The mileage deduction lets self-employed workers reduce their taxable business income by the cost of using a personal vehicle for work. It's the single biggest deduction for rideshare and delivery drivers.
Two methods:
- Standard mileage rate: multiply business miles by the IRS rate ($0.70/mile for 2026). Simple, well-documented, no receipt collection for vehicle costs.
- Actual expense method: add up gas, maintenance, insurance, registration, depreciation, lease payments; multiply by business-use percentage. Higher ceiling for expensive cars, but heavy paperwork burden.
You pick a method the first year you use the car for business. If you start with standard mileage, you can switch to actual expense later. If you start with actual expense, you're locked in for that vehicle's life.
What counts as a business mile:
- Driving while online/active on a rideshare or delivery app
- Driving between gigs / between delivery pickups
- Driving to refuel during a working shift
- NOT: commuting from home to your first pickup (unless you have a home office), personal errands, miles before logging onto the platform
The IRS requires a contemporaneous log: date, business purpose, miles driven, start/end odometer or location. GPS apps that auto-log trips produce defensible records.