IRS-Compliant Mileage Log: Template and the 4 Required Items

The deduction is only as good as the log. The IRS requires four specific items per trip, recorded contemporaneously. Here is the template and the rules.

The four required items

The substantiation rules require four things for every business trip: the date, the destination, the business purpose, and the number of miles. Business purpose needs to be specific: client names, meeting topics, or job-site identifiers. Writing lunch or business is not enough. Miles are best captured with start and end odometer readings, which also lets the IRS cross-check your total annual miles against service records and inspections.

Commuting miles must be excluded. If your log shows 18,000 total miles and you drove 4,000 commuting, only 14,000 are deductible, and the log should make the split obvious. Many drivers keep two columns, business and personal, and reconcile the total to the odometer at year end.

The free template

The mileage log template (CSV) on this site has one row per trip with columns for date, starting odometer, ending odometer, miles, destination, and business purpose. Open it in any spreadsheet app, add a row per trip, and keep a running total per half-year, since 2026 has different rates for January-June and July-December. The template is deliberately plain: no macros, no accounts, nothing to break.

Paper, spreadsheet, or app

Paper logbooks work and auditors accept them, but they get lost and the math is manual. Spreadsheets are the sweet spot for most freelancers: searchable, backed up, and easy to total by half-year. Mileage apps with GPS tracking are the most defensible because the phone records the route automatically; the IRS has accepted GPS logs for years. Whatever you choose, the standard is the same: recorded at or near the time of the trip.

Gig drivers get a head start from the platforms, which report annual miles, but platform summaries do not record business purpose and often miss miles driven with the app on between gigs. Reconcile the platform total against your own log and keep both.

Why reconstructed logs fail

In audits, the IRS routinely disallows mileage deductions when the log was created after the fact. Courts have upheld disallowances where taxpayers produced neat spreadsheets at audit time with no evidence they existed during the year. The regulation's word is contemporaneous, and examiners are trained to ask when the log was made. A simple notebook with daily entries beats a beautiful spreadsheet built in April.

The Cohan rule, which lets courts estimate some expenses when records are missing, generally does not save mileage deductions, because vehicle expenses are subject to the strict substantiation requirements of Section 274(d). No log, no deduction is close to the practical rule.

Daily habits that make it automatic

The drivers who survive audits share habits: they log the trip before driving or right after parking, they photograph the odometer at each oil change as an anchor, and they reconcile monthly. Five minutes a week beats five hours in April. Set a recurring Sunday reminder to review the week's trips while the purposes are still fresh; that single habit is the difference between a defensible log and a reconstruction.

What to do if you have no log for last year

If you are reading this in April with no 2025 log, do not invent one. Reconstruct what you honestly can from calendars, invoices, app histories, and fuel receipts, label it as a reconstruction, and start a contemporaneous log today. A partial honest reconstruction plus a clean current-year log is far better than a fabricated full-year log, which can turn a disallowed deduction into a negligence penalty. Then set up the template above so next year is automatic.

Sources: IRS Revenue Procedure 2019-46; IRS Publication 463. Data current as of October 2026. Not tax advice.

Frequently asked questions

What must be in a mileage log for the IRS?

For each trip: the date, the destination, the business purpose (specific, not just business), and the miles driven, ideally with odometer readings.

Can I reconstruct my mileage log at tax time?

You can try, but auditors routinely disallow reconstructed logs. The rules require contemporaneous records, and vehicle expenses face strict substantiation under Section 274(d).

Does the IRS accept mileage tracking apps?

Yes. GPS-based app logs are accepted; they are often more defensible than manual logs because the route and timing are recorded automatically.

Do gig drivers need their own log if the app tracks miles?

Yes. Platform summaries report miles but not business purpose, and they can miss miles driven with the app on between gigs. Keep your own log and reconcile.

Can I deduct mileage without a log?

Practically no. Without adequate records, the IRS will disallow the deduction, and courts generally will not estimate mileage under the Cohan rule.