Rules
Part of IRS Mileage Rates and Logs: Methods, Business Miles and the First Year Choice
Mileage log comparison: pick the one you will still keep in September
A mileage log comparison: notebook, spreadsheet, apps and a bookkeeping tool, with costs, failure points and what the log must show by ownership.
What to take away
Whichever method you claim, the mileage log is the record that decides whether the claim survives. Comparing logs is a comparison about habit: the tool you keep using beats the better tool you abandon in March.
- Both claim methods stand on the same log, so the log matters more than which method wins.
- Every tool in the table below fails in a way that is predictable. Pick by how it fails, not by its feature list.
- Who keeps the log depends on whose name is on the vehicle's title.
- The method a vehicle starts on can restrict what it may use later, so the first year's log is the one to keep best.
- Nothing here decides your filing position. Confirm which method a specific vehicle may use with a CPA or enrolled agent.
Both methods stand on one log
Standard mileage multiplies business miles by the year's published figure. Actual expenses multiply total vehicle costs by the business-use share, and that share comes from the miles. Either way, the log is the first thing to settle.
Standard Mileage vs Actual Expenses
Standard mileage rate
- What you multiply
- Business miles x rate
- 2025 published rate
- 70 cents business
- Records needed
- A mileage log
- Depreciation
- Built into the figure
- Effort during year
- Low if logged as you drive
- Usually suits
- Cheap high-mileage vehicles
- How it fails
- No log, nothing to multiply
Actual expenses
- What you multiply
- Total costs x business share
- 2025 published rate
- No published rate
- Records needed
- Log plus every cost
- Depreciation
- Claimed separately
- Effort during year
- Higher, not reconstructable
- Usually suits
- Expensive, heavy repair years
- How it fails
- Costs documented, miles are not
Choosing actual expenses does not buy you out of tracking miles; it adds a second pile of paper on top of the first. The IRS puts the reason plainly: if a taxpayer uses the car for both business and personal purposes, the expenses must be split, and only a log shows where the split falls.
IRS Publication 463 asks for the miles, date, destination and business purpose of each business trip, and section 274(d) of the Internal Revenue Code requires vehicle claims to be backed by adequate records or sufficient evidence.
The long version of what a log must contain is in the guide to the Publication 463 mileage log. The side-by-side arithmetic of the two methods sits in how mileage rates translate into a real deduction.
Compare the capture tools by how they fail
A capture tool is worth what it still holds in September. Compare the six options below by what each costs and how each one fails, because the failure, not the feature list, decides whether the record exists.
Mileage Capture Tools Compared
MileIQ
- What it is
- Auto drive detection
- Costs you
- $6-$10 a month
- Fails when
- Defaults never reviewed
Everlance
- What it is
- Tracking plus receipts
- Costs you
- $8-$15 a month
- Fails when
- Receipts unmatched to trips
Stride
- What it is
- Free gig tracker
- Costs you
- Free mileage
- Fails when
- You need cost tracking
QuickBooks
- What it is
- Mileage inside ledger
- Costs you
- $20-$30 a month
- Fails when
- You wanted only mileage
What it is
- MileIQ
- Automatic drive detection on a phone, swipe to classify business or personal
- Everlance
- Automatic tracking plus receipt capture and expense categories
- Stride
- Free mileage tracker aimed at gig and self-employed drivers
- QuickBooks Solopreneur
- Mileage tracking inside a bookkeeping product
- A notebook in the vehicle
- Odometer at the start and end of each business trip
- Google Sheets or Microsoft Excel template
- Your own columns, filled from the notebook
Costs you
- MileIQ
- Free tier caps tracking at 40 drives a month; paid plans typically $6 to $10 a month, or about $60 to $100 a year, depending on billing term
- Everlance
- Free tier with a monthly trip limit, often 30 trips; paid plans typically $8 to $15 a month, or about $60 to $120 a year, with receipt and team features driving the range
- Stride
- Free for mileage; paid tax filing products typically $40 to $150 depending on self-employment and state returns
- QuickBooks Solopreneur
- Subscription, typically $20 to $30 a month after any introductory period, because you are paying for the ledger too
- A notebook in the vehicle
- Nothing
- Google Sheets or Microsoft Excel template
- Google Sheets is free with a Google account; Microsoft Excel comes with Microsoft 365, typically about $7 a month personal or $70 a year, with a free web version
Fails when
- MileIQ
- Classifications are left on a default and never reviewed
- Everlance
- The same, plus receipts filed but never matched to trips
- Stride
- You need cost tracking, which it does not do
- QuickBooks Solopreneur
- You wanted only mileage and are paying for a ledger
- A notebook in the vehicle
- The first genuinely busy week
- Google Sheets or Microsoft Excel template
- The week becomes a month becomes a quarter
Read down the last column and the pattern is plain. The apps fail when nobody reviews what they captured, the notebook fails when work gets busy, and the spreadsheet fails when entries are batched. A tool that needs no weekly habit does not exist.
