The 2026 IRS standard mileage rates, effective for miles driven on or after January 1, 2026, are 72.5 cents per mile for business use, 20.5 cents per mile for medical travel and qualified military moving, and 14 cents per mile for driving in service of a charity.1Internal Revenue Service. IRS Sets 2026 Business Standard Mileage Rate at 72.5 Cents per Mile, Up 2.5 Cents The business rate is up 2.5 cents from 2025; the medical and moving rates dropped by half a cent; the charitable rate is fixed by statute and does not move with inflation.2Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 170 – Charitable, Etc., Contributions and Gifts
The Four Rates at a Glance
- Business driving: 72.5 cents per mile. The IRS sets this figure each year based on a study of fixed costs like depreciation, insurance, and registration, and variable costs like fuel and maintenance.1Internal Revenue Service. IRS Sets 2026 Business Standard Mileage Rate at 72.5 Cents per Mile, Up 2.5 Cents
- Medical travel: 20.5 cents per mile, claimed as part of the medical expense deduction on Schedule A.
- Moving for qualified active-duty military and certain intelligence community members: 20.5 cents per mile. The general moving expense deduction remains suspended for civilians.
- Charitable driving: 14 cents per mile, claimed as part of your charitable contribution on Schedule A.
Parking fees and tolls tied to a business trip are deductible in addition to the mileage figure, whichever method you use to calculate the vehicle deduction itself.3Internal Revenue Service. Topic No. 510, Business Use of Car
Who Can Actually Deduct Business Mileage
The rate exists; whether you get to use it is a separate question, and it depends on how you earn your income.
Self-employed individuals and independent contractors can deduct business mileage on Schedule C. Farmers use Schedule F. This is the main group claiming the deduction, and for them the 72.5-cent rate directly reduces taxable self-employment income.
W-2 employees generally cannot. The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act eliminated the deduction for unreimbursed employee business expenses starting in 2018, and the One Big Beautiful Bill Act made that elimination permanent. A salaried employee who drives between client sites, to trainings, or to off-site meetings without reimbursement has no federal deduction for those miles.
Four narrow categories of employees still qualify and file Form 2106: Armed Forces reservists, qualified performing artists, fee-basis state or local government officials, and employees with impairment-related work expenses.4Internal Revenue Service. Instructions for Form 2106 If you don’t fit one of those boxes and you’re a W-2 employee, the route to being made whole is employer reimbursement, not the tax return.
What Counts as a Deductible Mile
Your daily commute is not deductible. Driving from home to your regular workplace and back is a personal expense no matter how far the drive or what you do along the way.5Internal Revenue Service. Publication 463, Travel, Gift, and Car Expenses Carrying tools in the trunk does not change that, and neither does a company logo on the vehicle.
Miles that do qualify as business travel include:
- Trips between two work locations in the same day, such as office to client site or job site to job site.
- Trips from home to a temporary work location expected to last less than one year, when you also have a regular workplace elsewhere.6Internal Revenue Service. Understanding Business Travel Deductions
- Trips from a qualifying home office to client sites and other business destinations, when your home is your principal place of business.
Standard Rate or Actual Expenses
The standard mileage rate is one of two ways to deduct vehicle costs. The alternative, the actual expense method, adds up everything it costs to operate the car (gas, oil, repairs, tires, insurance, registration, depreciation or lease payments) and lets you deduct the business-use percentage of the total.3Internal Revenue Service. Topic No. 510, Business Use of Car
The standard rate is simpler because it only requires an accurate mileage log. The actual expense method tends to produce a larger deduction when the vehicle is expensive to operate or the business-use percentage is high. The IRS itself suggests running the numbers both ways before choosing.3Internal Revenue Service. Topic No. 510, Business Use of Car
Two lock-in rules matter before you pick. For an owned vehicle, you must elect the standard rate in the first year the car is available for business use if you want the option later; starting with actual expenses in year one locks that car into actual expenses for its entire business life.5Internal Revenue Service. Publication 463, Travel, Gift, and Car Expenses For a leased vehicle, choosing the standard rate binds you to it for the whole lease.
You also cannot use the standard rate if you operate five or more vehicles at the same time (fleet use), or if you have previously claimed MACRS depreciation, a Section 179 deduction, or bonus depreciation on the vehicle.7Internal Revenue Service. Rev. Proc. 2019-46 Alternating between cars on different days is not the same as running them simultaneously and does not trigger the fleet rule. Vehicles used for hire, such as taxis, remain eligible for the standard rate as long as no other restriction applies.5Internal Revenue Service. Publication 463, Travel, Gift, and Car Expenses
The Records the IRS Expects
Federal law requires adequate records or sufficient corroborating evidence for any vehicle deduction, and the practical standard is a contemporaneous log written at or near the time of each trip.8Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 274 – Disallowance of Certain Entertainment, Etc., Expenses A log reconstructed at tax time is not what the statute has in mind.
For each business trip, record the date, the destination, the business purpose, and the miles driven (starting and ending odometer readings, or the trip total). A paper notebook is fine. A smartphone app that logs GPS automatically is fine too. What the IRS cares about is that each of those fields is captured for each trip. Without a log, the entire deduction can be disallowed on audit, along with penalties and interest.
Where the Deduction Goes on Your Return
Self-employed individuals report vehicle expenses on Schedule C, listing total business miles, commuting miles, and other personal miles separately. The deductible amount reduces net self-employment income. Farmers use Schedule F.3Internal Revenue Service. Topic No. 510, Business Use of Car
The four categories of employees who still qualify report on Form 2106, which feeds into the 1040.9Internal Revenue Service. Instructions for Form 2106
Charitable and medical mileage go on Schedule A, folded into the charitable contribution deduction and the medical expense deduction respectively. The medical figure is subject to the adjusted gross income floor for medical expenses.
If Your Employer Reimburses You Instead
Because most employees can no longer deduct mileage themselves, employer reimbursement matters. Under an accountable plan, reimbursement requires a business connection, adequate records provided by the employee within 60 days, and return of any excess within 120 days. When the reimbursement rate is at or below the federal standard mileage rate of 72.5 cents, the payment is not taxable, is not included in Box 1 of your W-2, and is reported separately in Box 12 under Code L.5Internal Revenue Service. Publication 463, Travel, Gift, and Car Expenses
Anything paid above the standard rate becomes taxable wages in Box 1. A flat car allowance with no substantiation requirement is not an accountable plan, and the whole amount is taxable. Keep your own log even when your employer reimburses you: the substantiation the plan requires from you rests on it.