The 2026 IRS mileage rates — what they represent
The IRS standard business mileage rate for 2026 is $0.70 per mile. This rate is calibrated to the average all-in operating cost of a mid-size sedan: fuel, insurance, depreciation, maintenance, tires, and incidental repairs. It's set each December based on AAA cost-of-driving data for the prior year plus projected changes.
Medical/moving (for active-duty military on orders): $0.21/mile. Charity: $0.14/mile, set by statute in 1997 and never indexed for inflation, which is why it's low. The business rate moves year-to-year with fuel prices and vehicle costs; it was $0.56 in 2021, $0.585 in early 2022, $0.625 later in 2022 (mid-year adjustment due to gas spike), $0.655 in 2023, $0.67 in 2024, $0.70 in 2026.
Business mileage — who qualifies and for what
Self-employed taxpayers (Schedule C, Schedule F, or Form 1065/1120-S) can deduct business mileage directly against revenue. W-2 employees can also deduct unreimbursed business mileage, but TCJA (2018-2025) suspended this for most W-2 workers via the 2% miscellaneous itemized deduction floor — bringing the deduction to effectively zero for most employees. Check current law for 2026.
Deductible business miles:
- Travel between two or more work locations on the same day
- Travel to client sites, job sites, or off-site meetings
- Travel between a temporary work assignment and your regular workplace
- Travel from home to a client site when your home is your regular place of business
- Travel for ongoing professional education or industry events
NOT deductible:
- Commuting from home to your regular workplace (regardless of distance)
- Personal errands mixed with a business trip (prorate)
- Travel to a second job you hold
Standard rate vs actual expenses — which wins?
For most drivers, the standard rate wins on simplicity and usually on total deduction value too. The actual-expense method requires tracking fuel, insurance, repairs, depreciation, parking, and tolls — then multiplying by business-use percentage.
Example: 8,000 business miles in a Toyota Camry. Standard rate: 8,000 × $0.70 = $5,600 deduction. Actual expense: if total annual car expenses are $8,400 and business use is 35% of total miles, actual = $8,400 × 0.35 = $2,940. Standard wins by $2,660.
Actual expense wins when you have: (1) a luxury or premium vehicle with high depreciation and insurance, or (2) unusually high repair costs in a given year. Example: Porsche driver with $16,000/year total vehicle expenses and 20% business use = $3,200 actual vs $5,600 standard × 3,000 business miles = $2,100 standard. Actual wins by $1,100.
Recordkeeping — the part that trips up audits
The IRS requires a contemporaneous mileage log showing, for each business trip:
- Date of the trip
- Destination (specific, not "client visits")
- Business purpose
- Miles driven
Handwritten logbook, spreadsheet, and app-based tracking all qualify. The keyword is "contemporaneous" — recorded at the time of the trip, not reconstructed at year-end. Apps like MileIQ ($6/month), Hurdlr, Stride, and TripLog automatically log drives based on GPS motion detection, categorize them with one swipe, and export IRS-compliant reports. For anyone claiming more than $3,000/year in mileage deductions, these apps are mandatory in practice.
If audited and records are insufficient, the IRS will disallow the deduction and assess penalty interest. Rebuilding a log from credit card statements and Google Maps estimates rarely satisfies an examiner — the docs need to be contemporary.
Rideshare and delivery drivers: special considerations
Uber, Lyft, DoorDash, Instacart, Amazon Flex, etc. all report 1099 miles through their app dashboards. These are trip-accepted miles. The IRS allows you to deduct all miles driven during active pursuit of rideshare income, which includes:
- Online/available miles (app logged in, waiting for a trip)
- Driving to pick up a passenger or order
- Trip miles with passenger/order
- Driving back to a productive area after drop-off
Platform-reported miles are usually 30-40% of actual deductible miles. A Lyft driver with 12,000 "dispatched" miles on the 1099-K typically has 18,000-22,000 deductible miles when accounting for online time and return drives. The difference — 6,000-10,000 miles at $0.70 — is $4,200-$7,000 of additional deduction. Use an app like Hurdlr or Stride to capture all active-earning miles, not just dispatched.
Related tools
- True cost of ownership — the total cost behind the IRS rate.
- Annual gas cost — a big component of the standard rate.
- Fleet cost — multi-vehicle business operations.
- Depreciation calculator — the biggest actual-expense component.