The 2026 business standard mileage rate
| Miles driven | Rate per mile | Your deduction |
|---|---|---|
| 1 January – 30 June | 72.5¢ | $2,900 |
| 1 July – 31 December | 76.0¢ | $4,560 |
| A yearly total with no dates | 74.3¢ | — |
The mid-year rate applies to expenses paid or incurred on or after 1 July, so the changeover is the day you drove — not the day you file. The last row is the weighted average of the two halves, and it is the figure the rest of Deductsy deducts with, because the entity forms collect one annual number and no month split.
Deducted at 72.5¢ a mile.
Deducted at 76.0¢ a mile.
Odometer at the end of the year minus the start. Sets your business-use percentage.
Business-use percentage: 66.7%
Actual vehicle costs for the year
Everything you spent running the vehicle, business and personal together. Your business-use percentage is applied to the total.
Gas or charging for the whole year.
Depreciation on a car you own, or the payments on one you lease.
Standard mileage
Wins$7,460
10,000 business miles, each half at its own rate
Actual expenses
$6,066.67
66.7% of $9,100 of running costs
The standard rate gives you $1,393.33 more
And it needs one number from your log rather than a year of receipts and a depreciation schedule.
Your dated log is worth $35. The same miles entered as one undated yearly total would be priced at the weighted average and come to $7,425 instead. That gap is the whole reason to keep the dates.
Three things that decide whether the miles count
- Commuting is never deductible. Home to your regular workplace is a commute however far it is. Work location to work location is business travel. If your home qualifies as your principal place of business, the first trip of the day stops being a commute — which is the quiet reason the home office deduction is worth more than its own face value.
- The denominator has to exist. Business-use percentage is business miles over total miles driven, and the total is what an examiner asks for first. Two odometer readings, start and end of year, are what support it.
- The first year decides your options. On a car you own, choosing the standard rate in the first year the vehicle is available for business keeps both methods open later. Choosing actual expenses with accelerated depreciation closes the standard rate for that vehicle permanently.
Questions
Frequently asked questions
What is the IRS standard mileage rate for 2026?
2026 has two of them. Business miles driven through 30 June are deducted at 72.5¢ a mile; miles driven on or after 1 July are deducted at 76.0¢ a mile. A mid-year adjustment like this applies to expenses paid or incurred on or after the changeover date, so it is the day you drove the mile that decides the rate — not the day you file. If your log has no dates, the defensible reading of a single annual total is the weighted average of the two halves, 74.3¢ a mile, which is what this calculator uses in "one yearly total" mode.
Standard mileage or actual expenses — which method should I use?
Standard mileage wins for a high-mileage, low-cost vehicle: an efficient car that is fully depreciated, driven a lot for work. Actual expenses wins for an expensive vehicle driven fewer miles, because depreciation, lease payments, insurance and repairs on a costly car add up faster than a per-mile rate does. Run both above. The standard rate is also far less work — one number from your log, instead of a year of receipts and a depreciation schedule.
Can I switch between the standard rate and actual expenses later?
Only in one direction, and only if you start on the standard rate. To use the standard mileage rate on a car you own, you must choose it in the first year the car is available for business use; after that you may switch to actual expenses in a later year (with a straight-line depreciation adjustment). Start on actual expenses with accelerated depreciation and you are locked out of the standard rate for that vehicle for as long as you own it. For a leased car, whichever method you pick in the first year applies for the whole lease.
Do commuting miles count?
No. Driving between home and your regular workplace is commuting, and it is never deductible — no matter how far it is. What counts is business travel between work locations: to a client, to a job site, to the bank or the supply store, or between two places of business. If your home is your principal place of business (the home office rules decide that), the trip from home to a client is business travel rather than a commute, which is one reason the home office deduction is worth more than its own dollar value.
Can a W-2 employee deduct mileage?
Not on a federal return. The 2017 TCJA eliminated the miscellaneous itemized deduction for unreimbursed employee business expenses, so an employee driving their own car for work gets nothing federally — the deduction belongs to the self-employed, to partners, and to the business that reimburses under an accountable plan. Some states still allow the employee deduction on the state return, and an accountable-plan reimbursement from your employer is tax-free to you and deductible to them, which is almost always the better answer.
What records does the IRS actually want?
A contemporaneous log: the date, the miles, where you went and the business purpose, plus the total miles you drove the vehicle for the year so the business-use percentage can be computed. "Contemporaneous" means written down at the time or close to it — a mileage log reconstructed the week before an audit carries very little weight. Keep the odometer reading at the start and end of the year; that single pair of numbers is what supports the denominator of every percentage on this page.
Miles are one line of a Schedule C
The full optimizer prices your vehicle alongside the home office, retirement contributions, entity choice and every other deduction on the same return — and it prices your miles at the same rate this page does.
Open the full calculator