Mileage Deduction Calculator (2026)

How to use this mileage deduction calculator

1. Enter your business miles and your personal miles for the year. Commuting from home to a regular workplace is personal, no matter how far it is.
2. Fill in what the vehicle actually cost to run: fuel, insurance, repairs, tires, registration, and either your lease payments or this year's depreciation. Enter whole-vehicle figures — the calculator applies the business percentage.
3. Add parking and tolls from business trips, and car loan interest if you are self-employed. These are deducted on top of the standard rate, not inside it.
4. Compare the highlighted total with the per-mile figure next to it. If your actual costs come to less than 72.5 cents a mile, the standard rate is simply better.
5. Read the logging requirements at the bottom before you claim anything. A deduction you cannot substantiate is worth nothing when it is questioned.

The standard rate, the actual method, and the choice you cannot undo

The standard mileage rate for 2026 is 72.5 cents a business mile, up 2.5 cents from 2025. That single number is meant to cover everything about running the car: fuel, insurance, repairs, tires, registration and depreciation. You multiply business miles by the rate and that is your deduction. No receipts for any of it — but you still need the mileage log, and the log is not optional.

The actual expense method takes what the vehicle really cost you over the year and applies your business-use percentage. It wins when the car is expensive to own relative to how far it goes: a new vehicle in its first years of depreciation, a heavy repair year, low annual mileage. It loses when the car is cheap and covers a lot of ground, because the standard rate keeps paying 72.5 cents whether the mile cost you forty cents or eighty.

Two things are deductible under both methods and are frequently left out of both. Parking and tolls on business trips come off in full, on top of whatever method you use. And if you are self-employed, the business share of interest on a car loan is a business expense as well — an employee gets no such deduction, which is one of the few places the tax code favours the self-employed on vehicles.

Then the part that catches people years later. If you want the option of using the standard rate for a vehicle, you must use it in the first year that car is available for business. Start with the actual expense method and claim accelerated depreciation, and that vehicle is locked into actual expenses for as long as you own it. The reverse is not true — start with the standard rate and you can switch to actual later, with the caveat that you must then use straight-line depreciation. In practice this means the safe move in year one, when you do not yet know what the car will cost you, is the standard rate. It keeps both doors open.

Commuting is the other reliable way to lose this deduction. Driving from home to your regular place of work is personal mileage no matter how far it is or how strongly you feel otherwise. What does count: travel between two work locations, trips to clients and job sites, and — if your home is your principal place of business — trips from that home office to anywhere you work. That last exception is why the home office deduction and the mileage deduction are worth looking at together.

Example

A freelance photographer drives 12,000 business miles and 6,000 personal miles in 2026 — 66.7% business use. Over the year the car costs $2,900 in fuel, $1,650 in insurance, $980 in repairs, $420 in tires, $190 in registration, and $4,200 in lease payments. She also paid $310 in parking and tolls on client shoots. Her business profit is $78,000 and she files as single.

Standard method: $9,010.00 — $1,806.67 more than actual.

Her real cost per business mile is the number that decides it. $7,203.33 spread over 12,000 business miles is 60.0 cents a mile, against a standard rate of 72.5 cents. The government is willing to pay her 12.5 cents a mile more than the car actually costs, and over 12,000 miles that is $1,500 of deduction she would throw away by keeping receipts instead.

In tax terms the gap is about $416 — $2,076.92 saved under the standard rate against $1,660.47 under actual expenses. Worth noting how much each deduction is worth: roughly 23% of its face value, because it comes off business profit and so reduces self-employment tax as well as income tax, while shrinking the QBI deduction slightly in the other direction.

The $310 of parking and tolls sits on top either way. It is a small number here, but on a page like this it is the line most often missed — people assume the 72.5 cents covers everything about the car, and it does cover everything about *running* the car. Parking is not running the car.

Change one input and it flips. Drop her to 4,000 business miles a year in the same vehicle and the standard rate yields $2,900 while actual expenses yield around $2,297 — still standard, but the margin narrows fast. Put her in a newly bought $45,000 vehicle with real first-year depreciation instead of a lease and actual expenses overtake the standard rate comfortably. Low miles plus an expensive car is the profile where receipts pay.

She should still take the standard rate this year, and not only because it is larger. Using it in the first year keeps the option to switch to actual expenses later if she buys a costlier car. Had she started with actual expenses and accelerated depreciation, that vehicle would be locked out of the standard rate permanently.

Limits and things to watch for

• Federal only, and for a vehicle you own or lease and use in a Schedule C business. Employees cannot deduct unreimbursed mileage.
• Depreciation under the actual expense method is more involved than a single figure. Passenger vehicles are subject to annual depreciation caps, bonus depreciation and Section 179 have their own limits and recapture rules, and a leased vehicle may require a separate income inclusion amount. Enter your accountant's figure rather than a guess.
• The first-year rule matters more than the arithmetic: choose the actual expense method with accelerated depreciation in year one and that vehicle can never use the standard rate. This calculator compares a single year; the choice is not a single-year decision.
• Commuting from home to a regular workplace is never deductible. If a home office is your principal place of business, trips from it are business miles — but that depends on the home office itself qualifying.
• It does not handle multiple vehicles, a vehicle switched between methods mid-life, or fleet operations. Five or more vehicles used simultaneously are excluded from the standard rate entirely.
• It is an estimate for planning, not a filing. Vehicle expenses go on Schedule C Part IV and, where depreciation is involved, Form 4562.

Disclaimer. This calculator is general information, not tax advice. It uses the IRS standard mileage rate published for tax year 2026 and models the ordinary Schedule C case. Depreciation limits, leasing rules and the first-year method election depend on your circumstances. Confirm with a qualified accountant, and check the sources below if the last-updated date is old.

Frequently asked questions

What is the 2026 mileage rate?

72.5 cents per mile for business use, effective 1 January 2026 — up 2.5 cents from 2025. The medical and moving rate is 20.5 cents, and the charitable rate is 14 cents, which is set by statute and has not moved in years. The business rate applies to electric and hybrid vehicles as well as petrol and diesel.

Do I need a mileage log if I use the standard rate?

Yes. The standard rate frees you from keeping fuel and repair receipts; it does not free you from proving the miles. You need the date, the mileage, the destination and the business purpose of each trip, plus odometer readings that establish your business percentage. This is the single most commonly disallowed deduction for sole proprietors, and it is almost always disallowed for lack of records rather than dishonesty.

Does my commute count?

No. Home to a regular workplace is personal mileage, however far it is. Travel between work locations counts, as do trips to clients and job sites. If your home genuinely qualifies as your principal place of business, trips from there to work locations are business miles — which is the strongest practical argument for getting the home office deduction right first.

Can I switch methods later?

One direction only. Start with the standard rate and you may switch to actual expenses in a later year, though you must then use straight-line depreciation for the rest of the vehicle's life. Start with actual expenses and accelerated depreciation and that vehicle is locked out of the standard rate for as long as you own it. When you do not know what the car will cost you, starting with the standard rate is the choice that preserves options.

Are parking and tolls included in the 72.5 cents?

No, and this is worth money. Parking and tolls on business trips are deducted in full on top of the standard rate. So is the business share of car loan interest if you are self-employed. What the rate does cover is the cost of operating the car itself — fuel, insurance, maintenance, depreciation.

What about a car I use mostly for personal driving?

You deduct the business portion, which is why the personal mileage field exists. Low business use makes the actual expense method weak — you are apportioning a small slice of the costs — while the standard rate pays the same 72.5 cents on every business mile regardless of what the rest of the year looked like. Mixed-use vehicles with modest business mileage are the clearest case for the standard rate.

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