Free mileage log template for Excel (IRS 2026 rates, business use %)
A mileage log is the record behind a mileage deduction or a mileage reimbursement: one line per trip with the date, where you went, why, and how far, plus the odometer readings for the year. This free Excel template keeps that log and does the rest: the 2026 IRS rates (72.5 cents to June 30, 76 cents from July 1) applied by trip date, parking and tolls, business, medical, charity and commuting miles, business use % and the Schedule C line 44 split, with a check on every trip. Below: what's in the file, what the IRS asks a log to show, a worked example, the 2026 rates, what counts as business mileage and what each check means.
Short answer: download the mileage log template (.xlsx). Enter the tax year and the odometer on January 1, then one line per trip: date, from, to, business purpose, type (Business, Medical, Charity, Commuting or Personal) and either the odometer start and end or the miles, plus any parking and tolls. Each trip gets the IRS rate for its date: business 72.5 cents a mile through June 30, 2026 and 76 cents from July 1. Add the December 31 odometer reading for the business use %. The Example is a fictional studio owner's June to September 2026: 582 business miles = 493.81 (436.51 mileage + 57.30 parking and tolls), 11.4% of 5,118 miles driven.
Download the free mileage log template (.xlsx)
Three sheets: a blank Mileage log with 500 trip lines, a filled-in Example mileage log and How to use. A Type drop-down, an editable rate table with the 2026 IRS rates, totals by type and by month. It uses only SUM, SUMIF, COUNT, COUNTIF, ROUND, IF, AND, OR, N, TEXT, DATE, YEAR, MONTH and TODAY, so it works in Excel, Google Sheets (File, Import), LibreOffice and Numbers. No sign-up, no email, no macros. It prints landscape on one page width.
- What's in the template
- What the IRS asks a mileage log to show
- The columns, line by line
- Worked example: June to September 2026
- 2026 IRS mileage rates and the July 1 change
- Business, commuting, medical or charity: what counts
- Business use % and Schedule C line 44
- The checks, and what to do about each
- Standard mileage rate or actual costs
- FAQ
1. What's in the template
- Inputs at the top: driver or business, the vehicle, the tax year, the odometer on January 1 (or the day the car started business use) and on December 31 (or the last day logged), and the date the IRS rate changed (July 1, 2026).
- The trip list: 500 lines with date, from, to, business purpose, type, odometer start and end, miles (when there's no odometer reading) and parking & tolls, then four calculated columns: Miles, Rate, Amount and Check. A filter is on the header row.
- Rates and summary by type on the right: each type's rate before and from the change date (yellow, editable), and its trips, miles, mileage amount, parking & tolls and total. The Type drop-down reads this list.
- By month: business miles, business amount and all miles logged for each month of the tax year.
- Key figures: business miles, business amount, miles driven (odometer end − start), business use %, the Schedule C line 44a / 44b / 44c split, trips logged and trips to fix.
- Status line, such as 582 business miles = 493.81 (11.4% business use of 5,118 miles driven), or 1 trip(s) need fixing.
Yellow cells are inputs; everything else is a formula. Grey helper columns at the right of the list (the month of each trip) feed the monthly summary; leave them alone.
2. What the IRS asks a mileage log to show
IRS Publication 463 (chapter 5, Recordkeeping) lists what an adequate record of car use includes. Each item has a place in the template:
| Publication 463 asks for | Where it goes in the template |
|---|---|
| The mileage for each business use | Odometer start and end, or Miles, on each trip line |
| The total miles for the year | Odometer on January 1 and December 31 at the top (miles driven = the difference) |
| The date of the use of the car | Date |
| Your business destination | From and To |
| The business purpose | Business purpose (flagged on business trips if it's blank) |
Write trips down at or near the time. Publication 463 says you don't have to record every trip the same day: a log kept weekly that accounts for the week's use counts as a timely kept record, and a timely record carries more weight than one rebuilt later. Its sample "Daily Business Mileage and Expense Log" has the same columns as this template: date, destination, business purpose, odometer start and stop, and miles.
