The IRS mileage rate for 2026

Work out a trip

Type the miles. What comes off your profit is the miles times the rate, and what comes back is that times your rate.

What the rate covers

The standard rate stands in for everything it costs to run the car: gas, oil, tires, repairs, insurance, registration and depreciation. You don’t keep those receipts, and you can’t deduct them as well.

On top of it you can deduct parking and tolls for business trips, and the business share of interest on a car loan and of any personal property tax on the car. Parking tickets and fines never count.

Which miles count

Driving to a client, a supplier, a job site or the bank for the business counts. Driving from home to a regular office you rent is a commute, and a commute never counts.

If your home office is your principal place of business, the drive from it to anywhere else for work is business, starting at your door.

The rate or what it really costs

Instead of the rate you can deduct the business share of what the car actually costs. It pays when the car is expensive to run and you drive it mostly for work.

Choose the rate in the first year you use a car for business if you want to keep the choice later. Start with actual costs and depreciation, and that car stays on actual costs. Five or more cars at once can’t use the rate.

Either way, keep a log as you go: the date, where, why and the miles. More on deducting a car.