IRS Mileage Deduction
Standard Rate Calculator.
Enter business, medical, and charity miles driven. We apply the IRS standard rate for the year. Works for 1099 contractors, gig drivers, small-business owners, and itemizers claiming medical or charity mileage on Schedule A.
Business (70.0¢/mi)
$8,400.00
Medical (21¢/mi)
$0.00
Charity (14¢/mi)
$0.00
Total deduction
$8,400.00
Standard mileage vs. actual expenses
The IRS lets self-employed filers pick between two methods for deducting business vehicle costs:
- Standard mileage — one rate times miles. No receipts needed; simple.
- Actual expenses — track fuel, insurance, depreciation, repairs, registration. Usually wins for luxury vehicles and low-MPG trucks.
Rule:If you use standard mileage in year one, you can switch to actual in later years (with some limits). If you use actual in year one, you’re locked into actual for that vehicle. Most 1099 drivers should start with standard.
What counts as "business miles"
Qualifying: client visits, delivery trips, rideshare/DoorDash driving, supply runs, travel between two job sites. Not qualifying: daily commute from home to your main workplace (even if self-employed), personal errands, lunch trips.
Keep a mileage log (date, purpose, miles). Apps that auto-track GPS are acceptable; manual spreadsheets are fine as long as they’re contemporaneous. An IRS audit of a Schedule C routinely asks for the log.
This tool calculates — but doesn’t file. See a tax professional for Schedule C, Form 2106, or complex situations. For fuel-cost math that’s independent of taxes, see the Gas Cost Calculator.
IRS standard rate vs. actual expense method
The IRS offers two mutually exclusive ways to deduct business vehicle costs, and the choice has real consequences. The standard mileage rate is a flat cents-per-mile number the IRS publishes each December for the following tax year. The 2025 and 2026 business rate is 70 cents per mile. You multiply qualifying business miles by that rate, enter the total on Schedule C, and you are done. No receipts for fuel, no receipts for oil changes, no depreciation schedule to maintain. The simplicity is why 80%+ of 1099 drivers use this method.
Actual expenses is the alternative. You track every dollar spent on the vehicle during the year — fuel, insurance, registration, repairs, tires, car washes, depreciation (or lease payments) — and deduct the business-use percentage of that total. If 60% of your miles were business, you deduct 60% of each expense. Actual expenses usually wins for low-MPG vehicles (work trucks, SUVs used for business), luxury cars with high depreciation, and vehicles financed with high monthly payments. It loses when the vehicle is fuel-efficient and paid off, because the standard rate is calibrated to the average cost of operating an average vehicle — and an efficient paid-off car is below average cost.
The most important structural rule: your first-year choice matters. If you use the standard mileage rate in year one of owning a vehicle, you can switch to actual expenses in later years — but you must use straight-line depreciation from that point forward, which is less generous than MACRS. If you use actual expenses in year one, you are locked into actual for the life of that vehicle and cannot switch to standard. That one-way door is why most tax preparers recommend starting with the standard rate unless you are certain actual will win by a wide margin. Once you have a full tax year of real expense and mileage data, you can compare both methods next year and confirm the choice.
This is not tax advice. The numbers above are a quick estimate using the current IRS standard mileage rate; the rules around method election, depreciation, and substantiation are case-by-case. Consult a CPA or tax preparer for filing.
Frequently asked questions
What records does the IRS require for mileage?
A contemporaneous log showing date, business purpose, starting and ending location, and miles driven for each trip. Apps like MileIQ, Stride, and Hurdlr automate this from your phone's GPS. A handwritten log is equally valid as long as it is kept in real time — not reconstructed after the fact from memory or calendar.
Can I deduct my daily commute?
No. The IRS considers the drive from home to your primary workplace a personal expense, even if you are self-employed. The exception is if you have a qualifying home office that is your principal place of business — then travel from home to a client site is deductible. Travel between two work locations is always deductible.
Can I use both methods in the same year?
No, but you can switch between years. Pick standard mileage or actual expenses for each vehicle at the start of the year. If you start with standard, you can switch to actual in later years (with basis adjustments). If you start with actual, you are locked into actual for the life of that vehicle.
Does this apply to W-2 employees?
Generally no, since the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. Unreimbursed employee expenses, including mileage, are no longer deductible on federal returns through 2025. Some states (California, Pennsylvania, others) still allow it at the state level. If your employer reimburses mileage, the reimbursement is tax-free up to the IRS rate.
Can I deduct parking and tolls on top of the mileage rate?
Yes. Parking fees and tolls for business trips are deductible separately — the standard mileage rate covers operating costs (fuel, depreciation, insurance) but not transaction fees. Keep receipts. Commuting-related parking at your primary workplace is not deductible, consistent with the commuting rule.
Does the standard mileage rate work for electric vehicles?
Yes. The IRS rate is the same regardless of fuel type. EVs usually win bigger with the standard method because electricity is cheap and actual expenses are low. A Model 3 running 15,000 business miles at $0.70/mi deducts $10,500, while actual expenses might only be $2,500 — the standard rate is the better choice.
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