To track mileage for taxes, write down four things for every work trip — the date, where you went, how many miles, and why — the same day or the same week, never in April. For a first-year DoorDash or rideshare driver in 2026, that log is worth real money.

The 2026 rate is 72.5 cents per business mile, and with no log the deduction is $0. Here is what the log has to show, which miles count, and what each mile is worth.

What does the IRS actually require in a mileage log?

Three things: how many miles, the date and destination, and the business purpose of each trip, written down at or near the time you drove, per IRC §274(d) and Treas. Reg. §1.274-5T.

The statute lists four elements — the amount, the time and place, the business purpose, and the business relationship — and says you get no deduction for a car unless you substantiate them, meaning prove them with records rather than estimates. For a car the fourth element drops out; business relationship is aimed at gifts and entertainment, not your Camry.

A car is listed property, meaning assets like vehicles that need stricter records, under §280F(d)(4). That is why the records rule for a vehicle is stricter than for almost any other expense on your return: a reasonable estimate that would be accepted for office supplies is rejected for miles.

Treas. Reg. §1.274-5T is where the word “log” comes from. It says to keep “an account book, diary, log, statement of expense, trip sheets, or similar record,” with each entry made at or near the time of the trip — meaning while you still have full present knowledge of the amount, time, place, and purpose. A record built in April from memory is exactly what the regulation says lacks credibility. A GPS mileage app that timestamps every trip is, functionally, the regulation's ideal record. Publication 463 adds that a log kept on a weekly basis counts as timely, that a record kept on a computer is an adequate record, and that you can even keep a detailed log for part of the year and use it to prove the whole year if you can show that period is representative.

Here is the element-by-element checklist, straight from Pub 463's Table 5-1 for transportation:

One convenience the IRS itself allows: a round trip or an uninterrupted stretch of business driving can be a single record, and a minimal personal stop — lunch between two deliveries — doesn't break the business use.

What is the 2026 standard mileage rate worth to a gig driver?

The business standard mileage rate for 2026 is 72.5 cents per mile, set by IRS Notice 2026-10 and effective for miles driven on or after January 1, 2026 — up 2.5 cents from the 70-cent rate in 2025, per the IRS announcement. It applies to gas, diesel, hybrid, and fully electric cars alike.

That deduction comes off your Schedule C profit, which means it lowers both your income tax and your self-employment tax. A driver logging 15,000 business miles in 2026 is wiping $10,875 off the income both taxes are computed on (15,000 × the 72.5-cent rate in Notice 2026-10). If you want to see what that does to your total bill, our 1099 tax calculator was built for self-employed and gig workers figuring out exactly that number.

Two mechanical notes. Using the rate is optional — you may instead deduct your actual vehicle costs, a choice covered below. And under Notice 2026-10, 35 cents of each 2026 mile is treated as depreciation, which only matters years later if you sell the car (it reduces your basis — the car's cost for tax purposes). For a first-year driver, file that away and move on.

This is the same math we walk through in our DoorDash taxes guide, which was written for a first-year Dasher — the same reader this post is for — and covers the whole return, not just the car.

Which miles count as business miles — and which don't?

Every mile with the app on counts and app-off miles do not: driving to the restaurant, to the customer, to the pickup, and repositioning between gigs while you're logged in and available. Miles driven with the app off — including the drive from your driveway to the part of town where you like to start — are the commuting gray area, and I don't claim them.

Pub 463 is blunt that you cannot deduct the cost of driving between your home and your main or regular place of work, no matter how far it is, and even if you work during the trip. The exception that matters — a home office that qualifies as your principal place of business — is one a gig driver who does all the work in the car generally can't show. So the practical rule for a Dasher is: turn the app on before the car leaves the driveway, and let the log show the trip's purpose from mile one.

This question comes up constantly among drivers who live far from a busy zone. One poster on the TurboTax community asked:

“What if a person drives 90 miles to a larger city to do an Uber or DoorDash? Do they deduct the 90 miles each direction? Or only from where they pick up the person or delivery and back to that place?”

— gpha401, TurboTax Community, June 5, 2024

The 90 app-off miles to the city are the commuting gray area, and the defensible position is to log miles only when the app is on and the trip has a business purpose. Drivers who make that trek should treat the sign-in point as where the deductible day starts.

Two extras stack on top of the rate: parking fees and tolls paid for business driving are deductible separately (Rev. Proc. 2019-46, §4.03). Parking at your own regular work spot is commuting and doesn't count.

Should you take the standard rate or actual expenses?

For a personal car you already own and just started using for gig work, take the standard mileage rate in year one. That choice preserves your flexibility: under Rev. Proc. 2019-46 and Pub 463, if you use the standard rate in the first year the car is available for business use, you can switch to actual expenses in a later year (using straight-line depreciation, meaning the car's cost is written off in equal yearly slices). Go the other direction — claim accelerated depreciation, §179, or bonus depreciation, the methods that front-load a vehicle's write-off into year one — and the standard rate is gone for that car permanently. If the car is leased, whichever method you start with locks in for the entire lease, including renewals. That is the choice I make for nearly every first-year driver who sits across from me.

