IRS Mileage Deduction 2026: Standard Rate vs. Actual Expenses for Self-Employed

Vehicle expenses are among the largest deductions available to self-employed workers, and among the most audited. The IRS scrutinizes vehicle claims because personal and business driving are easy to conflate. Getting this right means understanding the two deduction methods, knowing which trips qualify, and keeping records the IRS will accept.

The 2026 Standard Mileage Rate

The IRS sets a standard mileage rate each year covering gas, depreciation, insurance, and repairs in a single per-mile figure. For 2026, the standard mileage rate is 72.5 cents per mile for business driving (the IRS adjusts this annually; check IRS.gov for confirmation as rates can change mid-year).

For comparison:

• 2025 rate: 70 cents per mile
• 2024 rate: 67 cents per mile
• 2023 rate: 65.5 cents per mile (increased mid-year from 58.5 cents)

Using the standard rate is straightforward. Count your qualifying business miles for the year, multiply by the rate, and that is your deduction. No need to track fuel receipts, insurance premiums, or repair invoices.

What Counts as a Deductible Business Mile

This is where most people go wrong. Not every mile you drive while working qualifies.

Deductible trips include:

• Driving from your home office to a client's location
• Driving between job sites or client meetings in the same day
• Driving to pick up business supplies
• Driving to a bank or post office for business purposes
• Driving for gig work, including every mile you are actively delivering, transporting, or providing a service (see gig-specific rules below)
• Driving to a temporary work location (one you expect to use for less than one year)

Non-deductible trips include:

• Commuting from your home to a regular, permanent workplace (never deductible)
• Personal errands, even if you check email on your phone along the way
• Driving to a work location you use routinely (it becomes a "regular" place of business)

The home office exception. If your home qualifies as your principal place of business (you have a legitimate home office), then driving from home to a client's office or any other business location is deductible. You are traveling from one business location to another, not commuting.

Standard Mileage vs. Actual Expenses

The actual expenses method lets you deduct the real costs of operating your vehicle for business - gas, oil changes, insurance, repairs, registration fees, lease payments, and depreciation - all multiplied by your business-use percentage.

Business-use percentage = business miles / total miles driven for the year

If you drove 15,000 miles total and 9,000 were for business, your business-use percentage is 60%.

	Standard Mileage	Actual Expenses
Calculation	Miles x $0.725	(All costs x business %)
Recordkeeping	Mileage log only	Log + all receipts
Good for	High-mileage, older vehicles	New/expensive vehicles, low mileage
Depreciation	Built into rate	Calculated separately
Flexibility	Must choose in first year	Can switch to standard later (with limits)

Example (12,000 business miles, vehicle costs $8,000/year to operate, 70% business use):

• Standard mileage: 12,000 x $0.725 = $8,700
• Actual expenses: $8,000 x 70% = $5,600

In this case, standard mileage wins. But if you drive a newer, expensive vehicle with high depreciation and lower annual mileage, actual expenses may produce a larger deduction.

Critical rule. If you want to use the standard mileage rate, you must choose it in the first year you place the vehicle in service for business. If you use actual expenses in year one, you are locked into actual expenses for that vehicle permanently (you can never switch back to standard mileage for that car). Choosing standard mileage in year one preserves flexibility, since you can switch to actual expenses later.

Gig Worker Mileage Rules

Rideshare drivers (Uber, Lyft) and delivery drivers (DoorDash, Instacart, Amazon Flex) face more nuanced rules because not all miles during a shift qualify.

What qualifies for rideshare drivers:

• Miles driven while the app is on and you are available for rides (even without a passenger)
• Miles with a passenger
• Miles driving to pick up a passenger after accepting a request
• Deadhead miles driven between dropping off one passenger and picking up the next

What does not qualify:

• The drive from your home to where you start your first shift (commute)
• The drive back home after your last ride (commute)
• Personal errands done while the app is off

What qualifies for delivery drivers:

• Miles from the restaurant/store to the customer
• Miles between deliveries while actively working
• Miles to the restaurant/store after accepting an order

Track your total mileage for the shift, your deadhead miles, and your active-delivery miles separately. Gig platform mileage trackers help but often undercount. A dedicated mileage log is the safest approach.

The IRS-Required Mileage Log

The IRS requires a contemporaneous record, meaning you track each trip at or near the time it happens, not from memory months later. Your mileage log must include:

• Date of each business trip
• Destination (city and business name, or a description like "Home Depot - office supplies")
• Business purpose of the trip
• Miles driven for that trip
• Odometer reading at start and end of year (and ideally for each trip)

The most defensible format is a dedicated app or spreadsheet that timestamps entries. Paper works too. A small notebook kept in your car and filled in immediately after each trip is perfectly valid.

At year end, also record your vehicle's total mileage for the year (from your odometer) to calculate the business-use percentage.

Section 179 and Bonus Depreciation for Vehicles

If you use actual expenses, you may also be eligible to deduct a large portion of your vehicle's cost upfront using Section 179 expensing or bonus depreciation, but passenger vehicles have special "luxury auto" limits that cap how much you can deduct per year.

For SUVs and pickup trucks over 6,000 lbs GVWR, the limits are more favorable. This is why you will often see advice about buying a heavy SUV for business. Vehicles like a Ford F-150, Chevy Suburban, or large commercial van are not subject to the same passenger car caps.

The Section 179 and depreciation rules for vehicles are complex enough to warrant a conversation with a tax professional, especially for expensive vehicles. See IRS Publication 946 for the current limits and phase-outs.

Keeping Personal and Business Miles Separate

The cleanest approach is a vehicle used exclusively for business. In reality, most self-employed workers use the same car for both personal and business purposes, which is fine as long as you only deduct the business portion.

If the IRS audits your vehicle deduction and finds you cannot document the miles, they will typically disallow the entire deduction. A mileage tracking app that runs automatically whenever you start driving, with the ability to categorize each trip, is the lowest-friction way to build a bulletproof log.

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WriteOff connects to your bank accounts to detect vehicle-related expenses and helps match them against your mileage log for accurate Schedule C deductions.

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Sources

• IRS Rev. Proc. 2024-37 / IR-2024-312: 2025 Mileage Rate - 70 cents/mile confirmed for 2025
• IRS Publication 463: Car Expenses - Standard mileage vs. actual expenses, mileage log requirements
• IRC Section 274(d) - Contemporaneous mileage log requirement
• IRS Form 2106 Instructions - Vehicle expense deduction form

2025: 70 cents/mile. 2026: 72.5 cents/mile (IRS IR-2025-128). Mileage logs must show date, destination, business purpose, and miles for each trip per IRC § 274(d).