3. The columns, line by line
| Column | What goes in it |
|---|---|
| Date | The day of the trip. A date outside the tax year is flagged. |
| From / To | Where you started and where you went: "Studio" to "Harbor Dental and back". A round trip can be one line. |
| Business purpose | Who and why: "Present brochure proofs". Required for business trips. |
| Type | Business, Medical, Charity, Commuting or Personal (drop-down from the rate table; add your own there). |
| Odometer start / end | The readings at the start and end of the trip. The log flags an end below the start, and a start below the previous trip's end (a typo, or trips out of order). |
| Miles (if no odometer) | Use this instead of odometer readings, for example miles from a map, or one monthly commuting line. If you type both, the miles must equal end − start. |
| Parking & tolls | Paid on that trip. Added to the amount for types with a rate. |
| Miles | Calculated: the Miles column if typed, otherwise odometer end − start. |
| Rate | Calculated: the type's rate before or from the change date, by the trip's date. |
| Amount | Calculated: miles × rate, plus parking & tolls (business, medical and charity only). |
| Check | Calculated: OK, or what's wrong (see section 8). |
4. Worked example: June to September 2026
The Example sheet is the fictional owner of the same design studio as our bookkeeping and expense report templates, driving their own car from June 1 to September 30, 2026, so trips fall on both sides of the July 1 rate change. The odometer read 38,412 on January 1 and 43,530 on September 30, the last day logged.
| Type | Trips | Miles | Mileage amount | Parking & tolls | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Business | 14 | 582 | 436.51 | 57.30 | 493.81 |
| Medical | 1 | 18 | 3.69 | 0.00 | 3.69 |
| Charity | 1 | 22 | 3.08 | 0.00 | 3.08 |
| Commuting (4 monthly lines) | 4 | 935 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 |
| Total | 20 | 1,557 | 443.28 | 57.30 | 500.58 |
- Business: 14 client trips, 582 miles. The 4 June trips (166 miles) use 72.5 cents = 120.35; the 10 trips from July 2 on (416 miles) use 76 cents = 316.16. Mileage 436.51, plus 57.30 of parking and tolls = 493.81.
- One business trip (August 6, 24 miles) was in a loaner car, so it has miles from the map instead of odometer readings. The check still says OK.
- Medical: 18 miles to physical therapy at 20.5 cents (June) = 3.69. Charity: 22 miles volunteering for a food pantry at 14 cents = 3.08.
- Commuting: one line a month, home to studio, 11 miles × the workdays: 231 + 242 + 231 + 231 = 935 miles, rate 0.
- Miles driven 43,530 − 38,412 = 5,118, so business use is 582 ÷ 5,118 = 11.4%, and Schedule C line 44 reads 582 / 935 / 3,601 (business / commuting / other).
| Month | Business miles | Business amount | All miles logged |
|---|---|---|---|
| June 2026 | 166 | 140.35 | 415 |
| July 2026 | 104 | 89.94 | 368 |
| August 2026 | 70 | 53.20 | 301 |
| September 2026 | 242 | 210.32 | 473 |
Every trip reads OK, so the status line says 582 business miles = 493.81 (11.4% business use of 5,118 miles driven). In practice you'd keep going to December 31 and enter that day's odometer reading.
5. 2026 IRS mileage rates and the July 1 change
The IRS raised the 2026 rates midyear because of fuel prices (Announcement 2026-11, IR-2026-29). Rates per mile, from irs.gov Standard mileage rates:
| Use | Jan 1 – Jun 30, 2026 | Jul 1 – Dec 31, 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| Business (self-employed and business) | 72.5 cents | 76 cents |
| Medical, and military moving | 20.5 cents | 23.5 cents |
| Charity (fixed by law) | 14 cents | 14 cents |
That's why the template has two rate columns and a change date: each trip's rate comes from its date, so a log that runs all year needs no splitting. For 2027, type the new rates in both columns (or leave the change date blank, and every trip uses the "from" column). An employer that reimburses at its own rate can type that in instead.
6. Business, commuting, medical or charity: what counts
| Trip | Type | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Home to your regular office or studio | Commuting | Publication 463: trips between home and your main or regular place of work are personal commuting. |
| Office to a client, supplier or the bank | Business | Travel between work locations during the day. |
| Home to a temporary work location | Business (usually) | Publication 463 treats it as deductible in most cases; see its commuting chart for the details. |
| Parking at your regular workplace | Not deductible | Publication 463 calls it a commuting expense. Parking at a client is business. |
| To a doctor or therapy | Medical | A medical expense (Schedule A, if you itemize), not a business one. |
| Driving for a charity | Charity | 14 cents a mile as a charitable contribution, not a business expense. |
| Errands, weekends, vacation | Personal (or leave it out) | Counts in miles driven through the odometer anyway. |
You don't have to log personal trips one by one: the odometer readings at the top already count every mile, and "other" miles are what's left after business and commuting. Commuting is worth one line a month, as in the example, because Schedule C asks for it. If you're an employee, most unreimbursed car expenses aren't deductible on a federal return (Publication 463 lists the exceptions), so the log backs up a reimbursement claim: copy the miles into an expense report.
