A mileage log template, and why each column is there

A mileage log can be a notebook, a spreadsheet or an app. What matters is what it shows about each business drive and about each car’s year, and this template has a place for each of those things. It is written for people who deduct a car on Schedule C.

• Mileage log template (PDF): two pages, US Letter, landscape. Page one is the year for each vehicle, page two is a trip log with 25 lines. Print as many trip log pages as you need.
• Mileage log template (CSV): the trip log’s columns as a header row, for Excel, Google Sheets or Numbers.

Why a log is needed at all, and what happens to a drive you cannot prove, is in What the IRS actually wants in a mileage log. This piece is about the columns.

The trip log: one line per business drive

Section 274(d) of the tax code allows no deduction for a car unless you back it up “by adequate records or by sufficient evidence corroborating the taxpayer’s own statement”. Publication 463, Table 5-1, spells out what the record has to show for each drive. The trip log has a column for each item, and three more that make the record easier to check.

Column	Why it is there
Date	Table 5-1 asks for “the date of the use of the car”. The date also decides which rate applies.
From	The rules do not name the starting point. It is what shows a drive was not a commute, and with the destination it lets anyone check the miles.
To	Table 5-1: “Your business destination”.
Business purpose	Table 5-1: “Business purpose for the expense”. A client, a job or a property, not just “business”. What to write there has a piece of its own.
Odometer start and end	Not required. The sample log in Publication 463 (Table 5-2) has them, and they are the easiest proof of the miles.
Miles	Table 5-1: “the mileage for each business use”.
Parking, tolls	Publication 463: “In addition to using the standard mileage rate, you can deduct any business-related parking fees and tolls.” Parking at your regular place of work is commuting and does not count.

Two things save lines. A round trip, or a run of stops without a break, can be one line: Publication 463 lets you account for them “with a single record”, and a stop for lunch between two business stops “isn’t an interruption of business use.” For a regular sales or delivery route, you can record “the length of the delivery route once”, then the date of each trip and the year’s total miles.

Keep a receipt for any parking fee or toll of $75 or more, unless none is readily available. Below $75, Publication 463 says documentary evidence isn’t needed, and the line in the log is the record.

The year page: what Schedule C asks

Table 5-1 also asks, once for each car, for “the date you started using it for business” and “the total miles for the year”. Part IV of Schedule C asks for them, and page one of the template follows its lines:

• Line 43: the date the vehicle was placed in service for business.
• Line 44: the miles you drove it during the year, split into a business, b commuting and c other. The template gets the total from the odometer at the start and end of the year, the business miles from the last trip log page, and other miles by subtraction.
• Line 9: business parking and tolls are added to the mileage amount.
• Lines 45–47b: four yes-or-no questions, including “Do you have evidence to support your deduction?” and “If ‘Yes,’ is the evidence written?”

Commuting miles are not deductible. Publication 463 says so “no matter how far your home is from your regular place of work”. Line 44b asks for them anyway, so keep a count. The exceptions, such as a drive to a temporary work location, are in What counts as a business mile?

The page has room for two vehicles. If you used more than one, the Schedule C instructions say to attach the same information for each additional vehicle. If you depreciate the car or file Form 4562 for another reason, you complete Part V of Form 4562 instead of Part IV.

One line is for 2026 only. The business rate was 72.5¢ a mile before July 1 (Notice 2026-10) and 76¢ from July 1 (Announcement 2026-11), so the year’s business miles are split at that date.

How often to fill it in

Congress wrote “adequate contemporaneous records” into section 274(d) in 1984 and took “contemporaneous” out the next year. The regulation says “A contemporaneous log is not required.” What it asks is that each entry be made “at or near the time” of the drive, while you have “full present knowledge” of it. It gives an example: “a log maintained on a weekly basis, which accounts for use during the week, shall be considered a record made at or near the time of such use.”

So once a week is enough, while you still remember the week.

A record of part of the year can stand for the whole year if other evidence shows that part is representative. In Publication 463’s example, a log kept for the first week of each month shows 75% business use, and invoices and bills show the rest of each month ran the same way. In the regulation’s counter-example, the logged week is the one each month when orders are delivered. It is not like the other weeks, so it proves nothing about the year.

A spreadsheet counts as much as paper. Publication 463: “if you prepare a record on a computer, it is considered an adequate record.”

What not to do

• Don’t estimate. Publication 463: “You can’t deduct amounts that you approximate or estimate.”
• Don’t fill the year in at the end. The regulation gives a record made at or near the time “a high degree of credibility not present with respect to a statement prepared subsequent thereto when generally there is a lack of accurate recall.” A log written up in April has to lean on other evidence, and the bar for it is high.
• Don’t write “business” as the purpose. It says the drive was business, not why.

How long to keep it

Publication 463 says to keep records “for 3 years from the date you file the income tax return on which the deduction is claimed. A return filed early is considered filed on the due date.” Keep the year page, the trip log pages and the receipts together. Some cases run longer, and a depreciated car’s records are kept “for each year of the recovery period”. The full list is in Keep records for years, not months.

Sources

• IRS, Publication 463: Travel, Gift, and Car Expenses (for 2025 returns): chapter 4, Parking fees and tolls and Commuting expenses; chapter 5, Recordkeeping (Table 5-1, Documentary evidence, Timely kept records, Proving business purpose, Sampling, Car expenses, How Long To Keep Records and Receipts, Table 5-2).
• IRS, Schedule C (Form 1040), Part IV, lines 43–47b, and the Instructions for Schedule C: line 9 and Part IV.
• IRS, Notice 2026-10 and Announcement 2026-11, I.R.B. 2026-29: the 2026 standard mileage rates.
• 26 U.S. Code § 274(d): substantiation required for listed property, and the 1984 and 1985 amendments.
• 26 CFR § 1.274-5T: (b)(6) the elements for a car; (c)(1) “A contemporaneous log is not required”, and the weight of a record made at or near the time; (c)(2)(ii)(A) at or near the time, the weekly log; (c)(3)(ii) sampling.

This article is general information, not tax advice. Tax situations vary — check with a qualified professional before you file.