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Standard mileage rates

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If you use your car for business, charity, medical or moving purposes, you may be able to take a deduction based on the mileage used for that purpose.

2023 mileage rates

The standard mileage rates for 2023 are:

• Self-employed and business: 65.5 cents/mile 
• Charities: 14 cents/mile 
• Medical: 22 cents/mile 
• Moving ( military only ): 22 cents/mile 

Find out when you can deduct vehicle mileage

Mileage rates for all years (cents/mile)

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IRS Standard Mileage Rates 2024: What They Are, Rules

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Certain taxpayers can deduct mileage from vehicle use related to business, charity, medical or moving purposes

To take the deduction, taxpayers must meet use requirements and may have to itemize on their returns if claiming certain types of mileage.

For 2024, the IRS' standard mileage rates are $0.67 per mile for business, $0.21 per mile for medical or moving, and $0.14 per mile for charity.

If you drive for your business or plan to rack up some miles while volunteering this year, you might be eligible to deduct some of that mileage on your tax return.

To qualify for this deduction, the miles must have been driven for qualifying business, medical, moving or charity purposes, and you may have to itemize on your return to claim the tax break. Rates are valid for electric, PHEV, gas, and diesel-fueled cars.

IRS mileage rates 2024

For the 2024 tax year (taxes filed in 2025), the IRS standard mileage rates are:

67 cents per mile for business.

14 cents per mile for charity.

21 cents per mile for medical/moving.

IRS standard mileage rate for business

If you’re self-employed or work as a contractor, you might be able to deduct the cost of using your car for business purposes. Your tax deduction depends on how you use your vehicle. Commuting to work is generally not deductible mileage, but you may be able to deduct mileage for business-related trips, such as those made to clients, meetings or temporary workplaces [0] Internal Revenue Service . Publication 463: Travel, Gift, and Car Expenses . Accessed May 3, 2024. View all sources .

You can also choose whether to deduct standard mileage using the rates above versus actual expense (e.g., repairs, depreciation, gas, and so forth), but you can't deduct both. Expenses for tolls or parking fees related to business use, however, are separately deductible regardless of which method you use [0] Internal Revenue Service . Topic no. 510, Business Use of Car . Accessed Jan 17, 2024. View all sources .

Calculating standard mileage vs. actual expenses for business

There are two options for calculating the business deduction for the use of your vehicle.

1. Standard mileage deduction

This is the most straightforward way of calculating your driving expense: simply multiply the number of business miles by the IRS mileage rate. However, you’ll need to keep a record of your business-related mileage.

To use the standard IRS mileage deduction method, you must own or lease the car. But the rules for business mileage deductions can be complex, especially if you use lots of vehicles for business. The IRS website has more details [0] Internal Revenue Service . Topic No. 510, Business Use of Car . Accessed May 3, 2024. View all sources .

2. Actual expenses

If you don’t want to track your mileage, you could track and deduct the actual expenses you incur while using your vehicle for business purposes. These expenses may include:

Depreciation.

Lease payments.

Registration fees.

Gas and oil.

» MORE: See what other tax breaks you can take if you’re self-employed

Other IRS mileage rate types

Irs standard mileage rate for volunteering and charitable activities.

If you use your car to help a charity or to go somewhere to volunteer, the mileage can be deductible. You can deduct parking fees and tolls as well.

If you don’t want to deduct your mileage, you can deduct your unreimbursed out-of-pocket expenses, such as gas and oil. However, the expenses have to relate directly to using your car to give services to a charitable organization. Also, you can't deduct repair and maintenance costs, depreciation, registration fees, tires, or insurance [0] Internal Revenue Service . About Publication 526, Charitable Contributions . Accessed May 3, 2024. View all sources .

» MORE: See what else counts as a charitable deduction

IRS standard mileage rate for moving

Only active-duty military members can deduct mileage related to moving. The move must be related to a permanent change of station [0] Internal Revenue Service . Instructions for Form 3903 . Accessed May 3, 2024. View all sources .

IRS standard mileage rate for medical

If you used your car for medical reasons, you may be able to deduct the mileage. "Medical reasons" include:

Driving to the doctor, hospital or other medical facility.

Driving a child or other person who needs medical care to receive medical care.

Driving to see a mentally ill dependent if the visits are recommended as part of treatment.

You can deduct parking fees and tolls as well.

If you don’t want to deduct your mileage, another option is to deduct your unreimbursed out-of-pocket expenses, such as gas and oil. The expenses must relate directly to the use of your car for medical purposes, and you can't deduct repair and maintenance costs, depreciation or insurance.

Mileage isn’t the only transportation cost you might be able to deduct as a medical expense. IRS Publication 502 has the details. Here’s a big caveat: In general, you can deduct qualified, unreimbursed medical expenses that are more than 7.5% of your adjusted gross income .

» MORE: See what else you might be able to deduct as a medical expense

How to claim tax deductions using IRS mileage rates

If you're deducting mileage for moving, medical or charity purposes, you'll need to itemize on your tax return in order to claim the tax deduction. Itemizing means you’ll need to set aside extra time when preparing your returns to fill tax forms Form 1040 and Schedule A , as well as supporting schedules that feed into those forms.

If you're self-employed, you’ll claim your mileage deduction as a business expense on Schedule C . If you file your taxes online, the software will ask about your mileage during the interview process and calculate the deduction.

» Ready to file? Check out NerdWallet's top tax software picks

Tracking your mileage

This is important because if you’re audited, you may need to show a log of the miles you drove to substantiate your deduction.

