Free mileage log and IRS mileage deduction calculator for US freelancers

Log each business trip (date, destination, business purpose and miles), add your odometer readings to see the business-use percentage, then print the log or save it as a PDF. The calculator turns your business miles into the standard mileage amount for Schedule C at the IRS rates: 72.5¢ a mile from January 1 to June 30 and 76¢ from July 1 to December 31, 2026, and 70¢ for 2025. No account, no email, no watermark.

Rates and rules checked against irs.gov (the standard mileage rates page, Announcement 2026-11, Notices 2026-10 and 2025-5, Topic 510, Publication 463 and the Schedule C instructions) on 2026-10-11. Not written by an accountant.

The short answer

• 2026: 72.5¢ a business mile from January 1 to June 30, and 76¢ from July 1 to December 31 (IRS: Standard mileage rates). The IRS raised it mid-year: “This modification results from recent increases in the price of fuel.” (Announcement 2026-11).
• 2025: 70¢ a mile all year (IR-2024-312).
• On top: “Other car expenses for parking fees and tolls attributable to business use are separately deductible, whether you use the standard mileage rate or actual expenses.” (Topic no. 510)
• Where it goes: for a sole proprietor, Schedule C line 9 (car and truck expenses): business miles × the rate, plus parking fees and tolls (Instructions for Schedule C).
• You need a record: “The law requires that you substantiate your expenses by adequate records or by sufficient evidence to support your own statement.” (Topic no. 510) The log below is one.

Standard mileage rate calculator

Type your business miles for the year, split at July 1 for 2026, or press Use the miles from the log above. It starts with a made-up example (4,200 and 5,350 miles, $185.50 of parking and tolls).

The example's numbers are made up to show how it works. Each line is rounded to the nearest cent. Checked against the IRS's own example: 1,250 business miles in 2025 gives $875.00, as in the Schedule C instructions (“Multiply the number of business miles driven by 0.70. For example, 1,250 business miles driven × 0.70 = $875.00”).

1. What the IRS says your log should show

Publication 463 (Travel, Gift, and Car Expenses) says: “You should keep the proof you need in an account book, diary, log, statement of expense, trip sheets, or similar record.” For car expenses, its Table 5-1 lists:

• the date of the use of the car;
• your business destination;
• the business purpose;
• the mileage for each business use, and the total miles for the year;
• plus the cost of the car and the date you started using it for business.

• When to write it down: “You should record the elements of an expense or of a business use at or near the time of the expense or use and support it with sufficient documentary evidence.” And: “If you maintain a log on a weekly basis that accounts for use during the week, the log is considered a timely kept record.”
• On a computer is fine: “if you prepare a record on a computer, it is considered an adequate record.” A PDF printed from this page is a record you prepared on a computer; keep it.
• Sampling: “You can keep an adequate record for parts of a tax year and use that record to prove the amount of business or investment use for the entire year.” But “You must demonstrate by other evidence that the periods for which an adequate record is kept are representative of the use throughout the tax year.”

The log's columns follow that list: date, destination (“To”), business purpose and miles, plus an optional “From”. It refuses a trip without a date, a destination, a purpose or a distance. Your odometer readings give the total miles, and so the business-use percentage you need if you use actual expenses instead.

2. Which miles count (and commuting)

• Commuting doesn't: “You can’t deduct commuting expenses no matter how far your home is from your regular place of work.” (Pub 463).
• Client to client does: even with no regular office, “you can deduct the costs of going from one client or customer to another.” (Pub 463).
• If your home is your principal place of business, trips from home to another work location in the same business aren't commuting, “regardless of distance” (Schedule C instructions, line 44b). The same page lists temporary work locations.
• Parking at your regular workplace: “Parking fees you pay to park your car at your place of work are nondeductible commuting expenses.” (Pub 463)

3. Standard mileage rate or actual expenses

• “Use of the standard mileage rates is optional. Taxpayers may instead choose to calculate the actual costs of using their vehicle.” (IR-2025-128) Topic 510 suggests working it out both ways if you can use both.
• First year: “Taxpayers using the standard mileage rate for a vehicle they own and use for business must choose to use the rate in the first year the automobile is available for business use.” Leased: “For a leased vehicle, taxpayers using the standard mileage rate must employ that method for the entire lease period, including renewals.” (IR-2025-128)
• Five or more vehicles: “You must use actual expenses if you used five or more vehicles simultaneously in your business (such as in fleet operations).” (Schedule C instructions). Topic 510 also rules it out if you've claimed depreciation other than straight-line, MACRS, a Section 179 deduction or the special depreciation allowance on the car (Topic no. 510).
• What the rate replaces: with the standard mileage rate, “Do not deduct depreciation, rent or lease payments, or your actual operating expenses.” Business parking fees and tolls you add: “Add to this amount your parking fees and tolls; and” (line 9).
• Depreciation is inside the rate: of the business rate, 35¢ a mile for 2026 and 33¢ for 2025 counts as depreciation, which reduces your car's basis (Notice 2026-10). That matters when you sell the car or switch to actual expenses.
• Electric and hybrid cars too: “The rates apply to fully-electric and hybrid automobiles, as well as gasoline and diesel-powered vehicles.” (IR-2025-128)

