Mileage Deduction Calculator 2026

What This Means For You

Standard Mileage Rate vs Actual Expenses: Which Saves More?

The IRS offers two methods for deducting vehicle expenses from your gig income. Choosing the right one can mean thousands of dollars in additional tax savings.

Standard Mileage Rate (67¢/mile in 2026): Multiply your business miles by the IRS rate. This single rate covers gas, insurance, depreciation, maintenance, registration, and all other vehicle operating costs. Simple to calculate — you just need a mileage log.

Actual Expense Method: Track all real vehicle costs (gas, insurance, repairs, oil changes, tires, depreciation, registration, loan interest, lease payments) for the year. Then multiply the total by your business-use percentage. If 70% of your driving is for business and total costs are $12,000, your deduction is $8,400.

Which is better? Standard mileage generally wins for fuel-efficient vehicles and high-mileage drivers (most gig workers). Actual expenses may save more for expensive, gas-heavy vehicles or those with high depreciation. A delivery driver putting 25,000 business miles on a fuel-efficient car gets a $16,750 deduction at the standard rate — hard to beat with actual expenses unless the vehicle is very expensive to operate.

What Counts as Deductible Business Miles

Not every mile in your car qualifies as a business deduction. The IRS has specific rules:

Deductible: Miles driven while actively on a delivery or ride (passenger in car or en route to pickup), driving between gig locations, driving to buy supplies for your gig business, driving from your home office to a gig location (if you have a qualifying home office), and deadhead miles (driving to a busy zone to start your shift).

NOT deductible: Your regular commute from home to a permanent workplace, personal errands during your shift, driving home after your last delivery/ride (unless your home qualifies as your office), and miles driven while the app is off.

Gray area — "waiting for pings": Miles driven while your gig app is on and you are available for deliveries/rides are generally deductible, even if you have not accepted an order yet. The IRS considers you engaged in business when you are actively seeking work.

How to Track Mileage (IRS Requirements)

The IRS requires a contemporaneous mileage log — meaning records created at or near the time of each trip, not reconstructed later. For each business trip, you must record: date, starting location, destination, business purpose, and miles driven.

Apps are the best solution. Stride, Everlance, MileIQ, and Gridwise automatically track mileage using GPS and produce IRS-compliant reports. Most are free or inexpensive for gig workers. They eliminate the hassle of manual logging and provide bulletproof documentation in case of an audit.

Without proper records, your entire mileage deduction is at risk. In an audit, the IRS can disallow all mileage deductions if you cannot produce a contemporaneous log. A $10,000 deduction disallowed means roughly $3,000 in additional taxes owed. Use an app from day one.

Maximizing Your Mileage Deduction

Log every business mile: Many gig workers undercount by 20-30% — forgetting deadhead miles, trips to the car wash, or drives to pick up supplies. An automatic tracking app catches these.

Establish a home office: If you have a dedicated space at home for gig administration (scheduling, bookkeeping, route planning), your first trip of the day from home becomes deductible as a business trip — not a commute.

Batch personal errands: Mixing personal stops into a business trip converts some personal miles into business miles (if the trip is primarily business). Plan routes to minimize personal interruptions during work shifts.

Consider your vehicle choice: When replacing your vehicle, factor in the mileage deduction. A reliable, fuel-efficient used car maximizes your per-mile profit: lower fuel costs, lower insurance, and the same 67¢/mile standard deduction as a $50,000 truck.

Frequently Asked Questions