The only people who may be able to claim a deduction for unreimbursed employee expenses include Armed Forces reservists, qualified performing artists, fee-basis state or local government officials, and employees with impairment-related work expenses. If you are self-employed, though, there may be some deductions you can still take for mileage.
Changes to Mileage Deductions
In previous tax years, self-employed people, most businesses, and even many individual taxpayers were able to deduct mileage for business purposes. But for the tax years from 2018 to 2025, many of these deductions for individuals have been eliminated. The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 (TCJA) got rid of most miscellaneous itemized deductions. This includes the one for miles driven for work purposes. If the TCJA is not renewed in 2026, these deductions may return. There are few circumstances when individual taxpayers can still deduct mileage expenses from their income.
Mileage Deduction for Traveling Away From Home
In general, you can’t deduct travel expenses to and from your tax home. This is your regular place of business (or post of duty). It includes the entire city or general area where the business or place that you work is located. Commuting might qualify as an itemized deduction if your employer requires that you travel from one business location to another. An example of this would be commuting from your regular place of employment to a branch office or anywhere else to do business on your employer’s behalf. To take this deduction, your employer can’t reimburse you for any of the mileage you are deducting. You can’t deduct expenses associated with traveling from your own home to your tax home.
Mileage Deduction for a Temporary Assignment
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) allows a deduction for mileage when you are traveling away from your tax home for a temporary assignment. If you drive from home to your regular place of employment, that mileage is not deductible. But if your employer requires that you work somewhere else, this mileage may be deductible. To deduct this mileage, your assignment must be temporary. If you are assigned to a new place of business indefinitely, it becomes your new tax home. You won’t be able to deduct mileage for commuting to and from there.
How Travel Miles Work
If you travel 800 miles a month from home to work on an offshore oil rig, this does not qualify for a deduction. Even if the location of the rig changes, your commuting expenses would be a nondeductible personal expense. Each rig is your regular place of employment and tax home while you are working there. If your employer, though, puts you on desk duty in the home office with the understanding that you will return to work on the rig in less than a year, travel to this location can be deducted. Because you know the assignment will last for less than a year, it is considered temporary. In that case, if you have to drive from the home office to the rig to do an errand for your employer, this qualifies as deductible mileage. You would also be able to deduct mileage if you drive from the office—or from the rig, for that matter—to a client’s or customer’s location or to a business meeting.
Standard Mileage Rate vs. Actual Expenses
The standard mileage rate deduction is $0.585 for the first half of the 2022 tax year and $0.625 for the second half. You have the option of claiming this or a percentage of your actual vehicle expenses instead. These expenses include:
GasInsuranceParkingTollsOilRegistration feesTiresRepairsDepreciation
The percentage is your business miles versus personal miles. If you drive 36,000 miles a year with 18,000 miles dedicated to business use, you can deduct 50% of your actual expenses. If you qualify, you can claim this deduction as an employee business expense using Form 2106. If you qualify but failed to claim the deduction, you can generally go back up to three years and amend your tax returns.
Self-Employment
The rules change dramatically if you’re self-employed. Whenever you leave your business location, you can begin tallying up your miles and costs from the moment you leave that place. This is true whether you work from home or maintain a business location elsewhere as long as you’re traveling for business purposes. If you visit a client 20 miles away from your place of business, you can take a deduction based on 40 miles for the round trip. But you cannot deduct any mileage that is not for business use. If you make a side trip on your way home to stop for dinner with friends, your deduction is still based on the 40 miles you drove for work. You would claim your business mileage on Schedule C; you would not have to itemize to claim the deduction.
Tax Cuts and Jobs Act Expiration
The TCJA will expire at the end of December 2025 unless Congress takes steps to renew it. If it expires, miscellaneous itemized deductions might return to the tax code in 2026. Until that time, though, you’re more or less out of luck if you must travel for work purposes unless you’re self-employed. There are other reasons you may need to deduct mileage. For the 2022 tax year (filed in 2023), you can deduct $0.18 per mile for medical travel (if your medical expenses exceed 7.5% of your adjusted gross income) or $0.14 per mile that you drive for charity.
