Enter your business miles and the IRS standard mileage rate to see your deduction — and roughly how much tax it saves you. The miles you log are money back in April.
Estimate only, using the IRS standard mileage method. You must keep a contemporaneous log of each business trip (date, miles, purpose) to claim it — a guess isn't deductible. Not tax advice.
The IRS lets you deduct business driving one of two ways. The standard mileage method — miles × the IRS rate — is simplest and what this calculator uses. Every qualifying mile lowers your taxable income, so at a ~30% combined tax rate, each dollar of deduction is about 30 cents back in your pocket.
The IRS requires a record of each business trip — date, miles, and purpose — kept as you go, not reconstructed in April. A shoebox of gas receipts isn't a mileage log. The freelancers who lose this deduction aren't ineligible; they just didn't track it.
The standard mileage rate is the IRS's way of letting you skip tracking every fuel, insurance, repair and depreciation cost on a vehicle. You multiply business miles by a per-mile rate and deduct the result. It is simple, and for most solo operators it is also the larger deduction.
2026 is unusual: the business rate changed mid-year. It was $0.725/mile from 1 January to 30 June and $0.76/mile from 1 July to 31 December (2025 was $0.70 for the whole year). Almost every calculator and guide online quotes one 2026 figure, and whichever they picked is wrong for half the year.
Take this calculator's default of 5,000 business miles. If all 5,000 fell in the second half, the deduction is 5,000 × 0.76 = $3,800. If they all fell in the first half it is 5,000 × 0.725 = $3,625 — a $175 difference on identical driving. Split them 2,400 in the first half and 2,600 in the second and the correct figure is (2,400 × 0.725) + (2,600 × 0.76) = 1,740 + 1,976 = $3,716. Enter each period separately here and add the two results; there is no single rate that gives the right answer for a full 2026 year of mixed driving.
A deduction is not a refund — it reduces the income you are taxed on. On $3,800, at a combined rate of roughly 15% you save about $570; at 22%, about $836; at 30%, about $1,140. For the self-employed the combined rate is usually higher than people assume, because self-employment tax of roughly 14.1% of net profit sits underneath income tax — so mileage reduces both.
Client visits, job sites, supplier runs, the bank, business meetings and temporary work locations all count. Commuting does not — home to your regular place of work, in either direction, is never deductible, and it is almost always the biggest number in an amateur log. If your home is your principal place of business, trips from home to clients can qualify, which changes the total substantially and is worth confirming for your own situation.
The alternative is deducting the real costs of running the vehicle, apportioned by business-use percentage. It usually wins for expensive vehicles, heavy repair years, or low business mileage; the standard rate usually wins for efficient, paid-off vehicles driven a lot for work. Either way you keep the mileage log — the actual-expense method needs business miles to compute the percentage. There are also rules about switching methods in later years, particularly once depreciation is claimed, which is a genuine question for your accountant rather than a calculator.
It gives you the figure. What it cannot do is substantiate it, and substantiation is what the deduction actually depends on: the IRS expects records of the date, destination, business purpose and miles for each trip, kept at or near the time you drove. A year-end estimate — "about 5,000 miles, probably" — is the pattern the contemporaneous-records rule exists to exclude. Our mileage log guide has the log format and a spreadsheet formula that assigns each trip to the right 2026 rate period automatically.
Figures are illustrative and rates change — confirm the current IRS rate and your own position with a tax professional.
Multiply your business miles by the IRS standard mileage rate for the year ($0.70/mile for 2025). 5,000 business miles × $0.70 = a $3,500 deduction. This tool also estimates the tax that saves you.
Driving for work — client or job sites, supply runs, business errands. Your regular commute from home to a fixed workplace does not count.
Yes. The IRS requires a contemporaneous record of each trip (date, miles, purpose). Log it as you go; a year-end estimate isn't deductible if you're audited.
Related: self-employed tax calculator · how to keep a mileage log for taxes · the deductions checklist.
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Yes. The Business Mileage Deduction Calculator is completely free, runs in your browser, and never asks for a signup, email, or download. Enter your numbers and the result updates instantly.
It uses standard formulas and recalculates the moment you change a value, so the math is exact for the inputs you enter. Treat the result as a reliable planning estimate; for decisions with legal or tax consequences, confirm the figures with a qualified professional.
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Last reviewed: September 2026. Free to use, no signup — Business Mileage Deduction Calculator by ToolWise Digital.
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