There are many ways to track your mileage. Something as simple as keeping a pen and paper in the glove compartment can suffice, but a quick trip to Google or your phone's app store will reveal a variety of tools that can streamline things.

On a similar note...

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Business standard mileage rate increases for 2023

• IRS Practice & Procedure

The IRS increased the optional standard mileage rate used to calculate the deductible costs of operating a vehicle for business to 65.5 cents per mile driven, up 3 cents from a rare midyear increase in 2022. The increased rate was effective as of Jan. 1, 2023 ( Notice 2023-03 ).

The notice sets the 2023 standard mileage rates at 22 cents per mile driven for medical or moving purposes for qualified active-duty members of the armed forces This is the same as the higher midyear rate for the second half of 2022.

The rate per mile driven in service of charitable organizations is 14 cents, which is set by statute and unchanged from 2022. 

The rates apply to electric and hybrid-electric automobiles, as well as gasoline and diesel-powered vehicles. 

The portion of the business standard mileage rate that is treated as depreciation for purposes of calculating reductions to basis will be 28 cents per mile for 2023.

In June 2022, the IRS implemented a midyear increase, setting the standard mileage rate for purposes of deductible business expense at 62.5 cents per mile ( Announcement 2022-13 ). The rate, applicable for travel on or after July 1, 2022, was an increase of 4 cents per mile from the 58.5 cents per mile that the agency had set on Jan. 1, 2022.

Taxpayers can calculate the actual costs of using their vehicle rather than using the standard mileage rates.

— To comment on this article or to suggest an idea for another article, contact Martha Waggoner at [email protected] .

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IRS Raises Standard Mileage Rate for 2022

Business mileage rate will be 58.5 cents per mile, up from 56 cents

E ffective Jan. 1, 2022, the optional standard mileage rate used in deducting the costs of operating an automobile for business purposes will be 58.5 cents per mile , the IRS announced in Notice 2022-03 on Dec. 17, 2021.

Employers often use the standard mileage rate—also called the safe harbor rate—to pay tax-free reimbursements to employees who use their own vehicles for business.

Changes for 2022

For 2022, standard mileage rates for the use of cars, vans, pickups or panel trucks will be:

• 58.5 cents per mile driven for business use, up 2.5 cents from 2021. This ties the highest safe harbor rate the IRS has ever published, which was a midyear increase in July 2008.
• 18 cents per mile driven for medical care and for moving purposes for active-duty members of the Armed Forces, up 2 cents from the rate for 2021.
• 14 cents per mile driven in service of charitable organizations, which remains unchanged.

For cars employees use for business, the portion of the standard mileage rate treated as depreciation will be 26 cents per mile for 2022, unchanged from 2021.

While the standard mileage rates for business, medical and moving purposes are based on annual changes in the costs of operating an automobile, the charitable rate is set by statute.

[SHRM members-only HR Q&A: Do we have to reimburse personal auto mileage for business-related trips? ]

Using FAVR Plans

The IRS rate is optimal for low-mileage drivers, such as those who travel fewer than 5,000 business miles per year, according to benefits advisors.

Alternatively, Notice 2022-03 provides maximum vehicle expenses when using a Fixed and Variable Rate (FAVR) allowance plan , in which employees who drive their own vehicles can receive tax-free reimbursements from their employers for fixed vehicle costs (such as insurance, taxes and registration fees) and variable vehicle expenses (such as fuel, tires, and routine maintenance and repairs), instead of the standard mileage rate.

Under a FAVR plan, the cost of the vehicle may not exceed a maximum amount set by the IRS each year. For 2022, vehicle costs may not exceed $56,100 for automobiles, trucks and vans, up from $51,100 in 2021.

Revenue Procedure 2019-46 , which updated the rules for using standard mileage rates in computing the deductible costs of operating a car for business, stated that an employer may provide a FAVR allowance only to an employee who can provide adequate records showing at least 5,000 miles driven during the calendar year in performing services as an employee or, if greater, 80 percent of the annual business mileage of that FAVR allowance.

If the employee is covered by the FAVR allowance for less than the entire calendar year, the employer may prorate these limits on a monthly basis.

"Two years into the pandemic has showcased volatility and fluctuations across vehicle costs," said Motus CEO Craig Powell. Business leaders, he explained, are focusing on "managing these costs in a more accurate and fair way" for workers using their own cars to conduct business, including remote workers.

Motus calculates that organizations have saved more than $1.4 billion using FAVR reimbursement compared to the IRS business mileage standard since 2011. In part that's because the standard mileage rate doesn't account for driving costs that fluctuate based on geography and time of year, so businesses that rely on the rate to reimburse mid- and high-mileage workers may be giving reimbursements that do not reflect actual driving costs.

According to payroll, benefits and compliance firm Justworks in New York City, an advantage of using a FAVR plan to reimburse employees is that "in locations with higher automobile operating costs, the FAVR allowance may be more than the standard mileage rate ." However, "the disadvantage is that the employer must recalculate the FAVR allowance at least once every three months," as payments to employees must be made at least quarterly.

Flat Car Allowances

Another way for employers to reimburse employees for their business-driving expenses is a flat car allowance, which is a set amount provided to employees over a given period to cover the costs of using their own car for business purposes—such as $400 per month for the cost of fuel, wear and tear, tires, and more. Employers can also pay expenses using a variable rate for different locations.

While a car allowance is relatively easy to administer, payments are taxable to employees unless handled within an " accountable plan " that requires substantiation through adequate records and the return of excess amounts in a reasonable time.

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