IRS Mileage Log Requirements: What Counts as Proof (2026 Rates Included)

If you drive for your business, every mile is worth money at tax time: 72.5 cents per mile for the first half of 2026, and 76 cents from July 1. But the deduction is only as good as your records. The IRS expects a log that shows the date, the destination, the business purpose, and the miles for each trip, plus your total miles for the year. A log you rebuild from memory in April is the one that falls apart in an audit.

This guide is for self-employed people, freelancers, gig drivers, and small business owners. If you're an employee, your employer's reimbursement rules are usually where to start.

(This is general information, not tax advice. Check anything unusual with a tax professional.)

The 2026 rates

The IRS raised the business rate in the middle of 2026, citing higher fuel prices, so this year has two rates:

Period	Business rate
January 1 to June 30, 2026	72.5 cents per mile
July 1 to December 31, 2026	76 cents per mile
All of 2025	70 cents per mile

That split is a good reason to keep a log with dates on every entry. A trip in June and a trip in August are now worth different amounts.

If you use the standard mileage rate, you can't also deduct your actual car costs for that year, like gas, insurance, repairs, depreciation, or lease payments. The rate is meant to cover all of that. What you can add on top: business-related parking fees and tolls.

What the IRS says a log needs

IRS Publication 463 lays out what you need to prove for car expenses. For each business use of the car:

• The date you used the car.
• Your business destination.
• The business purpose of the trip.
• The mileage for that trip.

And for the year as a whole:

• Your total miles, business and personal together.
• The cost of the car and any improvements, and the date you started using it for business, if you ever switch to deducting actual expenses.

Total miles matter because they show what share of your driving was business. That's why an odometer photo on the first and last day of the year is such an easy win.

"Timely" is the word that matters

The IRS says a record made at or near the time of the trip has more value than one prepared later, when memory is fuzzy. You don't have to write every trip down the minute you park. The publication says a log kept on a weekly basis counts as timely.

What it doesn't like is the log that appears all at once, in one handwriting, in one pen, the week before the return is due. If you've ever been tempted to reconstruct a year of driving from your calendar, this is the reason not to.

There's also a sampling rule that helps people with steady routines. You can keep an adequate record for part of the year and use it to prove your business use for the whole year, as long as you can show the sample period is representative. It's not a license to skip logging, but if your driving is the same every week, it's worth knowing about.

What doesn't count as business driving

The one that catches people most often is commuting. Driving between your home and your main or regular place of work is a personal expense, no matter how far it is, and even if you take business calls on the way. The IRS is blunt about it.

Parking at your regular workplace is also a commuting cost, so it isn't deductible either.

Trips from your regular workplace to a client, a supplier, or a job site generally are business. The details depend on your situation, so this is one of the areas worth asking a tax professional about if most of your driving sits close to the line.

Where photos help

A mileage log is a written record. Photos can't replace it, but they can make it much harder to question.

Odometer at the start and end of the year. Take a photo of your dashboard on January 1 and December 31. Your phone records the date and time in the photo's metadata, and anyone can see the reading. That's your total miles, documented.

A photo at each client site or job. A quick photo when you arrive shows where you were and when. Your phone stores the GPS location and time in each photo, which lines up with the date and destination columns in your log. If you use a timestamp camera, like the TimeStamp Camera app, the date, time, and address are printed on the photo itself, so they're visible even if the file's metadata is removed later.

Receipts for parking and tolls. Photograph them the same day. We cover how to keep receipt photos that hold up in can you keep photos of receipts instead of paper.

Turning photos into a log

If you already take photos at each stop, you have most of a mileage log without realizing it.

Our mileage log with photos reads the date and GPS location from your trip photos and turns them into a dated log you can export. GPS route from photos draws the route between your photos on a map, in the order you took them. Both run in your browser, so the photos never leave your device.

You'll still need to add the business purpose for each trip. No photo knows why you went somewhere, and the purpose is one of the four things the IRS asks for.

A log you'll actually keep

The best mileage log is the one you don't abandon in March. For most people that means one of two habits: a quick note in your phone after each trip, or ten minutes every Friday with your calendar and photos from the week. Pick one, and take those two odometer photos. Everything else is detail.

Sources: IRS, "Standard mileage rates"; Internal Revenue Bulletin 2026-29 (Announcement 2026-11); IRS Publication 463, "Travel, Gift, and Car Expenses."