What Are the IRS’s Standard Mileage Rates?

When you use your car for business, the IRS allows you to deduct that expense from your taxable income.

You’ll itemize your deductions, using Form 2106 (Employee Business Expenses) if your employer partially reimbursed you for expenses. If your employer provided no reimbursement at all, you’ll use Form 2106-EZ (Unreimbursed Employee Business Expenses) to claim your costs. If you’re self-employed or work as a contractor, you’ll claim expenses on Schedule C.If you file your taxes online,the tax provider will ask about your mileage during the interview process and calculate the deduction for you.

The standard mileage deduction is the most straightforward way of calculating your driving expense. You’ll need to track your business-related mileage with a log or smartphone app, but figuring out your deduction is easy: You simply multiply by the IRS’ allowable rate.

You also have the option of tracking and deducting the actual expenses you incur whileusing your vehicle.

As a rule of thumb, don’t even consider using actual costs if you use your vehicle less than 50% of the time for business. The standard mileage deductions keep things simple as long as you keep track of all your miles.

Standard mileage deduction rates

With thestandard mileage method, the deduction depends on how you used your vehicle. Per the IRS, the rates are:

2016 tax year2017 tax yearBusiness miles54 cents / mile53.5 cents / mileMedical and moving miles19 cents / mile17 cents / mileCharitable miles14 cents / mile14 cents / mile

Commuting to work is not considered a deductible expense.

Some people can’t use the standard mileage rates — for example, those who used an employer-provided vehicle or who racked up the mileage as a limo or taxi driver. You can’t use the standard mileage rates if you used five or more vehicles simultaneously, which makes you a fleet owner and ineligible.

And you can’t use the standard mileage rates if you used the actual expenses method in the previous year.

Actual mileage method

If more than half your driving last yearwas for business, you might want to consider using the actual expense method. You can do sowhen you keep track of all the allowable costs associated with the use of your car or truck.

If you choose to deduct actual expenses, you can include the business portions of your vehicle costs associated with:

– Depreciation
– Licenses
– Lease payments
– Registration fees
– Gas and oil
– Insurance
– Repairs
– Garage rent
– Tires
– Tolls
– Parking fees

Section 179

Because vehicle depreciation is largest in the first year, you’ll want to give the Section 179 deduction serious consideration if you purchased a new vehicle for use in your business. The Section 179 deduction, a special rule intended to help small businesses, applies only to an asset’s first year of use. There are other detailed limits on the deduction, which you can read about onthe IRS website.

No bonus depreciation, a special depreciation allowance, is in effect this year.

This post was updated on Jan. 27, 2017.

The article What Are the IRS’s Standard Mileage Rates? originally appeared on NerdWallet.