7. Business use % and Schedule C line 44
Business use % is business miles ÷ all miles driven in the year, which is why the template asks for the odometer at both ends of the year. It matters if you use actual costs (only the business share of gas, insurance and repairs is deductible) and for depreciation. If you file Schedule C and claim car expenses without Form 4562, Part IV asks for the miles you drove during the year split three ways: 44a Business, 44b Commuting and 44c Other. The key figures box gives those three numbers; in the example, 582 / 935 / 3,601, which add up to the 5,118 miles driven.
If the business miles come out higher than the miles driven, the status line says so: one of the odometer readings at the top is wrong, or a trip was logged twice.
8. The checks, and what to do about each
| Check says | What it means | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| No date | The line has places or miles but no date | Add the date from your calendar |
| Outside tax year | The date isn't in the tax year at the top | Fix the year, or move the trip to that year's log |
| No type | Type is blank, so the trip has no rate | Pick a type |
| Enter miles | No miles and not both odometer readings | Add the readings or the miles |
| Odometer end below start | End reading is lower than the start | Usually swapped digits |
| Odometer below last trip | This trip starts below where the line above ended | A typo, or trips out of date order (sort by date) |
| Miles differ from odometer | Miles typed and the readings disagree | Keep one or correct the other |
| Add purpose | A business trip with no business purpose | Say who and why |
The status line also flags miles in a type that isn't in the rate table (a typed type that doesn't match), so no trip falls out of the totals.
9. Standard mileage rate or actual costs
The standard mileage rate is used instead of actual car costs such as gas, oil, insurance, repairs and registration; you can't claim both for the same car in the same year. Business parking and tolls are the exception: Publication 463 lets you deduct them on top of the standard rate, which is why they have their own column. Publication 463 also says that to use the standard rate for a car you own, you have to choose it in the first year the car is used in your business; after that you can switch between the two methods year by year (a leased car must stay on the standard rate for the whole lease).
To compare with actual costs you need the year's gas, insurance and repair spending, which mostly sits on bank and card statements. Not tax advice: confirm the method and the figures with your tax preparer.
Pull gas, parking and tolls off a card statement
Utilly turns PDF bank and credit card statements into Excel, CSV, QuickBooks or Xero files and checks every file against the statement's own totals. Convert the card statements, filter for fuel, parking and tolls, and you have the actual-cost side of the comparison (and any parking or tolls you forgot to log). Try it on the fictional sample card statement first: it has a fuel purchase and two rideshares.
Method: miles = the Miles column if typed, otherwise odometer end − start; rate = the type's rate before or from the change date; amount = miles × rate, plus parking and tolls for types with a rate; business use % = business miles ÷ (odometer December 31 − January 1). Rates per irs.gov Standard mileage rates (IR-2026-29, Announcement 2026-11); record elements, timely records, commuting, parking and tolls and the standard-rate choice per IRS Publication 463; Schedule C line 44 per the 2026 Schedule C (Form 1040), all checked November 3, 2026. Not tax advice. The driver, business and places are fictional. Template built and checked November 3, 2026: the Example recalculates in LibreOffice to the figures above and the status 582 business miles = 493.81 (11.4% business use of 5,118 miles driven).
FAQ
Is the mileage log template free?
Yes. Download the .xlsx with no sign-up or email address. It has a blank Mileage log sheet for 500 trips, a filled-in Example and instructions, and it works in Excel, Google Sheets (File, Import), LibreOffice and Numbers.
What does the IRS require in a mileage log?
IRS Publication 463 lists the mileage for each business use, the total miles for the year, the date, the destination and the business purpose. Write it at or near the time of the trip; the IRS treats a log kept weekly as a timely record. The template has a column for each of these and the odometer readings for the year at the top.
What is the IRS mileage rate for 2026?
For business miles, 72.5 cents a mile from January 1 to June 30, 2026 and 76 cents from July 1 to December 31, 2026 (irs.gov, Standard mileage rates). Medical and military moving miles are 20.5 cents then 23.5 cents, and charity miles are 14 cents. The template uses the rate for each trip's date.
Can I deduct parking and tolls as well as the mileage rate?
Yes for business trips: Publication 463 says business parking fees and tolls are deductible in addition to the standard mileage rate. Parking at your regular workplace is commuting and isn't. The template adds the Parking & tolls column to the amount only for types with a rate (business, medical, charity).
Is driving from home to work business mileage?
No. Trips between home and your main or regular place of work are personal commuting. Log them as Commuting anyway (a monthly line is fine) because Schedule C line 44 asks for business, commuting and other miles; the template fills in that split from the odometer readings.
Can I use it in Google Sheets?
Yes. In Google Sheets choose File, Import, Upload and pick the .xlsx. The formulas use only common functions (SUM, SUMIF, COUNTIF, IF, DATE, YEAR, MONTH, TEXT and a few others), so they calculate the same way, and the Type drop-down carries over.
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