Mileage: between sites yes, commuting never

The rule in one line: commuting never, between-work yes

Two categories decide almost every question. Business mileage — driving between work locations during your working day — is a deductible ordinary and necessary expense, reported on the car-and-truck line of your Schedule C 1Ref 1Internal Revenue Service (2026).Guide to business expense resources.That business use of a vehicle is an ordinary and necessary deductible expense, claimed by the standard-mileage or actual-expense method, while commuting is nondeductible.2Ref 2Internal Revenue Service (2026).Self-employed individuals tax center.That a solo practice reports vehicle expenses on the car-and-truck line of Schedule C.. Commuting — the trip between your home and a regular place of work — is a personal expense and is never deductible, no matter how far you drive or how work-related it feels 1Ref 1Internal Revenue Service (2026).Guide to business expense resources.That business use of a vehicle is an ordinary and necessary deductible expense, claimed by the standard-mileage or actual-expense method, while commuting is nondeductible..

The trickiest call is the very first drive of the day from home, and that is exactly where a home office changes the answer.

Why the home office flips your first trip

The commuting rule has a hinge: your principal place of business. If a qualifying home office is where you conduct the practice's core administrative and management work, then it is a work location — and driving from it to another work site is business mileage, not a commute 3Ref 3Internal Revenue Service (2026).Home office deduction.That a qualifying home office used as the principal place of business is a work location, so trips from it to other work sites are business mileage rather than commuting, subject to the regular-and-exclusive-use standard.. That single fact can convert the first and last drive of a telehealth-and-visits day from nondeductible to deductible.

The catch is the gate. The home office has to actually qualify — used regularly and exclusively for the practice — under the same standard that governs the home-office deduction itself 3Ref 3Internal Revenue Service (2026).Home office deduction.That a qualifying home office used as the principal place of business is a work location, so trips from it to other work sites are business mileage rather than commuting, subject to the regular-and-exclusive-use standard.. Two points follow from it:

• Qualify first, then drive. If the room fails the exclusivity test, the home end of the trip is still personal.
• Administrative-and-management use counts. For many solo practices the home office is where scheduling, notes, and billing happen, which is what makes it the principal place of business 3Ref 3Internal Revenue Service (2026).Home office deduction.That a qualifying home office used as the principal place of business is a work location, so trips from it to other work sites are business mileage rather than commuting, subject to the regular-and-exclusive-use standard..

Two ways to take it: standard mileage vs actual expenses

Once a trip is deductible, you claim it one of two ways, and you pick per vehicle. The standard mileage method multiplies your business miles by the IRS's per-mile rate — a figure the IRS sets each year, so look up the current rate rather than reusing last year's 1Ref 1Internal Revenue Service (2026).Guide to business expense resources.That business use of a vehicle is an ordinary and necessary deductible expense, claimed by the standard-mileage or actual-expense method, while commuting is nondeductible.. The actual-expense method instead deducts the business-use share of real costs: gas, insurance, repairs, and depreciation 1Ref 1Internal Revenue Service (2026).Guide to business expense resources.That business use of a vehicle is an ordinary and necessary deductible expense, claimed by the standard-mileage or actual-expense method, while commuting is nondeductible.4Ref 4Internal Revenue Service (2026).Publication 946, How To Depreciate Property.That the actual-expense method depreciates the vehicle under MACRS, with passenger vehicles treated as listed property subject to annual depreciation caps..

Under the actual method, depreciation follows Publication 946, and passenger vehicles are listed property with annual depreciation caps — more paperwork and more limits than the standard rate 4Ref 4Internal Revenue Service (2026).Publication 946, How To Depreciate Property.That the actual-expense method depreciates the vehicle under MACRS, with passenger vehicles treated as listed property subject to annual depreciation caps.. A common convention is to run the numbers both ways in year one, but the choice you make the first year a vehicle is in service can limit later options, so decide deliberately rather than by default.

