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What mileage can freelancers deduct?

1. The 2026 rate — and the split-year trap

The IRS raised the standard business mileage rate mid-year in 2026, which makes this year a split year — the first time since 2022 this has happened. Per the IRS: 72.5¢ per mile for business miles driven January 1 through June 30, 2026, and 76¢ per mile for miles driven July 1 onward. For comparison, 2025 was 70¢ all year. (Sources: IRS IR-2025-128 and Announcement 2026-11; the charitable rate stayed at 14¢.)

The practical consequence: if you logged 2026 miles as one lump total, you need two totals now — H1 and H2 — because the rate differs. A freelancer who drove 5,000 business miles in each half deducts $3,625 for the first half and $3,800 for the second, a $7,425 total. Same miles, different math, depending on the date.

2. What actually counts as a business mile

Not all driving is deductible. The rule of thumb: a mile is a business mile when the trip's purpose is business and the trip isn't commuting. That includes:

• Client meetings and on-site work (if your regular workplace is home, see below)
• Trips between two business locations — home office to a co-working space, office to a client's site
• Supply and equipment runs, post-office and bank trips for the business
• Travel to business conferences and training
• Multiple job sites in one day — the miles between client A and client B count even when neither is your office

Personal errands tacked onto a business trip aren't business miles. If you drive 20 miles to a client and stop at the grocery store on the way home, you don't get to round-trip the grocery store into the deduction. Reasonable people handle this by logging only the business-purpose legs.

3. The commuting rule — and the home-office exception that flips it

This is the part most freelancers get wrong. Driving from home to your regular place of work is commuting, and commuting is never deductible — even if you're self-employed. The IRS treats the trip between your home and your normal workplace as personal, full stop.

But here's where working from home changes everything: if your home qualifies as your principal place of business — you do the administrative and management work there, there's no other fixed location where you conduct substantial business — then trips from home to clients are business miles, not commuting. For the freelancer whose "office" is a desk in the spare room, nearly every work trip becomes deductible. The home office isn't just a square-footage deduction; it's what unlocks the mileage.

4. Standard mileage vs. actual expenses — pick one lane

You have two ways to deduct vehicle costs, and you can't double-dip:

Standard mileage: multiply business miles by the IRS rate. It covers gas, depreciation, insurance, and maintenance in one number — plus you can still deduct parking and tolls separately on top of the rate. Simple, and for most freelancers it's the better deal.

Actual expenses: deduct the business-use percentage of everything you actually spent — gas, insurance, repairs, lease payments or depreciation. More paperwork, but it can win on vehicles that are expensive to run.

The lock-in rule matters: if you use the standard rate in the first year you put a car into business service, you can switch to actual expenses later. If you start with actual expenses, you can't switch back to standard mileage for that vehicle. And you can't mix methods for the same vehicle in the same year. When in doubt, start with standard mileage — it keeps your options open.

5. What the IRS requires in your log

A mileage deduction without a log is a deduction that dies in an audit. The IRS requires substantiation: for each business trip, the date, destination, business purpose, and miles driven. A contemporaneous log — recorded at or near the time of the trip — is what holds up. Reconstructed-from-memory spreadsheets in March do not.

This doesn't have to be elaborate. A mileage app, a notebook in the car, or a one-line note per trip works — as long as those four facts are there. The free mileage tracker here logs exactly these fields, and it's the difference between "I drove a lot for work" and a number the IRS accepts. Apps that track automatically are fine, but check their classification: make sure personal trips are excluded before you export.

The one mistake that kills the most mileage deductions: not writing down the purpose. A list of dates and distances is just a driving diary. "Met client re: Q3 invoice redesign, 42 miles" is evidence.

6. The parking-and-tolls kicker

Small line that adds up: parking fees and tolls incurred for business trips are deductible separately, on top of the standard mileage rate. Commuters feel this one — a freelancer who drives to a client's downtown office twice a week and pays $15 in parking each time is leaving about $1,500 a year on the table if they never log it. Save the receipts or log the amounts in the same log.

7. Quick self-audit: are you leaving mileage money behind?

Ask yourself three questions. (1) Is your home your principal place of business? If yes, are your client trips logged as business miles — not waved away as "driving"? (2) Do you have a contemporaneous log with date, destination, purpose, and miles? (3) Are you deducting parking and tolls separately? Three noes is common, and each "no" is money. A freelancer driving 8,000 business miles in 2026 deducts roughly $5,900–$6,000 depending on the split — against self-employment tax, that's real money for ten seconds of logging per trip.

Rates: IRS IR-2025-128 (Dec. 29, 2025) and Announcement 2026-11 / 2026-29 I.R.B. General information, not tax advice — talk to your preparer about your situation.