Mileage Deduction Calculator

How this calculator works

The IRS lets self-employed drivers deduct the business cost of a vehicle in two ways, and this calculator runs both so you can compare. The standard mileage method multiplies your business miles by a fixed per-mile rate that bundles fuel, oil, insurance, repairs, tires, registration, and depreciation into a single number — no receipts required beyond your mileage log. The actual-expenses method totals what the car really cost you all year (gas, insurance, repairs, tires, registration, depreciation) and multiplies that total by your business-use percentage: business miles ÷ total miles driven.

The 2026 standard mileage rate (split year)

For 2026 the IRS set two business rates: 72.5 cents per mile for January–June and 76 cents per mile for July–December (see the IRS standard mileage rates page). A full-year deduction blends both: 4,000 first-half miles plus 4,000 second-half miles gives 4,000 × $0.725 + 4,000 × $0.76 = $2,900 + $3,040 = $5,940 — $140 less than the 76-cent flat figure. Log which half each trip falls in; the rate you claim depends on when the miles were driven. Leave the calculator's rate field on the current 76-cent rate for recent miles, or enter 72.5 for first-half mileage.

Who qualifies

If you drive for income — client meetings, job sites, deliveries, rideshare shifts — and report that income on Schedule C (Form 1040), the business portion of your car costs is deductible there. That covers freelancers, independent contractors, and gig workers. Commuting from home to a regular workplace does not count, and personal trips never count: only miles driven for business purposes are deductible, and you cannot claim both the mileage rate and actual expenses for the same miles.

Records you must keep

A usable mileage log records the date of each trip, the miles driven, and the business purpose — with starting and ending odometer readings when possible. Log trips contemporaneously; the IRS can disallow mileage it cannot tie to records. A dedicated app or a simple spreadsheet both work. Receipts are only mandatory under the actual-expenses method, where fuel, insurance, repair, and depreciation costs must be substantiated too.

When actual expenses win instead

The standard rate wins most comparisons, but not all of them — run both before you assume. At this page's defaults the standard method gives 8,000 × $0.76 = $6,080 (second-half rate; first-half miles use $0.725), while actual expenses give $6,000 × (8,000 ÷ 12,000) = $4,000: a $2,080 gap in favor of the standard rate. Actual expenses pull ahead in three situations. First, expensive cars: high insurance, major repairs, or steep first-year depreciation push real costs far above what 76 cents a mile bundles in. Second, low-mileage years: the standard rate scales with miles, but insurance and registration cost the same parked as driven, so few business miles on a costly car favors actual expenses. Third, heavy business use of an older paid-off car flips back — run the calculator both ways every year, because the winner changes as the car ages. Whichever method you take, the substantiation standard is the same: date, miles, and business purpose for every trip, per IRS Publication 463.

Go deeper

Our mileage deduction guide walks through worked examples, method-switching rules, and gig-driver specifics. To see how the deduction flows through to real take-home money, pair it with the side hustle profit calculator, the break-even calculator, and the late payment interest calculator.

The per-mile figures on this page were recomputed by hand from the 2026 IRS standard mileage rate, outside the calculator. How we check every page.