Commute Mileage Rules in the US: What Is Usually Not Deductible

Commute mileage is the single biggest source of overclaimed business miles on US tax returns. The IRS draws a hard line: driving from home to your regular place of work and back is a personal expense under IRC Section 262, and personal expenses are not deductible. Period.

But the rules have important exceptions — particularly for home office workers, temporary work locations, and people with multiple workplaces. Knowing exactly where the line falls can save you thousands in legitimate deductions you might otherwise skip, while keeping you out of trouble for claims that do not qualify.

The basic rule: commuting is personal

Under long-standing IRS guidance, daily transportation between your home and your regular or main place of business is commuting. Commuting costs are personal expenses regardless of:

• How far the commute is
• Whether you use the drive time for business calls
• Whether you carry tools or equipment in the vehicle
• Whether no public transportation is available

This applies to employees and self-employed individuals alike. The legal basis is IRC Section 262(a): “Except as otherwise expressly provided in this chapter, no deduction shall be allowed for personal, living, or family expenses.”

The IRS reaffirmed this in Revenue Ruling 99-7, which specifically addresses when travel between home and work qualifies as deductible business transportation versus nondeductible commuting.

The home office exception: when home-to-client drives ARE deductible

Here is where the rules get more favorable for self-employed people and remote workers. If your home qualifies as your principal place of business, drives from your home office to client sites, temporary work locations, or other business destinations are deductible business travel — not commuting.

To qualify, your home must meet the requirements of IRC Section 280A(c)(1). Your home office is your principal place of business if:

1. You use it regularly and exclusively for business, AND
2. It is your principal place of business (where you do most of your administrative or management work, and you have no other fixed office location), OR
3. You meet patients, clients, or customers there in the normal course of business

Under Revenue Ruling 99-7, once your home qualifies as your principal place of business, the commuting rule flips. A drive from your home office to a client’s office 30 miles away is business travel, not a commute. Without the home office designation, that same drive could be treated as commuting if the client’s office is your regular work location.

This distinction matters enormously. A freelancer with a qualifying home office who visits clients four days a week can deduct all of those drives. The same freelancer without a home office designation, who considers the client’s location a regular workplace, would get zero deduction for the same trips.

Temporary work locations

Drives to a temporary work location are deductible regardless of whether you have a home office. The IRS defines a temporary work location as one where your employment is expected to last one year or less.

Key rules from IRS Publication 463:

• If you have a regular workplace, travel from home to a temporary work location is deductible
• If you do not have a regular workplace, travel from home to a temporary location is deductible only if the location is outside your metropolitan area
• Once a “temporary” assignment extends beyond one year (or is expected to), it becomes a regular workplace and drives there become nondeductible commuting

Example: You work from a regular office downtown. A client hires you for a 6-month project at their facility across town. Your daily drive to the client’s facility during that project is deductible business travel because it is a temporary work location. If the project extends to 14 months, the deduction stops from the point you know it will exceed one year.

Two or more regular workplaces

If you have more than one regular place of business, travel between them during the workday is deductible. However, your commute to the first workplace and your commute home from the last one are still personal.

Example: An attorney has an office downtown and a satellite office in the suburbs. Driving from home to the downtown office in the morning is commuting (not deductible). Driving from the downtown office to the suburban office mid-day is business travel (deductible). Driving from the suburban office home in the evening is commuting (not deductible).

Scenario examples: deductible or not?

Scenario 1: Freelance web developer with a home office

Jamie has a qualifying home office and no other fixed workplace. On Monday, Jamie drives from home to a client’s office for a project meeting (22 miles), then returns home.

Result: Both legs are deductible. Jamie’s home is the principal place of business, so drives to client sites are business travel under Rev. Rul. 99-7.

Scenario 2: Employee commuting to corporate headquarters

Alex drives from home to the company’s main office every day — a 15-mile commute each way.

Result: Not deductible. This is standard commuting to a regular workplace. IRC Section 262 applies.

Scenario 3: Plumber dispatched to job sites from home

Rosa is a self-employed plumber with a qualifying home office where she handles scheduling and bookkeeping. Each day she drives directly from home to the first customer’s house, then between job sites, then home from the last site.

Result: All drives are deductible. Home to first job site is business travel (home office is principal place of business). Travel between job sites is business travel. Last job site to home is business travel.

Scenario 4: Consultant working at a client site for 10 months

Morgan is a consultant assigned to a client’s office for a 10-month engagement. Morgan’s permanent office is downtown.

Result: Drives from home to the client site are deductible because the assignment is temporary (expected to last less than one year). Drives from home to Morgan’s permanent downtown office remain nondeductible commuting.

Scenario 5: Real estate agent showing houses on weekends

Taylor is an independent real estate agent whose principal place of business is a qualifying home office. On Saturday, Taylor drives from home to show three houses, then returns home.

Result: All legs are deductible business travel. The home office serves as Taylor’s principal place of business, and the showings are business activities at temporary locations.

Employer reimbursement and accountable plans

If you are an employee (not self-employed), the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 suspended the deduction for unreimbursed employee expenses through 2025. This means W-2 employees generally cannot deduct mileage on their personal returns, even for legitimate business travel, unless the law changes.

However, employers can reimburse business mileage tax-free through an accountable plan. Under an accountable plan (IRC Section 62(c)):

• The reimbursement must be for expenses with a business connection
• The employee must adequately substantiate the expenses (a mileage log works)
• The employee must return any excess reimbursement within a reasonable period

Reimbursements under an accountable plan are not reported as income on the employee’s W-2. The employer deducts them as a business expense. The reimbursement rate does not have to match the IRS standard rate — employers can pay more or less — but the standard rate ($0.74/mile for 2026) is the most common benchmark.

If the employer’s plan does not meet all three requirements, it is a nonaccountable plan, and reimbursements are treated as taxable wages.

How to operationalize these rules in your workflow

Use a clear classification policy for every trip:

• Personal commute (not deductible): Home to regular workplace, regular workplace to home
• Business travel (deductible): Home office to client site, travel between business locations during the day, travel to temporary work locations
• Mixed chain: If a trip includes both personal and business segments, split the legs and classify each one separately

Set your mileage tracking app to default new trips to “unclassified” rather than “business.” This forces you to actively review and classify each trip, which prevents accidental overclaiming. Tag commute routes as personal so the app can auto-classify repeat trips.

Review unclassified trips weekly while the context is still fresh. By the end of each month, every trip should be tagged and no ambiguous entries should remain.

Related guides

• Independent Contractor Mileage for Taxes: End-to-End Claim Workflow
• Mileage Log Requirements for IRS: What to Record and How to Store It
• Mileage Claim Calculator Guide 2026: Estimate Faster, File Cleaner

MileTrack captures trips automatically, classifies them as business, commute, or private, and exports tax-ready reports with all the fields the IRS requires. See the current US product page at miletrack.app/en-us.

Tax note: this article is educational content only, not professional tax advice. Consult a qualified tax professional for guidance specific to your situation.