The Quick Guide on How To Track Miles for Taxes

If you drive a car for your 1099 contractor work, you can claim a big tax write-off on your vehicle expenses.

The truth is, most people don't actually need to track miles for taxes in order to claim this write-off. That's because there are two ways to calculate your tax deduction, and one of them involves tracking how much you spend on car-related expenses.

But before we dive into how — and whether — to track your miles, let's talk about what qualifies as business mileage in the first place.

What qualifies as business mileage?

First things first. Commuting doesn't qualify as business mileage.

Say you have an office, shop, or other location where you normally conduct your business. In that case, driving from your home to that location is considered commuting and isn't deductible. It's no different than if you were a W-2 worker and commuted to an office each day.

Some freelancers have tried to think of workarounds to turn those commuting miles into business miles — say, by making business calls while driving.

Unfortunately, that won't cut it with the IRS. In their eyes, the commuting rule is black and white.

However, if your office is in your home, then any miles you drive to visit clients or customers does count as business mileage.

Here’s a cheatsheet to help you figure out whether your miles count:

Business mileage

• ✓ Driving to client

• ✓ Driving to a professional conference

• ✓ Driving to meet a client for lunch

• ✓ Driving to the bank, post office, or office supply store for work supplies

Not business mileage

• ✘ Driving from or to home from your office or shop

• ✘ Simply having a sign on your car as you drive around

Tracking your miles with a mileage log

Keeping thorough records will help you document your business expenses. Car-related expenses are no different. If you plan on writing off your car expenses, you can do that with a mileage log template. If you're a rideshare driver, Uber tracks some of your miles for you, and Lyft does the same.

The truth is, logging your miles this way isn’t required to deduct your car-related expenses. Tracking your actual car expenses will generally yield you a bigger tax break. We'll dive into this below, but you can also learn more in our comprehensive guide to deducting car expenses.

Still, if you drive a lot, or like to keep super-detailed records for your own peace of mind, you’ll benefit from logging all your business mileage by following these steps

1. On January 1, start by writing down your car's odometer reading. You'll also record it again at the end of the year!

2. Between January 1 and December 31, keep track of all the business trips you take. For each, note the odometer reading when you first set off, and the reading when you return to your place of work.

3. For each trip, note A) where you went, and B) the business purpose of the trip.

To make things easier, keep a mileage log book right in your car. That way, you can easily jot down your starting and ending readings for each trip while it’s still fresh.

Tracking your miles with an app

If you’re a rideshare or delivery driver who logs a lot of business miles, you might want a more high-tech solution — something that doesn’t require as much manual effort as updating a spreadsheet. That’s where mileage tracker apps comes in.

Some popular mileage tracking apps include: Gridwise, MileIQ, and Everlance.

Tracking your mileage for tax write-offs

Why would an independent contractor or freelancer need to keep a mileage log? It’s so that they can deduct their car expenses from their taxes using the standard mileage method.

This is one of two methods you can use to write off car expenses.

Choose a method: Standard or actual

The IRS allows freelancers, gig workers like Uber or Lyft rideshare drivers, and the self-employed to deduct their business mileage in one of two ways. There’s the standard mileage rate method, and the actual expenses method.

Psst! We've got an article devoted to comparing tracking your mileage vs. keeping track of your actual expenses. But here's a quick rundown.

Standard mileage rate method

Under the standard mileage rate method, you'll take the total number of miles you drove for business purposes during the year and multiply it by the IRS's standard mileage rate. For 2025, the rate is $0.70 per mile. For 2026, it's $0.725 per mile for the first half of the year and $0.76 for the second half.

The IRS initially came up with the standard mileage deduction as a simplified way for taxpayers to take their car expense deduction. You only need to track one thing: the actual miles that you drove that year. At the time, freelancers and gig workers tended to find this easier than tracking all their car expenses.

These days, however, apps like Keeper make it easier to track car-related expenses by automatically scanning your bank account for relevant transactions, without you taking time out to record every gas run or tire rotation. That’s made the standard mileage rate method less attractive to self-employed taxpayers.

Furthermore, as we'll see later, tracking miles doesn't always provide you with the biggest write-off compared to the actual expenses method.

Actual expenses method

Using the actual expenses method is easy if you have expense tracking software.

You'll start by adding up all your expenses for maintaining your car for the year. Then, you'll estimate the percentage of time you drove your car for business purposes — that is, your business mileage divided by your total mileage. That way, you'll be able to deduct the proportional amount of actual expenses.

If you want to be precise, you can also keep a mileage log to track the exact number of business vs. personal miles you’re driving per year. But to be honest, it's not necessary.

Types of expenses allowed under the actual expense method

Why does the actual expense method provide most taxpayers with more savings? Because many different expenses qualify, adding up to a meatier deduction.

These include:

• ☂️ Insurance

• ⛽ Fuel

• 🔧 Maintenance and repairs‍

• 📉 Depreciation‍

• 🛞 Tires

• 🪪 License and registration fees

• 🅿️ Parking

• 🛂 Tolls

• 🏢 Garage rental

• 💰 Most lease payments‍

• 💵 Interest on a car loan

Remember, you can only deduct expenses you actually incur. Estimates or approximations of expenses won't fly with the IRS.

You'll want to keep all records that support the business expenses you deduct from your tax return. This can be credit card and bank statements, bills, canceled checks, or even paper receipts that show the dollar amount, date, location, and the reason for the expense.

The IRS asks you to hang on to these records for three years after you file your return.

Examples of the standard mileage and actual expenses methods

Here's how the two methods compare when it comes to tax savings. The standard mileage rate might change from year to year, but the basic math here will still hold true.

Say that, in 2026, you drove 18,000 miles total — 12,000 of them for work. For simplicity, let's say you drove 6,000 business miles from January through June and another 6,000 from July through December.

Here’s how much your car expenses for the year amounted to:

• ⛽ Fuel: $6,525

• ☂️ Insurance: $2,200

• 🔧 Maintenance and oil changes: $2,350

• 🪪 License and registration fee: $230‍

• 📉 Vehicle depreciation: $3,500

• 💵 Interest paid on car loan: $2,000‍

• 🧮 Total expenses: $16,805

Deduction under the standard mileage method

If you use the standard mileage method, you’ll find the amount of your deduction by multiplying your business mileage by the standard IRS rate. For 2025, that's $0.70. 12,000 miles x $0.70 = $8,400.

Deduction under the actual expenses method

With the standard mileage method, you multiply your business miles by the applicable IRS mileage rate.

For 2026, there are two business mileage rates:

For our example, the math comes out to:

• 6,000 miles × $0.725 = $4,350

• 6,000 miles × $0.76 = $4,560

• Total standard mileage deduction: $8,910

Which option saves more money?

Using the actual expenses option for income tax purposes will generally save you more — at least until you start driving well over the typical amount for freelancers.

If you’re willing to keep tabs on all your car-related spending, you can claim your maximum deduction. Luckily, using expense tracking app like Keeper reduces the hassle of tracking every transaction. With the app, you’ll get an annual summary of all your vehicle expenses.

Thanks to solutions like this, tracking your actual car expenses will generally save you both time and money.

Special note on leased vehicles

Do you lease the car you use for work? Then you should be aware of a specific requirement when choosing your method.

Opt for the actual expenses in the first year you used your leased car for business, and you’ll have to use this method for the entire lease period. You won't be able to switch to the standard mileage method.

If you don’t expect the amount you drive for work to change very much from year to year, then it’s perfectly safe to stick with the actual expenses method if it saves you more.

Additional contributions by Arielle Contreras.