Mileage Deduction Calculator

There are two. If you are eligible for and use the standard mileage method, 2026 business miles are deductible at 72.5 cents for expenses paid or incurred from January 1 through June 30 (Notice 2026-10), and 76 cents from July 1 through December 31 (Announcement 2026-11). Keep the two periods separate and use both rates on the same return. The result is a deduction, not a dollar-for-dollar credit or a refund.

The IRS made an unusual midyear adjustment for 2026 because of recent increases in fuel prices. Midyear revisions are not automatic and not common — the last one was in 2022, when the business rate went from 58.5 to 62.5 cents on July 1.

Split it. If you are using the standard mileage method, total your eligible business miles from January 1 through June 30 and multiply by $0.725, total the miles from July 1 through December 31 and multiply by $0.76, then add the two. Keep records showing when the miles were driven. Do not apply one rate to the whole year — that is wrong by up to 3.5 cents on every affected mile.

Generally, driving from one business stop to another — between pickups, deliveries, customers or supply stops. Personal driving is not deductible, and neither is commuting between home and a regular or main work location. This part catches drivers out: if you have no regular office and no qualifying home office, the drive from home to your first business contact in your metropolitan area, and from your last one home, is generally commuting rather than business. If a home office qualifies as your principal place of business, travel from it to another work location in the same business may be deductible. It depends on the facts, so review those first and last legs carefully rather than assuming.

Yes. The standard mileage method replaces separately deducting that vehicle's operating costs — gas, oil, insurance, maintenance and repairs, tyres, depreciation or lease costs, and licence and registration. Do not deduct those as well for the same vehicle and year. Business parking and tolls can be deducted separately, and a self-employed driver may also be able to separately deduct the business-use share of vehicle-loan interest and certain personal-property taxes. Eligibility and election rules can limit whether you may use the standard mileage method at all.

No. A mileage deduction reduces your business profit — it is not a credit and not a refund. What it is actually worth depends on your whole return: it may reduce self-employment tax, federal income tax and state tax, but the Social Security wage base, any W-2 wages, the deductible half of self-employment tax, the QBI deduction, your standard or itemised deduction, credits, filing status, other income and your state's rules all change the result. Treat any “tax saved” figure here as an estimate under the assumptions this page states, not as the deduction multiplied by a stack of rates.

Yes. Vehicle expenses carry a strict substantiation rule. Keep an account book, diary, app log, trip sheet or similar record showing the date, the destination or route, the business purpose and the business mileage. Record it at or near the time of use — the IRS treats a weekly log covering that week's driving as timely kept, so a same-day entry is not required. A reconstruction made later can be considered if you have enough other evidence, but it is much weaker than a record kept as you drove.