How to Track Mileage for Taxes
A complete guide for freelancers, gig workers, and self-employed drivers.
Why mileage tracking matters
If you drive for work and you're self-employed, every business mile is worth real money at tax time. The IRS standard mileage rate lets you deduct a fixed amount per business mile driven — but only if you keep a contemporaneous log that holds up under audit.
What the IRS requires in a mileage log
- Date of each trip
- Starting location and destination
- Business purpose of the trip
- Miles driven
- Total business, personal, and commuting miles for the year
Reconstructing this from memory at tax time is risky — the IRS expects a record kept at or near the time of the drive.
Gig workers: Doordash, Uber, Lyft, Instacart
A common question is whether these platforms track mileage for you. The short answer: they track on-trip miles only — the miles with a passenger or order in the car. They do not track the miles you drive between deliveries, to your starting area, or while waiting for the next request — and those miles are usually deductible too.
Relying on the platform's summary can cost you 30–50% of your deduction. To capture every deductible mile, you need an independent tracker running from the moment you go online until you stop for the day.
How to keep track of mileage for taxes
- Pick one method and use it consistently all year.
- Record the trip when it happens — not weeks later.
- Note the business purpose in plain language ("Doordash shift", "client meeting").
- Keep odometer readings at the start and end of the year.
- Back up your log so you still have it three years after filing.
Automate it with ADOMAH MILES
ADOMAH MILES records each drive automatically by GPS, lets you classify trips as business or personal in one tap, and exports an IRS-ready PDF, CSV, or XLSX log whenever you need one. It's built for the gaps that delivery apps don't cover, so the miles you actually drove are the miles you actually deduct.
This article is general information, not tax advice. Consult a tax professional for your specific situation.