IRS Mileage Deduction Calculator

Tax season doesn't have to be a guessing game—especially when it comes to mileage deductions.

This IRS mileage deduction calculator helps you estimate your tax savings for business, medical, and charitable driving. Whether you're a freelancer tracking client visits, a gig worker logging deliveries, or someone making regular trips to medical appointments, this tool shows you exactly how much you can deduct using the current 2025 IRS standard mileage rates.

Just enter your miles for each category, and you'll see your total deduction instantly. No spreadsheets, no formulas to remember, no digging through IRS publications.

The IRS updates mileage rates each year to reflect changes in vehicle operating costs. Here's some good news: the 2025 business rate increased to 70 cents per mile, up from 67 cents in 2024. That extra 3 cents adds up fast if you drive a lot for work.

Why are the rates so different? The business rate accounts for everything—gas, insurance, depreciation, maintenance, tires, the works. Medical and charity rates only cover your direct out-of-pocket costs like gas and oil, not the full cost of owning and operating your vehicle.

One quirk worth knowing: the charity rate is set by Congress, not the IRS, which is why it barely budges. It's been 14 cents since 1998. The business and medical rates, on the other hand, get recalculated annually based on actual driving cost studies.

Here's where many people either leave money on the table or get themselves into trouble with the IRS. Not every mile counts—and the rules aren't always intuitive.

Miles you can deduct:

• Traveling between work locations (your office to a client site)
• Visiting clients or customers
• Running work errands (bank deposits, supply runs, post office trips)
• Driving to business meetings, conferences, or networking events
• Traveling to temporary work locations

The commute trap: Your daily drive from home to your regular workplace? Not deductible. The IRS calls this commuting, and it's considered personal driving—even if you take work calls the whole way there.

But here's the exception most people miss: If you have a legitimate home office that qualifies as your principal place of business, the rules flip. Suddenly, your drive from home to a client site or temporary work location becomes a deductible business trip, not a commute. This single distinction saves home-based freelancers and business owners thousands of dollars.

You can deduct miles driven to get medical care, including:

• Doctor and dentist appointments
• Hospital visits and ongoing treatments
• Physical therapy, mental health appointments, lab work
• Picking up prescriptions (the pharmacy trip counts)
• Traveling to see specialists

The catch: Medical mileage only helps if you itemize deductions on Schedule A, and only medical expenses exceeding 7.5% of your adjusted gross income are deductible. For a lot of people, the standard deduction ends up being the better deal. But if you have significant medical expenses—ongoing treatment, a chronic condition, a tough year health-wise—these miles can push you over that threshold.

Driving while volunteering for a qualified 501(c)(3) nonprofit? Those miles count:

• Delivering meals for Meals on Wheels or similar programs
• Driving to and from volunteer shifts
• Transporting supplies or donations for charitable events
• Shuttling people for church mission trips (if the organization qualifies)

What doesn't work: Driving to attend religious services isn't deductible, even if you consider it charitable. And if the driving primarily benefits you—say, a volunteer gig that's really just networking—the IRS won't see it as charity.

You've got two ways to calculate your vehicle deduction, and picking the wrong one can cost you. Most people default to standard mileage without checking, which is usually fine—but not always.

Multiply your deductible miles by the IRS rate. Done.

Best for:

• Anyone who doesn't want to save every gas receipt
• Newer cars that don't need much repair work
• High-mileage drivers with average vehicle costs

The appeal: It's dead simple. One number times another number equals your deduction. No categorizing expenses, no depreciation calculations, no wondering if that car wash counts.

Track every vehicle-related cost—gas, oil changes, new tires, insurance, registration, repairs, lease payments, depreciation—then multiply the total by your business-use percentage.

Best for:

• Luxury or high-end vehicles (bigger depreciation = bigger deduction)
• Older cars with mounting repair bills
• Anyone whose actual costs significantly exceed 70 cents per mile

The trade-off: You'll need meticulous records. Every receipt, every expense, documented and organized. For some people, the extra deduction is worth the hassle. For others, it's not even close.

Say you drove 10,000 business miles this year. Your total vehicle costs (gas, insurance, maintenance, depreciation) came to $8,500. You use your car 60% for business.

• Standard mileage: 10,000 × $0.70 = $7,000 deduction
• Actual expenses: $8,500 × 60% = $5,100 deduction

Standard mileage wins by almost $2,000. Easy choice.