The log is the deduction: substantiate every mile

A mileage deduction with no log is the one the IRS disallows first, because vehicle expenses are a classic set of irs audit triggers. The rule is contemporaneous records: log each business trip near the time it happens, with the date, the destination, the business purpose, and the miles 5Ref 5Internal Revenue Service (2026).Recordkeeping.That a mileage deduction requires contemporaneous records — date, destination, purpose, and miles — plus odometer readings, kept for the applicable retention period.. A reconstructed year-end estimate from memory does not meet the standard, and it is the paperwork examiners ask for by name 5Ref 5Internal Revenue Service (2026).Recordkeeping.That a mileage deduction requires contemporaneous records — date, destination, purpose, and miles — plus odometer readings, kept for the applicable retention period..

Keep the log with your tax records for the applicable retention period, and record the odometer at the start and end of the year — that is how you prove the business-use percentage the whole deduction rests on 5Ref 5Internal Revenue Service (2026).Recordkeeping.That a mileage deduction requires contemporaneous records — date, destination, purpose, and miles — plus odometer readings, kept for the applicable retention period.. If you later find legitimate mileage you left off a filed return, amending is the route to claim it rather than quietly folding it into a future year.

If you've elected S-corp: reimburse, don't deduct personally

The mechanics change if your practice is taxed as an S corporation. There, the car is usually yours personally while the work is the corporation's, so the clean path is an accountable-plan reimbursement: you submit your mileage log to the S corp, it reimburses you at the standard rate, and it deducts the reimbursement — tax-free to you 6Ref 6Internal Revenue Service (2026).S corporations.That an S-corp owner is reimbursed for business mileage under an accountable plan rather than deducting the miles personally, with the reimbursement tax-free when substantiated.. Deducting the miles on your personal return instead generally does not work for an S-corp owner.

The log still governs: no substantiation, no clean reimbursement, so the same discipline from the previous section applies either way 6Ref 6Internal Revenue Service (2026).S corporations.That an S-corp owner is reimbursed for business mileage under an accountable plan rather than deducting the miles personally, with the reimbursement tax-free when substantiated.5Ref 5Internal Revenue Service (2026).Recordkeeping.That a mileage deduction requires contemporaneous records — date, destination, purpose, and miles — plus odometer readings, kept for the applicable retention period.. Whether the S election is worth its cost at all is a separate calculation for your CPA; this only covers how the vehicle is handled once that election is in place 6Ref 6Internal Revenue Service (2026).S corporations.That an S-corp owner is reimbursed for business mileage under an accountable plan rather than deducting the miles personally, with the reimbursement tax-free when substantiated..

Common trip calls a solo practice actually faces

A handful of recurring situations settle most day-to-day questions once you know the framework. The theme is consistent: a trip is deductible when it runs between work activities, and personal when it bookends your day at a regular workplace 1Ref 1Internal Revenue Service (2026).Guide to business expense resources.That business use of a vehicle is an ordinary and necessary deductible expense, claimed by the standard-mileage or actual-expense method, while commuting is nondeductible.3Ref 3Internal Revenue Service (2026).Home office deduction.That a qualifying home office used as the principal place of business is a work location, so trips from it to other work sites are business mileage rather than commuting, subject to the regular-and-exclusive-use standard.. Where a home office qualifies as your principal place of business, the home end of the trip becomes a work location, which is what changes the answer 3Ref 3Internal Revenue Service (2026).Home office deduction.That a qualifying home office used as the principal place of business is a work location, so trips from it to other work sites are business mileage rather than commuting, subject to the regular-and-exclusive-use standard..

• Continuing-education seminar across town. Travel to and from CE is generally a deductible business trip, like any other work destination 1Ref 1Internal Revenue Service (2026).Guide to business expense resources.That business use of a vehicle is an ordinary and necessary deductible expense, claimed by the standard-mileage or actual-expense method, while commuting is nondeductible..
• A supply stop on the way in. The business-errand leg is deductible; the pure home-to-office portion is still commuting.
• Two patient sites in one day. The drive between them is squarely business mileage.
• A full day worked from a qualifying home office. No commute exists, so a later drive that day to a work site is business mileage 3Ref 3Internal Revenue Service (2026).Home office deduction.That a qualifying home office used as the principal place of business is a work location, so trips from it to other work sites are business mileage rather than commuting, subject to the regular-and-exclusive-use standard..