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Standard Mileage Rate: Business Travel and Vehicle Expenses (2025 IRS Guide)

This guide covers “Standard Mileage Rate” within business travel and vehicle expenses. The following material presents the IRS treatment of this topic, including the qualifications, exceptions, and examples in the source section. Read the rules alongside the facts of your own situation before deciding what to report, deduct, or document.

Adapted from Publication 463 (2025), Travel, Gift, and Car Expenses, published by the Internal Revenue Service. This guide retains the source edition’s years, amounts, deadlines, and examples. It is guidance for that edition, not a statement that the same figures apply to every tax year.

Context for these rules

If you use your car for business purposes, you may be able to deduct car expenses. You can generally use one of the two following methods to figure your deductible expenses.

  • Standard mileage rate.

  • Actual car expenses.

The cost of using your car as an employee, whether measured using actual expenses or the standard mileage rate, will no longer be allowed to be claimed as an unreimbursed employee travel expense as a miscellaneous itemized deduction due to the suspension of miscellaneous itemized deductions that are subject to the 2% floor under section 67(a). The suspension applies to tax years beginning after 2017. Deductions for expenses that are deductible in determining adjusted gross income aren’t suspended. For example, Armed Forces reservists, qualified performing artists, and fee-basis state or local government officials are allowed to deduct unreimbursed employee travel expenses as an adjustment to total income on Schedule 1 (Form 1040), line 12.

If you use actual expenses to figure your deduction for a car you lease, there are rules that affect the amount of your lease payments you can deduct. See Leasing a Car, later.

In this publication, “car” includes a van, pickup, or panel truck. For the definition of “car” for depreciation purposes, see Car defined under Actual Car Expenses, later.

Standard Mileage Rate

For 2025, the standard mileage rate for the cost of operating your car for business use is 70 cents ($0.70) per mile.

Caution:

If you use the standard mileage rate for a year, you can’t deduct your actual car expenses for that year. You can’t deduct depreciation, lease payments, maintenance and repairs, gasoline (including gasoline taxes), oil, insurance, or vehicle registration fees. See Choosing the standard mileage rate and Standard mileage rate not allowed, later.

You can generally use the standard mileage rate whether or not you are reimbursed and whether or not any reimbursement is more or less than the amount figured using the standard mileage rate. See chapter 6 for more information on reimbursements.

Choosing the standard mileage rate.

If you want to use the standard mileage rate for a car you own, you must choose to use it in the first year the car is available for use in your business. Then, in later years, you can choose to use either the standard mileage rate or actual expenses.

If you want to use the standard mileage rate for a car you lease, you must use it for the entire lease period. For leases that began on or before December 31, 1997, the standard mileage rate must be used for the entire portion of the lease period (including renewals) that is after 1997.

You must make the choice to use the standard mileage rate by the due date (including extensions) of your return. You can’t revoke the choice. However, in later years, you can switch from the standard mileage rate to the actual expenses method. If you change to the actual expenses method in a later year, but before your car is fully depreciated, you have to estimate the remaining useful life of the car and use straight line depreciation for the car’s remaining estimated useful life, subject to depreciation limits (discussed later).

For more information about depreciation included in the standard mileage rate, see Exception under Methods of depreciation, later.

Standard mileage rate not allowed.

You can’t use the standard mileage rate if you:

Note:

You can elect to use the standard mileage rate if you used a car for hire (such as a taxi) unless the standard mileage rate is otherwise not allowed, as discussed above.

Five or more cars.

If you own or lease five or more cars that are used for business at the same time, you can’t use the standard mileage rate for the business use of any car. However, you may be able to deduct your actual expenses for operating each of the cars in your business. See Actual Car Expenses, later, for information on how to figure your deduction.

You aren’t using five or more cars for business at the same time if you alternate using (use at different times) the cars for business.

The following examples illustrate the rules for when you can and can’t use the standard mileage rate for five or more cars.

Example 1.

A salesperson owns three cars and two vans that they alternate using for calling on their customers. The salesperson can use the standard mileage rate for the business mileage of the three cars and the two vans because they don’t use them at the same time.

Example 2.

You and your employees use your four pickup trucks in your landscaping business. During the year, you traded in two of your old trucks for two newer ones. You can use the standard mileage rate for the business mileage of all six of the trucks you owned during the year.

Example 3.

You own a repair shop and an insurance business. You and your employees use your two pickup trucks and van for the repair shop. You alternate using your two cars for the insurance business. No one else uses the cars for business purposes. You can use the standard mileage rate for the business use of the pickup trucks, the van, and the cars because you never have more than four vehicles used for business at the same time.

Example 4.

You own a car and four vans that are used in your housecleaning business. Your employees use the vans, and you use the car to travel to various customers. You can’t use the standard mileage rate for the car or the vans. This is because all five vehicles are used in your business at the same time. You must use actual expenses for all vehicles.

Interest.

You may be able to take a deduction for interest paid on a car loan even if you use the standard mileage rate.

You may be able to deduct qualified passenger vehicle loan interest you paid or accrued during the year. See Schedule 1-A (Form 1040) to see whether you can deduct this interest.

Additionally, if you are self-employed and use your car in your business, you can deduct that part of the interest expense that represents your business use of the car. For example, if you use your car 60% for business, you can deduct 60% of the interest on Schedule C (Form 1040). If you are self-employed and eligible to deduct interest as either qualified passenger vehicle loan interest or as business interest, you can choose to report the deduction on either Schedule 1-A (Form 1040) or Schedule C (Form 1040), but you cannot deduct the same amount more than once. See the Instructions for Schedule 1-A (Form 1040) for more information.

Tip:

If you use a home equity loan to purchase your car, you may be able to deduct the interest. See Pub. 936, Home Mortgage Interest Deduction, for more information.

Personal property taxes.

If you itemize your deductions on Schedule A (Form 1040), you can deduct on line 5c state and local personal property taxes on motor vehicles. You can take this deduction even if you use the standard mileage rate or if you don’t use the car for business.

If you are self-employed and use your car in your business, you can deduct the business part of state and local personal property taxes on motor vehicles on Schedule C (Form 1040) or Schedule F (Form 1040). If you itemize your deductions, you can include the remainder of your state and local personal property taxes on the car on Schedule A (Form 1040).

Parking fees and tolls.

In addition to using the standard mileage rate, you can deduct any business-related parking fees and tolls. (Parking fees you pay to park your car at your place of work are nondeductible commuting expenses.)

Sale, trade-in, or other disposition.

If you sell, trade in, or otherwise dispose of your car, you may have a gain or loss on the transaction or an adjustment to the basis of your new car. See Disposition of a Car, later.

Using the guidance

Keep the documents that establish the dates, amounts, and circumstances described above. References to other chapters, forms, worksheets, or earlier and later sections refer to the linked IRS publication. Check the full publication and its updates before relying on a rule for a different tax year or a situation not addressed here.

Sources and further reading

The cited U.S. government text is in the public domain. Source accessed October 28, 2026. Fynoptic has organized this material for educational use and is independent of, and not endorsed by, the IRS.

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