Mileage Deduction for the Self-Employed (2026)

The two methods

Standard mileage rate: business miles × $0.725 (2026). Simple, and usually larger for an ordinary car. Actual expenses: the business-use percentage of gas, insurance, repairs, depreciation, and lease payments. Better for expensive or heavily driven vehicles. You choose a method in the first year the car is used for business; if you want the flexibility to switch later, start with the standard rate.

Worked example: standard vs actual

Say you drive 12,000 business miles in 2026. Standard method: 12,000 × $0.725 = $8,700. Actual method: if your car costs about $9,000 a year to run (gas, insurance, repairs, and depreciation) and 60 percent of your driving is for business, that is $5,400. Here the standard rate wins by $3,300. For an expensive vehicle with heavy depreciation, the actual method can flip ahead, which is why it is worth running both in your first year.

Which miles count

• Deductible: driving to clients and job sites, supply and bank runs, and between work locations. For gig drivers, miles with a passenger or delivery and driving to the next pickup.
• Not deductible: your commute from home to a regular workplace, and personal trips.
• On top of the rate: tolls and parking are deductible separately.

A qualifying home office can turn drives that would be non-deductible commuting into deductible business miles, because your trips start from your principal place of business.

Mileage for rideshare and delivery drivers

Gig drivers rack up the most deductible miles of any freelancer, and mileage is usually their single largest write-off. Miles while you are online and available, en route to a pickup, and with a passenger or delivery all count. The catch: rideshare and delivery apps only report a portion of your mileage (typically just on-trip miles), so relying on the app number alone leaves money on the table. Keep your own log. At $0.725 per mile, even 15,000 platform miles is a $10,875 deduction. See the full rideshare and delivery driver write-off list for everything else you can claim.

Keep an IRS-proof log

The IRS wants a contemporaneous record: the date, miles, and business purpose of each trip, plus your total annual mileage. Reconstructing it in April rarely holds up. Log trips as they happen with a mileage app or a tool like NeoReceipt, which records your business miles at the IRS rate alongside your receipts, so your deduction is documented and audit-ready.