Guide to IRS mileage log requirements

Business travel can be a significant expense category, whether you’re managing a large or small business, or you’re self-employed. Luckily, you can claim the bulk of these travel expenses on your taxes so long as the expenses are strictly business-related trips. But to deduct business mileage when using your personal vehicle, you need additional documentation in the form of a mileage log.

In this article, we take a closer look at why you need to track your business mileage and the IRS requirements for a compliant mileage log. We also outline the process of creating a mileage log and offer advice on streamlining and automating the process.

Why should businesses track mileage?

Let’s say you need to visit a customer or a supplier. Or you need to purchase business supplies, move equipment, or attend a business meeting. If you’re using your personal vehicle for these kinds of business purchases, you can deduct business travel costs from your income taxes. This is also true if you reimburse employees for the business use of their personal vehicles.

But in order to claim these valuable deductions, you need to track your miles. This is true whether you claim the IRS standard mileage deduction or the actual expenses deduction.

Using the IRS standard mileage rate

The standard mileage rate is the specific dollar amount the IRS allows businesses to deduct from their taxable income for each business mile driven. The IRS sets the rate annually. For the 2025 tax year, the IRS standard mileage rate is 70 cents per business mile.

To make a claim using the standard mileage rate, you need to know the total number of business miles driven—making a mileage log a necessity. So, if you and your employees drove a total of 15,000 business miles during the year, you would multiply 15,000 by $0.70 to calculate your mileage deduction: $10,500.

Using the actual expenses method

When you use the actual expenses method to claim a deduction for business mileage, you must first determine what percentage of the time you used a vehicle for business-related vs. personal use—again, requiring you to keep a mileage log.

To calculate this percentage, you need to know the total number of miles driven during the year, as well as the number of miles driven for business. And then, you divide the business mileage by the total mileage.

For example, if you drove a total of 10,000 miles during the year, 2,000 of which were for business use, your business use percentage would be 20%. That means you can deduct 20% of the total vehicle expenses you incurred over the year, including fuel, maintenance, repairs, and depreciation.

IRS mileage log requirements explained

To claim tax deductions for business expenses, the IRS requires you to keep adequate records to prove the accuracy and business necessity of the expenses. To deduct mileage, the IRS specifically requires you to track the date, miles, address, and purpose of each business trip, as well as odometer readings for the beginning and end of the year.

Your mileage log should include:

• Total annual mileage: How many miles you drove the vehicle over the course of the year for both business and personal use
• Annual business mileage: How many total miles you drove in the vehicle for business use specifically
• Per-use business mileage: How many miles you drove in the vehicle for each business trip or use
• Date of use: On which days you used the vehicle for business travel
• Business destination: Where you drove the vehicle. Note that everyday commuting to and from your regular worksite isn’t tax-deductible and shouldn’t be logged.
• Purpose: The business purpose of the trip

Supporting evidence of the business travel, like communications or related expense receipts, isn’t strictly required, but can be helpful if you ever gets audited.

How to create a business mileage log

Whether you choose to claim your deduction using the standard mileage rate or actual expenses method, you should note your vehicle’s mileage at the beginning and end of each year. And then, you should capture the following information for each business trip:

1. Date of business travel: The date on which the travel took place
2. Starting and ending point: Your departure point and destination
3. Starting and ending mileage: An odometer reading before you begin to drive, and after you get to your destination, to calculate the miles driven
4. Business purpose: The reason for the travel
5. Other travel expenses: A note of other expenses related to the travel, such as parking and toll receipts

How you record this information and the formats you use are ultimately up to you, but it is commonly done with a paper log or a mileage tracking app.

Paper mileage logs

Paper mileage logs in the form of a notebook or diary are the most traditional means of tracking mileage. You can even purchase notebooks specifically designed with a mileage log template, with dedicated fields to record all the relevant information.

Of course, these logbooks only work if you use them diligently for each business trip. When you’re running late to a meeting or otherwise in a rush, it’s easy to forget to log the required information—forcing you to try and remember or estimate mileage after the fact.

Mileage tracking apps

Thanks to smartphones and connected vehicles, mileage logs no longer need to be physical. There are many mileage tracking apps on the market that you can use to log your business miles.

When you start driving, all you need to do is specify whether a trip is for personal or business reasons, and the mileage tracker app handles the rest—allowing you to enter key information like business purpose after the fact. Of course, you still need to remember to use the app each time you drive your vehicle, otherwise the trip won’t be logged.

How long should you keep business mileage records?

The main purpose of a mileage log is to support your claims of business mileage in the event that the IRS ever audits your company. You should keep your mileage records for at least as long as your tax return is subject to an audit.

The IRS states that an audit can include tax returns filed within the last three years. But there are some instances where this window can widen to six years—typically if an auditor finds substantial accounting errors. To be safe, tax experts often recommend you should keep records of business expenses, including mileage logs, for at least seven years.

Automate business mileage tracking with Ramp

If it seems like you’re always rushing from one meeting to the next, it’s easy to forget to log your miles, whether you use a paper log or a mileage tracking app. It’s not the end of the world, but it could mean you’re leaving money on the table when it comes time to write off your business expenses on your tax return.

By automating the process of logging business mileage, you’re sure to have accurate records. Ramp’s expense management platform makes it easy to automate your mileage tracking through convenient integrations with the apps you already use.

When your employees use personal vehicles for business travel, they just need to enter their starting point and destination. Ramp automatically calculates the number of miles driven thanks to a direct integration with Google Maps.

Once the mileage is calculated, employees can record other necessary information like the date and business purpose for the trip to ensure your records are IRS-compliant.

Unlike other mileage tracking apps, Ramp’s modern finance platform can process any other related expenses your employees might incur while on the road. And with Ramp’s mobile app, employees can scan receipts and submit expenses from the field so you never have to worry about lost or missing receipts.