Business Miles vs. Commuting Miles: Where the IRS Actually Draws the Line

The drive from your house to work is not deductible. Everyone knows that rule, and most people apply it far more broadly than the IRS does.

The actual line is narrower, and several common trips that feel like commuting are deductible business miles. Here is where the boundary sits.

The rule in one sentence

Travel between your home and your regular place of business is a personal commuting expense. Travel between business locations, or to a temporary work location, is deductible business mileage.

The work is all in what counts as your regular place of business, and what counts as temporary.

Trips that are clearly not deductible

Home to your regular office and back
Home to the shop, store, or facility where you normally work
Stopping for coffee or dropping a child at school on the way to work — the trip is still a commute
Working during the commute. Taking calls in the car does not convert it.
Hauling tools in your personal vehicle on the commute. Carrying equipment does not make a commute deductible, even if the vehicle is only large enough because of the tools.

That last one surprises tradespeople constantly. The rule is genuinely strict — the cost of getting yourself to work is personal regardless of what is in the truck bed.

Trips that are deductible

Between two work locations in the same day. Office to client, client to client, shop to job site.
To a temporary work location outside your normal metropolitan area, or a location expected to last one year or less.
From your home office to anywhere business-related, when the home office qualifies as your principal place of business.
Errands with a business purpose — the bank for a business deposit, the supplier, the post office to ship an order, a client lunch.

The home office rule that changes everything

If your home office qualifies as your principal place of business, you no longer have a commute in the ordinary sense. Trips from home to a client, a job site, a supplier, or a second office become business miles from the moment you pull out of the driveway.

This is the single most valuable mileage rule for self-employed people, and it is why the home office deduction is often worth more indirectly than directly.

To qualify, the space generally has to be used regularly and exclusively for business, and it has to be your principal place of business — meaning either you conduct most of your income-generating work there, or you use it for the administrative and management activities of the business and have no other fixed location where you do that.

The second path matters. A contractor who works at customer sites all day but does scheduling, invoicing, and ordering from a dedicated home office can qualify — even though very little of the actual trade work happens at home.

A worked example

Two electricians, identical days: home to job site A, job A to job B, job B to supply house, supply house home. 62 miles total.

Leg	Miles	No home office	Qualifying home office
Home → Job A	18	Commute	Deductible
Job A → Job B	11	Deductible	Deductible
Job B → Supply house	14	Deductible	Deductible
Supply house → Home	19	Commute	Deductible
Deductible		25 miles	62 miles

Over 240 working days, that is 6,000 deductible miles versus 14,880. At the second-half 2026 rate of 76¢, roughly $4,560 versus $11,300 — a difference of about $6,700 in deductions from the same driving.

Temporary work locations

A temporary work location is one where the work is realistically expected to last one year or less. Travel there is deductible even without a home office.

The catch: expectation controls, and it can change. If you take an assignment expected to run eight months, those trips are deductible. If it gets extended past a year, the location becomes indefinite from the point the expectation changed — and trips after that point stop being deductible. Miles already taken under the original expectation stay deductible.

Two or more regular workplaces

If you genuinely work at two locations regularly, travel between them is deductible. Home to the first and home from the last are still commutes.

Someone teaching at two campuses deducts campus-to-campus mileage but not home-to-first-campus.

Recording it so it survives scrutiny

Mileage is one of the most frequently examined deductions, and the reason is usually a log that shows a suspiciously round number of business miles and no personal miles at all.

What holds up:

Date, starting point, destination, business purpose, miles
Total miles driven for the year, so business percentage is computable
Contemporaneous entries — recorded at the time, not reconstructed in March
Some personal miles. A vehicle with zero personal use is possible but unusual, and claiming it invites questions.

A business purpose of “business” is not a business purpose. “Site visit — Henderson job” is.

Frequently asked questions

I stop at a client on the way to my office. Is any of that deductible?
The leg from the client to your office is business travel. The leg from home to the client is generally still a commute unless you have a qualifying home office.

Does the deduction apply if I am a W-2 employee?
Not federally — unreimbursed employee business expenses are currently not deductible. Some states still allow it on the state return; Pennsylvania’s Schedule UE is one. Otherwise, seek reimbursement under your employer’s accountable plan.

What if I work from home but only occasionally?
Occasional use does not create a principal place of business, and the exclusive-use requirement is strict. A kitchen table used sometimes does not qualify.

Can I deduct driving to look for a new client?
Business development travel for an existing business is generally deductible. Travel to start an entirely new business is treated differently — it may fall under startup costs rather than current mileage.

The bottom line

Commuting is home to your regular workplace, and it is never deductible. Almost everything else with a business purpose is.

If you are self-employed and have a legitimate qualifying home office, the commute largely disappears and your deductible mileage can multiply. That is worth getting right before it is worth getting perfect.

Related guides

This article is general information, not tax advice. Vehicle and home office rules come from IRS Publications 463 and 587; verify current guidance at irs.gov or consult a qualified tax professional.