IRS Standard Mileage Rate 2026: Deduction Rules & Calculator

The 2026 Mileage Rates

The IRS updates the standard mileage rate annually to reflect the average cost of operating a vehicle—fuel, maintenance, depreciation, and insurance. For 2026, the business rate is 70 cents per mile, up from 67 cents in 2024. The medical and moving rate is 24 cents per mile, and the charitable rate remains fixed at 14 cents by statute. These rates let you deduct vehicle expenses without tracking every receipt, which is why most self-employed drivers and small business owners use them.

2026 Rates at a Glance

Who Can Use the Standard Rate

The standard mileage rate is available to self-employed individuals, independent contractors, and small business owners who use a personal vehicle for business. You must choose the standard rate in the first year you use the car for business; in later years, you can switch between standard and actual expenses. Employees who receive W-2 wages can no longer deduct unreimbursed business mileage on their federal returns—the 2017 tax law suspended that deduction through 2025. If your employer reimburses you, the reimbursement is tax-free up to the standard rate.

Standard vs. Actual Expense Method

The alternative to the standard rate is the actual expense method: tracking every dollar spent on gas, oil, repairs, tires, insurance, registration, and depreciation, then multiplying by the business-use percentage. Actual expenses usually win for expensive vehicles with high depreciation (luxury cars, large SUVs, trucks), while the standard rate wins for efficient, lower-cost vehicles where the per-mile rate exceeds real costs. The Mileage Depreciation Calculator on this site compares both methods so you can pick the better deduction before filing. Once you choose actual expenses in the first year, you generally cannot switch back to standard.

What the Standard Rate Covers

The 70-cent business rate bundles the average cost of fuel, maintenance, repairs, tires, registration, licenses, insurance, and depreciation. It does not include tolls, parking fees, or loan interest—those are deductible separately as actual expenses even if you use the standard rate. The depreciation component of the 2026 rate is roughly 31 cents per mile, which means the standard method effectively gives you a depreciation deduction without the Section 179 or bonus depreciation limits that apply to actual-expense filers.

Recordkeeping Rules

• •Keep a contemporaneous mileage log—date, starting odometer, ending odometer, business purpose, and destination.
• •Apps like MileIQ, Stride, and Everlance automate tracking via GPS, which satisfies IRS documentation requirements.
• •Log every business trip; the IRS disallows estimated mileage logs during audits.
• •Save toll and parking receipts separately—these are deductible on top of the standard rate.

Frequently Asked Questions