Is your car tax deductible?
Partly. The miles you drive for the business are deductible, either at the IRS mileage rate or as their share of what the car costs.
The rule
There are two ways to deduct a car. The standard mileage rate multiplies your business miles by a rate the IRS sets each year, which covers gas, insurance, repairs and depreciation. The actual-expense method takes the business share of all of those, plus depreciation, and needs every receipt.
Business miles are trips to clients, suppliers, job sites, the bank or the post office for the business. Driving from home to a regular office you rent is a commute and never counts. If your home office is your principal place of business, trips from it to anywhere else for work are business from your door.
Buying the car doesn’t make the price deductible at once. Under the actual method it is depreciated by its business share, and heavier SUVs and trucks can be written off faster.
A 24-mile trip to a client at 76¢ a mile is $18.24 off your profit.
Priced at 36¢ on the dollar, the rate of a $95,000 sole proprietor in California. Work out yours.
- Where it goes
- Schedule C line 9, car and truck expenses
- What to keep
- A mileage log kept as you go: the date, where you went, why and the miles. For the actual method, every car receipt and the total miles for the year.
- Watch for
- Pick the standard rate in the first year you use a car for business if you want to keep the choice; start with actual costs and that car stays on them.
- Parking and tolls for business trips go on top of either method. Tickets and fines never do.
Checked on September 25, 2026 against Publication 463, Travel, Gift and Car Expenses and Standard mileage rates. An estimate for your records, not tax advice.
By the kind of work
What else each of these can deduct, and what they tend to miss.
See it on every receipt.
Snap it and Reimburse files it on the right Schedule C line, takes the deductible share and shows what it puts back.