Remember what the 72.5 cents already buys you: depreciation or lease payments, maintenance and repairs, tires, gas and its taxes, oil, insurance, and registration are all inside the rate. A driver on the standard rate does not also deduct gas at the pump. Only parking and tolls stack on top. If you're weighing whether to deduct gas receipts instead, our guide to writing off gas on your taxes runs the standard rate against actual costs for two kinds of driver.

Step one: multiply your business miles by $0.725 — 8,000 miles is $5,800. Step two: enter that figure below and mark it as a self-employed business expense, and the calculator shows the tax it removes; the mileage deduction reduces both income tax and self-employment tax.

Where do the miles go on your tax return?

One number on Schedule C line 9: business miles multiplied by 0.725 for 2026, plus your business parking and tolls. So 1,250 business miles × $0.725 = $906.25, plus tolls, on line 9. You do not also deduct gas, insurance, repairs, depreciation, or lease payments — those are inside the rate.

Then Schedule C Part IV (lines 43–47) asks the questions your log answers: when the car was placed in service (the date you first used it for business), how many miles for the year were business, commuting, and other, whether another vehicle was available, and — the one this whole post is about — whether you have evidence, and whether it's written. You answer that question on the return itself, so make the honest answer “yes.” The mileage deduction also shrinks the profit your quarterly estimates are built on, which is the next habit to build — our quarterly taxes walkthrough was written for trade contractors, but the deadlines and mechanics are the same for a driver.

What happens if you drive all year with no log?

The IRS can disallow the entire vehicle deduction, and the Tax Court will not estimate your miles for you. It is exactly what happened in Cacey Taylor v. Commissioner (T.C. Docket No. 2699-24, bench opinion, Feb. 27, 2025), a case about an Uber and DoorDash driver's 2021 return.

Taylor told the court he'd had an app on his phone showing total miles that “would have wiped out all of his income,” but he chose not to use those miles — and then no longer had the data. The record contained “no mileage log or any specific testimony” about his miles, and the judge held “it was inappropriate for the Court to simply guess as to the appropriate mileage.” The only miles he was allowed to deduct were the ones the IRS had already conceded, leaving roughly $5,000 of deficiency — the extra tax the IRS said he owed — still in dispute.

The court even flagged the statutory carve-out that relaxes strict substantiation for vehicles used substantially full-time transporting people or goods for hire — and then said it wouldn't have saved him: “However, even in those situations, there must be sufficient evidence to determine the appropriate mileage.” A personal car used part-time for DoorDash isn't “substantially all” business use anyway, so assume the strict rule applies to you. One caveat worth keeping: this was a bench opinion in one driver's case, and the court noted it “shall not be relied upon as precedent in any other case.” Treat it as a picture of how these disputes actually go, not a rule of law.

Here is what I tell every new driver: start the tracking app before the first trip, keep it running all year, and export the log at the end of every month so the record exists even if the app or the phone doesn't. The deduction is only as real as the record — the same discipline behind our small business tax deductions work.

The confusion usually starts earlier, with a question one new Dasher asked on the TurboTax community:

“I recently started doing DoorDash. I've been setting aside 30% of what I've made so far, but I haven't been tracking my mileage. Is tracking it required on the 1099-K? Or is it just optional?”

— douthit-donavon9, TurboTax Community, September 2, 2021

The precise answer: tracking isn't required to file — it's required to deduct. No record, no deduction. (That poster's instinct to set aside 30% was right, though; our guide to how much to set aside for taxes was written for 1099 and gig workers and the mechanics carry over exactly.)

What if you started tracking late in the year?

Yes, you can still claim the months you logged — and rebuild the unlogged months from evidence that actually exists, never from a round-number guess. The rule I give every driver who comes in with a partial year is simple to apply: enter only the miles you can verify were driven for the platform, and build the verification before you file, not after a letter arrives.

For the months before the app, Reg. §1.274-5T(c)(3) gives the fallback — your own detailed written statement plus corroborating evidence. For a gig driver that evidence is real: the platform's trip history and mileage statements, dated screenshots, and odometer readings from oil changes or inspections that bracket the year. What you cannot do is estimate — Pub 463 says flatly, “You can't deduct amounts that you approximate or estimate.” And remember the sampling rule: a solid log for part of the year can support the whole year if you can show that period was representative of your driving.

Want a second set of eyes on your first year of gig driving before you file? N&T Tax & Advisory Group helps DoorDash, rideshare, and delivery drivers set up mileage records that hold up and capture every mile they're entitled to — by phone or video, nationwide. Book a meeting with our team here.