How to track deductible miles

The short answer

Keep a log of every business drive, made at the time, with its date, miles, where you went and business purpose. Add each vehicle's odometer at the start and end of the year. Multiply your business miles by the IRS standard mileage rate, and that's the deduction. IRS Publication 463, chapter 5, sets out what the records need.

The 2026 standard mileage rate

The IRS changed the 2026 rate partway through the year, so the date of each drive matters:

• 72.5¢ a mile for business drives from January 1 to June 30, 2026
• 76¢ a mile for business drives from July 1 to December 31, 2026

Source: IRS standard mileage rates. Parking fees and tolls for business drives are deductible on top of the rate.

Which drives count

• Usually business: driving to clients and customers, between work locations, to a temporary work site, to pick up supplies, and to the bank or post office for the business.
• Usually not: commuting between home and your regular workplace, even when you take calls on the way. Personal errands in the middle of a business drive are personal miles.
• The exceptions: if your home office is your main place of business, drives from home to work sites can be business. Drives to a temporary work location are business too.

Who can take the deduction

• Self-employed (gig work, 1099 contractors, sole proprietors, single-member LLCs): on Schedule C, with the miles in Part IV.
• Employees: unreimbursed work miles generally aren't deductible on a federal return. The same log is what you'd hand your employer to be reimbursed.
• Medical miles (20.5¢, then 23.5¢ from July 1) and charity miles (14¢) have their own rates and rules.

If you own the car, you generally have to choose the standard rate in the first year you use it for business to be able to use it in later years. If you lease, you use it for the whole lease.

Keeping the log without thinking about it

The hard part is doing it every day. Own Miles is a private mileage log for iPhone that records each drive on its own, with the date, start and end places and miles. Afterwards it asks one question, business, personal or commute, and you swipe to answer. Commute rules for your saved home and work are built in, every edit is kept with when it was made, and at tax time it adds up the deduction at the rate for each drive's date and prints the log. Your drives stay on your devices, with no account.

Rather keep it on paper? Own Miles has a free printable blank mileage log, in Reports, for the glovebox.

Questions

What does a mileage log need for the IRS?

For each business drive: the date, the miles, where you went and the business purpose, written down at or near the time. For each vehicle: the odometer at the start and end of the year, and the total miles you drove it.

What is the IRS mileage rate for 2026?

72.5¢ a mile from January 1 to June 30, and 76¢ a mile from July 1 to December 31, for business drives.

Can I rebuild a mileage log at the end of the year?

A log made at the time is what Publication 463 calls an adequate record. A log reconstructed months later from memory is much weaker if you are ever asked about it, so record drives as they happen.

How long should I keep my mileage log?

Generally at least three years after you file the return that claims the deduction, the period the IRS has to review it.