Business Mileage Deduction Calculator (2026)

Miles between business locations, miles to meet clients, miles for business errands. Commuting from home to your regular workplace is NOT deductible. Driving from your home office to a client meeting IS (if home is your primary place of business).

Standard mileage is simpler — no receipt tracking. Actual-expense method tracks gas, maintenance, insurance, depreciation, etc., then applies a business-use % to the total. Actual can be larger if you have a thirsty vehicle or expensive depreciation; standard is typically the safer + simpler choice. Generally you must choose method in year 1 of business use.

Yes. The IRS requires a contemporaneous (kept-as-you-go) log of each business trip: date, destination, business purpose, miles. Apps like MileIQ, Everlance, and Stride auto-track via phone GPS. A paper log works too. Without it, the IRS can disallow the deduction in an audit.

Generally no, not freely on the same owned vehicle. If you use the standard mileage rate in the first year the vehicle is placed in business service, you can typically switch to actual expenses in a later year. But once you switch to actual expenses (and claim depreciation), you generally can't switch back to the standard rate for that vehicle. Leased vehicles must use whichever method you choose for the entire lease term. See IRS Publication 463 and confirm with a CPA before changing methods.

It depends on where your regular workplace is. Ordinary commuting from home to your regular fixed workplace is never deductible. But if your home is your principal place of business, trips from home to a coworking space, a client meeting, or any other business-related site are deductible business mileage — it's travel between business locations, not a commute.