Review what the tool captured
Automatic capture only helps if someone reads the result. The apps in the table fail when classifications sit on a default and are never reviewed, so a short weekly review is part of the tool's real cost. Treat an unreviewed week as a gap in the record.
- Every trip is classified as business or personal, not left on a default.
- Receipts an app captured are matched to the trip they belong to.
- Trips the tool missed are added from the notebook while memory is fresh.
- The totals still agree with the odometer at the start and end of each business trip.
Decide who keeps the log
The same drive produces a different question depending on whose name is on the title, and the log has to answer it. Ownership sets what the record must show and who has to keep it up.
Whose Name Is on the Title?
Who owns the vehicle you drive for business?
You own it -> Year's rate or your cost per mile
Business owns it -> Actual cost plus personal-use reporting
| Ownership setup | What the log has to show | What decides it |
|---|---|---|
| You own the vehicle and use it for the business | Business miles against total miles, so the business-use share can be stated | Your log and your cost records |
| The business owns it and you drive it | Business miles and personal miles, since personal use of a business vehicle has reporting consequences | The personal miles and the value of the personal use |
| The business reimburses you for driving | The trips being reimbursed, in a form the business can keep | Whether the plan is accountable and documented |
If the business owns the car or reimburses you, which of the three you are in follows from how the business is structured. That is why entity tax treatment comes before the vehicle question rather than after it. Reimbursement that is not set up properly can be treated as compensation, and the accountable-plan rules sit in Treasury Regulation section 1.62-2.
A sole proprietor reports the vehicle claim on Schedule C. Under actual expenses, depreciation on the vehicle is reported on Form 4562.
Match the log to the year's rate
The log records miles, and the year's rate turns those miles into a deduction. A log kept in miles stays valid when the rate changes, because only the multiplier is replaced.
Business Rate Rises, Charitable Stays Fixed
- 2023 business65.5 cents
- 2024 business67 cents
- 2025 business70 cents
- 2023 medical and moving22 cents
- 2024 medical and moving21 cents
- 2025 medical and moving21 cents
- Charitable 2023-202514 cents
The IRS publishes each year's figure on its standard mileage rates page. Take the figure for your filing year from that page, not from an article written for another year. Whatever the multiplier, the tax records behind the claim are what keep it defensible.
Start the log in the first year
The method a vehicle starts on, in the first year it is used for business, can limit what that vehicle is permitted to do afterwards, and leases carry their own restriction. Publication 463 sets those rules. So compare in the first year, while both methods are open.
- Choose the tool from the table by how it fails, and set up the habit it needs: a weekly review for the apps, a notebook that stays in the vehicle, a sheet filled before the week ends.
- Keep the log for every vehicle separately, because each has its own history and its own first year.
- At year end, total the actual vehicle costs and take business miles and total miles from the log.
- Run both methods on those numbers, then ask a professional whether the better one is available to this vehicle.
Step four is not a formality. In the third year the arithmetic changes and the option may be gone. The records the SBA expects for a business vehicle show what else belongs in the file beside the log.
Common questions
Do I need the log for both methods?
Yes, and this is the single most useful thing to know. The business-use share under actual expenses comes from the miles, and the standard rate multiplies them directly.
Is a notebook enough?
It can be. It costs nothing and records the odometer at the start and end of each business trip. It fails in the first genuinely busy week, so keep it where you cannot forget it.
Can I use different methods for different vehicles?
Generally yes, because each vehicle has its own history and its own first year. Confirm it for your specific vehicles before you rely on it, and compare the standard rate and actual expenses for each.
Is comparing worth the effort for one car?
Once, in the first year, with someone qualified: yes. Every year after that, only when something changes, such as a new vehicle, a big repair year, or a large shift in how much you drive for work.
