Mileage Deduction Calculator

For 2025 (IRS Notice 2025-05): 70¢/mile business, 21¢/mile medical or active-duty military moving, 14.0¢/mile charitable service. For 2026 (IRS Notice 2026-10): 72.5¢/mile business, 20.5¢/mile medical/moving, 14.0¢/mile charity. The business rate stepped up from 2024's 67¢ (Notice 2024-08). The charity rate is fixed at 14.0¢/mile by statute under IRC §170(i) and has not changed since 1997.

Standard: deduct miles × 70¢/mile (2025) — paperwork-light, no receipts needed beyond a mileage log. Actual: deduct business-use % of total vehicle costs (gas, insurance, maintenance, depreciation, lease payments, registration, tires). Actual usually wins for expensive vehicles, high-cost lease payments, low-mileage drivers, or first-year heavy-use depreciation. Standard usually wins for fuel-efficient cars, older paid-off vehicles, and high-mileage drivers (10,000+ business miles per year). Per IRS Pub 463, you must CHOOSE standard in the FIRST year a vehicle is placed in service for business — switching to actual later is possible (straight-line only), but choosing actual first means you CANNOT switch back to standard later for that vehicle.

Self-employed (Schedule C), small business owners (Schedule F for farmers, K-1 partnerships, S-corp employee-owners), gig workers, and statutory employees can deduct business mileage. W-2 employees CANNOT — TCJA §11045 (2018) suspended unreimbursed employee expense deductions through 2025 (extended by OBBBA §70401 through 2028 indirectly via the §67 misc. itemized suspension). The exception: Armed Forces reservists traveling 100+ miles to drill, qualified performing artists, fee-basis state/local officials, and disabled employees with impairment-related expenses can deduct on Form 2106.

IRC §162 + Treas. Reg. §1.162-2 deductible business mileage: client visits, between-job-site travel, business banking/post-office trips, off-site meetings, temporary-work-site travel (within 1 year), travel between home and a remote work location IF home is your primary place of business. NOT deductible: ordinary commute home ↔ regular workplace, personal errands during the business day, lunch break (unless meeting with a client). The commute rule means the FIRST trip of the day (home → work) and LAST (work → home) are personal — only the middle trips between work sites count.

IRS regs (Treas. Reg. §1.274-5T) require a contemporaneous log with: date, miles driven, destination, and business purpose. Apps like MileIQ, Stride, or Everlance auto-log via GPS — much stronger than a year-end retrospective reconstruction. Without contemporaneous records, the IRS can disallow the entire deduction under Cohan and §274(d). Also keep: odometer reading at start and end of year (proves business-use %), maintenance/registration showing the vehicle exists, and proof of business purpose (client emails, calendar entries).

OBBBA §70202 created a temporary above-the-line deduction for interest paid on a loan for a NEW VEHICLE made between 2025-01-20 and 2028-12-31 — up to $10,000 of interest per year. Eligible: new (not used) passenger vehicle, motorcycle, motor home, sport utility, pickup truck, or van. Vehicle must be assembled in the US. Phase-out: AGI >$100k single / $200k MFJ. This is SEPARATE from the mileage deduction — you can take both: standard mileage on Schedule C AND the loan-interest deduction. Reported on a new line of Schedule 1.

Yes — at the medical rate of 21¢/mile (2025) — but only as an itemized deduction on Schedule A, subject to the 7.5% AGI floor under IRC §213. With $100k AGI, the first $7,500 of total medical expenses is not deductible. Many filers take the standard deduction ({"$15,750"} single 2025) and don't itemize, in which case medical mileage doesn't help them. Records the same as business: log date, destination, purpose, miles. Includes trips to doctors, hospitals, pharmacies, and patient hotels per IRS Pub 502.

Yes — at 14.0¢/mile (the rate has been statutory since 1997 under IRC §170(i)), claimed on Schedule A as part of itemized charitable contributions. Examples: driving to volunteer at a soup kitchen, transporting people for a §501(c)(3) charity, attending the BOARD meeting of a registered charity. Substantiation rules differ for amounts >$250 — get a contemporaneous written acknowledgment from the charity even though you're not getting money back. Cannot deduct mileage to or from a religious service for personal worship.

If your vehicle is used for both personal and business use, you must allocate. For standard mileage: simply log business miles vs total miles — only business miles get the 70¢ rate. For actual expenses: calculate (business miles / total miles) and apply that % to gas, insurance, maintenance, lease, and depreciation. Personal miles include commuting (not deductible) AND any personal trips. The /commute-vs-tax-deduction-calculator/ models the personal-vs-business split.

No — they're mutually exclusive. If you take §179 expensing (or bonus depreciation under §168(k)) on a vehicle in the year placed in service, you MUST use the actual expense method for that vehicle from then on. Standard mileage already INCLUDES a built-in depreciation component (about $0.33/mile of the $0.70 rate in 2025 is the deemed depreciation per IRS Pub 463 Appendix Table 4). The /macrs-depreciation-calculator/ and /section-179-calculator/ handle the actual-expense path.

Gig drivers can deduct mileage — at 70¢/mile (2025) for business miles. The complication: only ACTIVELY-EARNING miles count under most app interpretations — miles driven without a passenger or "in pursuit of a fare" qualify, but commute miles between home and your "shift start" do not, nor do miles between gigs if no app is active. The /1099-tax-calculator/ + this calculator together model gig-economy tax. Stride and Everlance integrate with rideshare apps to auto-classify.

If reimbursed under an "accountable plan" (IRS Pub 463 §6) — the reimbursement isn't taxable income and you can't double-deduct. If reimbursed under a "non-accountable plan" (flat car allowance with no substantiation) — the allowance is W-2 wages, and you CAN'T deduct because TCJA §11045 suspended employee mileage. Net: if your employer pays a flat $X/month car allowance, ask to restructure as an accountable IRS-rate reimbursement to make it tax-free.