But flip the scenario. Same 10,000 business miles, but you drive a pricier vehicle and your costs hit $14,000:

• Standard mileage: 10,000 × $0.70 = $7,000 deduction
• Actual expenses: $14,000 × 60% = $8,400 deduction

Now actual expenses wins by $1,400. Worth the extra record-keeping? Only you can decide.

One rule to know: If you want the flexibility to use standard mileage, you need to choose it in the first year you use your car for business. Start with actual expenses (especially if you claim depreciation), and you might be locked into that method for that vehicle permanently.

Most people stick with standard mileage because it's simpler. Honestly? That's usually the right call.

Three steps, thirty seconds:

Step 1: Check the Mileage Rates The calculator defaults to 2025 IRS rates. If you're calculating for a prior year or your employer reimburses at a different rate, adjust accordingly.

Step 2: Enter Your Miles Plug in your total miles for each category:

• Business miles (self-employment, freelance, gig work)
• Medical miles (if you're itemizing deductions)
• Charity miles (qualified volunteer driving)

Step 3: See Your Deduction The calculator shows your total deduction instantly. This is the amount you can claim—your actual tax savings depend on your bracket. A $5,000 deduction saves someone in the 22% bracket about $1,100 in federal taxes.

Numbers on a page only go so far. Here's how this actually plays out for different people:

Marcus runs a design studio from his home office (his principal place of business). In 2025, he drove 8,500 miles—client meetings, photo shoots at various locations, picking up equipment.

His calculation: 8,500 miles × $0.70 = $5,950 deduction

In the 24% tax bracket, that's roughly $1,428 back in his pocket. Not bad for miles he was driving anyway.

Aisha drives for DoorDash evenings and weekends while working a day job. She tracked 14,200 delivery miles in 2025.

Her calculation: 14,200 miles × $0.70 = $9,940 deduction

This wipes out a huge chunk of her gig income for tax purposes. Between federal income tax and the 15.3% self-employment tax, she's saving over $3,000. The mileage deduction is the single biggest tax break most gig workers have—and too many don't track their miles properly to claim it.

Robert was diagnosed last year and has been driving 45 miles each way to a cancer center for treatment. In 2025, he made 32 round trips for chemotherapy.

His calculation: 2,880 miles × $0.21 = $604.80 deduction

Combined with his other medical expenses, this helped push his total over the 7.5% AGI threshold—making all those costs deductible. When you're dealing with serious illness, every bit of tax relief helps.

Patricia spends two mornings a week delivering meals for a local nonprofit. She logged 1,400 volunteer miles in 2025.

Her calculation: 1,400 miles × $0.14 = $196 deduction

It's not a huge number, but she's not doing it for the tax break anyway. Still, why leave money on the table?

James is self-employed and also drives for medical appointments and volunteer work.

Different rates, different purposes, one calculator. He'd need to report business miles on Schedule C and medical/charity on Schedule A (if itemizing), but the math is straightforward.

Here's the uncomfortable truth: claiming mileage deductions without proper documentation is one of the easiest ways to lose an audit. The IRS doesn't just want to know how many miles you drove—they want proof you tracked them as you went.

That's IRS-speak for "recorded at the time it happened." A mileage log created in April for miles you drove in January? That's reconstructed, not contemporaneous, and the IRS knows the difference. They've denied deductions over this exact issue.

• Date of the drive
• Where you went (destination or route)
• Why (business purpose: "Client meeting with ABC Corp" beats "work stuff")
• Miles driven

You don't need to document personal trips—just the deductible ones.

• Mileage apps like MileIQ, Everlance, or Hurdlr — they use GPS to log trips automatically. Easiest option by far.
• Paper log book — old school, but it works. Keep it in your car.
• Spreadsheet — fine if you're disciplined about updating it

The best system is the one you'll actually use consistently. A fancy app doesn't help if you forget to categorize trips for three months.

At minimum, three years after filing. But the IRS can look back six years if they suspect significant underreporting—so longer is safer. Storage is cheap. Audits aren't.

If you haven't been tracking and it's already mid-year, start now. Some deduction is better than none. Going forward, you'll have solid records; for the months you missed, you may be able to reconstruct from calendar appointments, but it's not ideal. Lesson learned.

This calculator provides estimates based on IRS standard mileage rates and is for informational purposes only. Your actual tax situation depends on your filing status, total income, other deductions, and circumstances specific to you.

This isn't tax advice. If you've got a complicated situation—multiple businesses, vehicle depreciation questions, mixed-use vehicles with employees driving them—talk to a CPA or tax professional who can look at your full picture.