secondary driver. And avoid both the word and the practice of “renting”: standard cover ends where payment begins.

One signal should alert you: once the person becomes a regular user, several times a week, it is time to declare them to the insurer and to move to full-cost sharing rather than a token contribution.

How Co-oto handles the calculation

Co-oto is built for exactly this case: one car shared between several drivers who trust each other, and no appetite for a spreadsheet. We compare the two approaches side by side in Co-oto or a spreadsheet plus Splitwise and Tricount. The app records each driver’s kilometers and the vehicle’s running expenses, then produces a statement splitting those expenses among the members of the circle. You choose how the split works; the app does the arithmetic and keeps the written record.

No commission is taken and nothing passes through the app. The owner fronts the big bills and centralises reimbursements, each driver settles only their share of actual use, and you pay each other however you like, by bank transfer, a mobile payment app or cash. Co-oto keeps the accounts but never touches your money. By design, you therefore stay within cost sharing.

For the full picture, see how it works and the trip logbook, which documents the kilometers the whole calculation rests on.

Sources and method

Every figure in this article was verified in August 2026.

Switzerland: TCS press release of 6 January 2026 on per-kilometer costs; Federal Department of Finance press release of 11 September 2025 on adapting direct federal tax scales; ordinance on professional expenses (SR 642.118.1); conditions of the “driving third-party vehicles” cover, Zurich Switzerland.

France: order of 27 March 2023 setting the mileage scale, article 83-3° of the CGI, BOFiP BOI-BAREME-000001 and official calculator; cost-sharing doctrine, BOFiP BOI-IR-BASE-10-10-10-10 and service-public.fr fact sheet on carpooling income; impots.gouv.fr guidance on renting out a car or other movable property, updated 16 June 2026; Roole Data study on the French car budget, 10 October 2025.

Germany: section 9 (1) sentence 3 no. 4 of the EStG as amended by the Steueränderungsgesetz 2025; section 22 no. 3 of the EStG for the EUR 256 Freigrenze; Pendlerpauschale 2026, ADAC; full motoring costs, ADAC.

Netherlands: Belastingdienst decision on raising the tax-free mileage allowance; monthly motoring costs, Nibud, ANWB data June 2025; sharing or renting a car, Milieu Centraal; lending your car and insurance, FBTO.

United States: IRS standard mileage rates, Notice 2026-10 for the rate applying from 1 January 2026 and Announcement 2026-11 for the increase to 76 cents from 1 July 2026; IRS news release setting the 2026 rate at 72.5 cents; Publication 463, car pools; Publication 525 on activities not engaged in for profit; IRS FAQs on the Form 1099-K threshold, 23 October 2025; AAA Your Driving Costs 2026 fact sheet, 15 September 2026; public or livery conveyance exclusion, standard personal auto policy wording.

Canada: Department of Finance Canada, 2026 automobile deduction limits and expense benefit rates, 14 January 2026; Statistics Canada, Survey of Household Spending 2023, released 21 May 2025; Part XX of the Income Tax Act, reporting rules for digital platform operators; CRA small supplier threshold for GST/HST registration; lending your car, Insurance Bureau of Canada; ICBC basic insurance and Unlisted Driver Protection; CAA Driving Costs calculator.

Caveats. Official scales and motoring-club costs are dated, sourced facts. Applying the French carpooling doctrine to lending a vehicle to someone who drives alone, and the exact Swiss tax treatment of compensation received for lending, remain matters of interpretation in the absence of specific published doctrine. The same reservation applies to the American car pool rule, written for passengers sharing a ride rather than for a driver borrowing the car. The German range of 40 to 58 cents per kilometer comes from figures reproducing ADAC calculations rather than from a direct publication. The two North American cost figures are not built the same way: AAA measures a new car over five years, Statistics Canada measures what a household actually spends on all its vehicles, so the Canadian figure is not a per-car cost. Converting a rate per mile into a rate per kilometer is arithmetic on our part, not an official equivalence. Finally, every real cost quoted here is an average: it varies a great deal with the vehicle, its age, its powertrain, annual mileage and region, and in North America with the state or province.

Going further

• Car-sharing, rental, ridesharing: what’s the difference?
• Private car sharing: the tools that prevent misunderstandings
• The trip logbook as a tracking tool

A reminder: this article is an information guide, not tax or insurance advice. Every situation is different; when in doubt, ask your tax authority or your insurer.