For a self-employed driver, a freelancer visiting clients or a small business owner on the road, the mileage deduction is often the single biggest line on the tax return — and the one most likely to collapse under an audit, because the record was reconstructed from memory in April instead of kept as the year happened. The IRS is explicit about what it wants: for every trip, the date, the destination, the business purpose and the miles. Our free IRS Mileage Logbook keeps exactly that record: log each business trip, get the deduction computed at the official IRS rate in effect on that trip's date, and print a dated, itemised log with running totals when taxes are due. Everything is stored in your browser's local storage — your trips never leave your device, and no account is required. This guide explains the 2026 rates, what counts as a business trip, and the record-keeping habits that survive an audit.
Step one: log each trip as it happens. Enter the date, where you went, and the business purpose — the IRS requires the purpose, so write it specifically ("client meeting with Acme Corp", not just "business"). Add odometer readings, or just the miles if you do not have them, and the trip is saved instantly. Step two: let the rates apply automatically. Each trip gets the IRS standard rate in effect on its date: 72.5¢ per mile for January 1 through June 30, 2026, then 76¢ per mile from July 1 through December 31, 2026. The tool stores historical IRS rates back to 2023, so you can also log or backfill trips from earlier years and each one still gets the rate that was in effect on its date. Step three: print at tax time. Export a dated, itemised log with running totals — exactly the format the IRS wants — or download a CSV for your accountant. Contemporaneous notes, recorded near the time of the trip, are what auditors look for; reconstructing a year's driving from memory in April is exactly what this tool exists to prevent.
The IRS standard mileage rate bundles the cost of operating your car — gas, maintenance, insurance and depreciation — into one cents-per-mile number. For 2026 the IRS set an unusual split: 72.5 cents per mile from January 1 through June 30, raised mid-year to 76 cents per mile from July 1 through December 31 — only the second mid-year increase in decades. The rate changes nearly every year (70¢ in 2025, 67¢ in 2024), so a log that pins the right rate to each trip date is worth real money at tax time. A trip driven in March is worth 72.5¢ a mile; the same trip in September is worth 76¢. That is why the logbook applies the rate per trip date instead of one flat rate for the year — and why a spreadsheet with a single rate typed at the top will quietly under-claim every second-half trip. At 76¢ a mile, 10,000 business miles is a $7,600 deduction; at the wrong rate, the same driving leaves money on the table or, worse, over-claims and invites questions.
Driving between work locations, to client sites, to the post office or supply store for business errands, and to business meetings all count. What does not count: your regular commute from home to a fixed workplace. That is the line auditors check first, and it is the line most logs blur — so write the purpose for every trip and be honest about which trips were commutes. There is one important exception: if you have a qualifying home office, trips from home to clients generally do count, because home is your principal place of business. That is one more reason to keep the purpose field specific rather than vague — "home office to client site" tells a different story from "driving". The standard mileage deduction is available to self-employed people, freelancers and business owners (Schedule C), and to employers reimbursing employees. Employees generally cannot deduct unreimbursed business travel on itemised returns under current law — if your employer reimburses you, this log still gives you clean documentation to submit.
Reconstructing the year in April. Contemporaneous records are what auditors accept; a log written from memory months later is the weakest possible evidence. Log each trip as it happens. Logging the commute. Home to a fixed workplace is not deductible, and mixing commutes into the log undermines the whole record. Writing vague purposes. "Business" is not a purpose; "client meeting with Acme Corp" is. The purpose field is the difference between a deduction and a disallowance. Using one flat rate for the whole year. The 2026 rate splits mid-year — 72.5¢ then 76¢ — and a single rate under-claims the second half. Skipping odometer readings. Miles alone are acceptable, but odometer readings are the gold standard of proof because they make the numbers checkable. Forgetting the log exists until tax time. A logbook only works if it is used weekly; the trips you forget to record are deductions you never claim.
The honest limits are four. First, the tool logs trips on this device, in this browser's local storage — if you switch devices, the log does not follow you, so export a CSV or print the log regularly as a backup. Second, the standard rate is a bundle: if you claim it, you cannot separately deduct gas, maintenance, insurance and depreciation for the same miles — the rate already includes them. Third, rates change every year and the tool applies the rate in effect on each trip's date, so backfilled trips from earlier years use those years' rates, not the current one. Fourth, this is a record-keeping tool, not tax advice: whether you qualify for the deduction, and whether the standard rate or actual expenses works better for you, depends on your situation, and a tax professional is worth consulting for a first year or a large claim. Within those limits, the tool does one job completely: it keeps the dated, itemised, purpose-specific record the IRS asks for, at the right rate for every trip, privately on your device. The companion guides are our fuel cost guide, for pricing the driving itself before you claim it, our take-home pay guide, for the tax picture the deduction fits into, and our invoice guide, for billing the clients those miles took you to.
Price the driving itself — cost per mile and the round-trip split — before you claim it.
The tax picture the mileage deduction fits into, by state, with 2026 figures.
Bill the clients those miles took you to, with line items and tax.