You drive across town for a client session.

You stop for supplies on the way home.

You take a call from a prospective client while you are still sitting in the parking lot.

Somewhere in that day there are deductible miles. Just probably not all of them.

If you have been counting every mile you drive for work, you are in very good company. It is one of the most common things I clean up.

This post walks through which miles generally count, which ones generally do not, and how to tell the difference in your own week. No math homework required.

The Rule Underneath All of It

Mileage deductions come down to two questions. Why were you driving, and where did the trip start and end.

A business purpose alone is not enough. The IRS also cares about the shape of the trip, which is why the drive to your own office does not count even though you are absolutely going there to work.

Here is how to tell the difference.

Miles That Generally Count

• Driving between two work locations in the same day
• Driving to see a client or customer
• Driving to a business meeting somewhere other than your usual workplace
• Driving from a qualifying home office to another work location for the same business
• Driving from home to a temporary work location, when you also have a regular work location
• Driving while traveling for business away from your tax home

In a wellness or service practice, that often looks like driving from your studio to a second location, heading to a client’s home for a session, running to a supplier for product or treatment room supplies, or driving to a continuing education course.

Miles That Generally Do Not Count

• Your commute from home to your regular place of business
• Personal errands and other nonbusiness trips
• A personal drive during which you happen to take a business call
• Parking at your regular workplace

The Commuting Rule Surprises People

If you drive from home to your studio every Tuesday morning, that is commuting. It is work, it is unavoidable, and it is generally not deductible.

The same drive can change character, though. If you stop at a client’s home on the way, or if your studio is a temporary location and you have a regular one elsewhere, the picture is different.

This is exactly why the log matters more than your memory does.

Two Terms Worth Knowing

Tax Home

Your tax home is generally the entire city or general area where you work. It is not necessarily where you live. Someone who lives in one town and practices in another may have a tax home that is not their home address.

Temporary Work Location

A temporary work location is an assignment expected to last one year or less. If the work is expected to last longer than a year, it is generally treated as indefinite instead, which changes how those miles are counted.

When One Car Does Both Jobs

Most owners I work with have one vehicle that carries treatment supplies on Monday and groceries on Saturday. That is fine. It just means you need to know your business-use percentage.

Say you drive 3,000 business miles and 7,000 personal miles in a year. Your business-use percentage is 30 percent. If you had 10,000 dollars of qualifying vehicle expenses, 3,000 dollars would be the business-use portion before any deduction limits are applied.

You do not have to run that calculation yourself. But you do have to keep the log that makes it possible.

One Thing That Changed This Year

The IRS raised the standard business mileage rate partway through 2026, which it does not often do.

• January 1 through June 30, 2026: 72.5 cents per mile
• July 1 through December 31, 2026: 76 cents per mile

If you are using the standard mileage method, your log needs to make the split obvious. Miles driven in May and miles driven in August are not worth the same amount this year, and a log with no dates cannot tell that story.

If you are already tracking by date, you are set. If you have a rough total sitting in a notebook, this is worth an hour of your time before year-end.

What to Do With All of This

Here is the part worth holding onto.

The deduction is not created by the driving. It is created by the record of the driving. A trip you cannot document, with a date, a destination, and a business purpose, is very hard to defend later.

So the goal is not to squeeze in more miles. The goal is to write down the ones you are already driving.

Clarity creates confidence, and this is one of the easiest places to get some.

Need Support?

If you are not sure which of your miles count, or your log has been living in your head since January, this is exactly the kind of thing I help clients sort out. I work with service-based business owners to get their books current and their records organized, so the deductions they have earned are actually supportable. If you would like a second set of eyes on your setup, we would be glad to connect.