4. The rates by period

Announcement 2026-11 says its rates “apply to deductible transportation expenses paid or incurred for business, medical, or moving expense purposes on or after July 1, 2026”, and “The standard mileage rates set forth in Notice 2026-10 continue to apply to deductible transportation expenses paid or incurred for business, medical, or moving expense purposes before July 1, 2026” (IRB 2026-29). So the date of each trip decides its rate, which is why the log groups business miles by period. The other 2026 rates, not used here: charity 14¢, medical and military moving 20.5¢ before July 1 and 23.5¢ from July 1.

5. If you're an employee

This page is for self-employed driving. For employees, the IRS says “taxpayers cannot claim a miscellaneous itemized deduction for unreimbursed employee travel expenses”, except for certain educator expenses; deductions in working out adjusted gross income still apply to, for example, certain Armed Forces reservists, certain state and local government officials and certain performing artists (IR-2025-128). If your employer reimburses you at the standard mileage rate, the log is still useful as the record they'll ask for.

If you'd like your invoices, payments and expenses in one place, our paid Freelance Billing Kit by Small Rows (US$12, one-time) has an expenses tab with an optional US Schedule C category list, where the total from this calculator can go in as one "Car and truck expenses" line. It doesn't keep a mileage log; it's a record-keeping tool, not tax advice.

Where the sources differ

We read the pages listed under Sources on 2026-10-11. A few details don't line up neatly; here's how this page handles them:

• “All miles” in Notice 2026-10. The notice says “The standard mileage rate for transportation or travel expenses for 2026 is 72.5 cents per mile for all miles of business use”. Announcement 2026-11 later changed that from July 1, and the IRS's rates page and Topic 510 (“for 2026 there are different standard mileage rates for the first and second halves of the year”) show both rates. The calculator uses both.
• A source label on the rates page. The IRS table lists the July 1 row's source as “IR-2026-29”, but the link goes to Internal Revenue Bulletin 2026-29, which is Announcement 2026-11. We cite the Announcement.
• No 2026 Schedule C instructions yet. The newest ones (and Publication 463) are for 2025 and only give 70¢. For 2026, the calculator follows the same line 9 steps with the 2026 rates. Check the new instructions when they're out.
• Rounding. The IRS doesn't say how to round miles × rate. The calculator rounds each line to the nearest cent (half a cent up). The IRS's own example comes out exact.
• Next year. The IRS hadn't announced a 2027 rate on 2026-10-11. We'll add it when it does, not before; trips dated outside 2025–2026 show as “other dates” in the log.

How the calculator works

• Miles to one decimal; for 2026, the miles before July 1 times 72.5¢ and the miles from July 1 times 76¢; for 2025, all miles times 70¢. Each line is rounded to the cent, then parking fees and tolls are added.
• Use the miles from the log above copies the log's business miles for each period of the chosen year (trips with errors aren't counted).
• It works in whole cents and tenths of a mile, so no floating-point rounding creeps in.

What it doesn't do

• It doesn't save or send anything. There's no account and no history; print or save the PDF.
• It doesn't decide what counts as business driving, or work out actual expenses, depreciation, the basis reduction, Form 4562 or state rules.
• One vehicle per log, at most 60 trips per page of the log, up to 3,000 miles per trip. No GPS, no maps, no automatic distances.

Related free resources

• UK mileage log and HMRC mileage rates calculator and the Canadian vehicle logbook (kilometres, CRA rules), if you also drive for work there.
• US self-employment tax calculator: Social Security and Medicare on your profit, Schedule SE line by line.
• US quarterly estimated tax planner: who pays, the due dates and four payments.
• Form 1099-NEC for US freelancers: who sends one, and checking them against your records.
• All free tools.

Sources

IRS pages on irs.gov, read on 2026-10-11. The rate changes at least once a year (and mid-year in 2026); check the live pages before you rely on them.

• Rates: Standard mileage rates · Announcement 2026-11 (IRB 2026-29) · IR-2025-128 · Notice 2026-10 (PDF) · IRB 2026-4 · IR-2024-312 · Notice 2025-5 (PDF)
• Rules and records: Topic no. 510, Business use of car · Publication 463 (2025) · Instructions for Schedule C (2025)

irs.gov "Page Last Reviewed or Updated" when read: standard mileage rates 28-Jul-2026; IRB 2026-29 10-Jul-2026; Topic 510 09-Oct-2026; Publication 463 and the Schedule C instructions 30-Apr-2026.

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