Car expenses on Schedule C, line by line
Where the cost of a work car goes on Schedule C, what Part IV asks about the car, and how the two ways of figuring the cost compare, with a 2026 example worked to the cent.
A car you use for work shows up twice on Schedule C: what it cost on line 9, Car and truck expenses, and what it did in Part IV, Information on Your Vehicle. This piece goes through both, and the other lines a car can reach, from the 2025 instructions (the latest published) and the 2026 draft form. Sources are at the end.
It is for anyone who files Schedule C, which includes the owner of a single-member LLC not taxed as a corporation.
Where a car goes on Schedule C
Line 9 holds the cost of running the car, figured one of two ways.
- At the standard mileage rate, it is your business miles times the rate, plus business parking fees and tolls. The instructions add: “Do not deduct depreciation, rent or lease payments, or your actual operating expenses.”
- At actual cost, it holds “the business portion of expenses for gasoline, oil, repairs, insurance, license plates, etc.” Depreciation goes on line 13 and lease payments on line 20a.
Some car costs sit on other lines, and some travel is not line 9 at all:
| What | Where on Schedule C |
|---|---|
| Business miles at the standard rate, or the business share of running costs, plus business parking and tolls | Line 9 |
| Depreciation or a section 179 deduction on the car (actual cost only) | Line 13, with Form 4562 |
| Lease payments (actual cost only) | Line 20a |
| The business share of car-loan interest | Line 16b: Other interest on the 2025 form, a new Vehicle loan line on the 2026 draft |
| The business share of personal property tax on the car | Schedule C; the line 23 instructions cover “personal property taxes on business assets” |
| Hotel and airfare on an overnight business trip | Line 24a; your own car on that trip stays on line 9 |
| Meals on that trip | Line 24b, generally at 50% |
| Taxis, buses and other transport that is not your car | Line 27b, listed in Part V |
Interest and personal property tax count at the standard rate too. You deduct the business share. Publication 463: “if you use your car 60% for business, you can deduct 60% of the interest on Schedule C (Form 1040).” Personal property tax on the car works the same way. A registration fee does not: the standard rate covers it. Since 2025, some car-loan interest can go on Schedule 1-A instead, but the same interest cannot be deducted twice.
Standard rate or actual expenses
| Standard mileage rate | Actual expenses | |
|---|---|---|
| What it covers | Running the car: depreciation or lease payments, gas, oil, repairs, insurance, registration | What you spent: gas, oil, repairs, tires, insurance, registration, licenses, garage rent, parking, tolls, depreciation or lease payments |
| How it is figured | Business miles × the rate in force on each drive’s date | Each cost × business miles ÷ total miles |
| Records | The mileage log, with parking and tolls; receipts from $75 | The same log, which sets the business share, plus each cost and what the car cost you |
| Choosing it | An owned car: in the first year it is available for use in your business. A leased car: for the whole lease | Any car; the only method with five or more cars used at the same time |
| Switching | An owned car can use either method in later years; a move to actual costs depreciates it straight line over its remaining estimated useful life | An owned car started on actual costs can never use the standard rate; a leased one stays on actual costs |
The standard rate is also closed to a car depreciated under MACRS or any method other than straight line, or with section 179 or the special depreciation allowance. Where both are open, Publication 463 suggests you “figure your deduction both ways to see which gives you a larger deduction.” Standard-rate miles count as depreciation too, lowering the car’s basis by 35¢ a business mile in 2026.
A 2026 example, worked through
The 2026 business rate is 72.5¢ a mile through June 30 and 76¢ from July 1, so the year is totaled in two halves (the 2026 rates has more).
A photographer rents a studio across town and has used the standard rate since the car’s first year in the business. The odometer read 42,310 on January 1 and 57,810 on December 31: 15,500 miles. Of those, 9,300 were business (4,200 before July 1, 5,100 after), 1,200 were home to the studio and back, and the rest personal. Business parking and tolls came to $186.50, loan interest to $1,450 and personal property tax to $300.
| On the return | Working | Amount |
|---|---|---|
| Line 9 | 4,200 × $0.725 = $3,045.00, plus 5,100 × $0.76 = $3,876.00, plus $186.50 parking and tolls | $7,107.50 |
| Line 16b | $1,450 interest × 60% business use (9,300 ÷ 15,500) | $870.00 |
| Personal property tax, on Schedule C | $300 × 60% | $180.00 |
| Lines 44a, 44b, 44c | Business 9,300; commuting 1,200; other 15,500 − 9,300 − 1,200 = 5,000 miles |
Part IV, line by line
Part IV is for a return that takes the standard rate, or has a leased or fully depreciated car, and files no Form 4562 for any other reason. If you depreciate the car, or file Form 4562 anyway (for other equipment placed in service this year, say), you answer the same questions in Form 4562, Part V. For each additional car, you attach a statement with the Part IV answers.
43. When did you place your vehicle in service for business purposes? Publication 463’s list of records puts it as “the date you started using it for business”: for a family car you later began using for work, the day the business use began, not the day you bought it. It also marks the first year, when the standard rate has to be chosen.
44. Of the total number of miles you drove your vehicle during the year, the miles for a business, b commuting and c other. Together they make the car’s total for the year, which odometer readings at each end pin down. If the car switched between personal and business use during the year, the instructions say to count commuting miles only for the time it was a business car.
45. Was your vehicle available for personal use during off-duty hours? and 46. Do you (or your spouse) have another vehicle available for personal use? The instructions add nothing to them. Answer them as things are.
47a. Do you have evidence to support your deduction? and 47b. If “Yes,” is the evidence written? The instructions point to Publication 463 for the rules. For each business drive, the log needs the date, the miles, where you went and why; for the car, the year’s total miles and the date it went into business use. An expense of $75 or more also needs a receipt or similar evidence, unless it is a transportation expense, such as a toll, with no receipt readily available. Written evidence can be electronic, on a system that meets the requirements in Publication 583. What the IRS wants in a mileage log has the detail, and the mileage log template has the columns.
Business, commuting or other
Driving between home and your regular place of work is commuting. Publication 463: you “can’t deduct commuting expenses no matter how far your home is from your regular place of work.” Parking there is commuting too. Drives to clients, between work sites, and to a temporary work location while you have a regular one are business. So are drives from a home office that is your principal place of business to other work locations in the same business. The full rules, including the three cases the line 44b instructions list, are in what counts as a business mile.
In OdoTax
The report’s first page is laid out around these lines (what the report contains goes through every page).
- Deduction by form starts with a row named Schedule C, line 9: business miles, each priced at the IRS rate in force on its date, plus the business parking and tolls you entered. Loan interest and personal property tax are not in it: they go on other lines.
- Vehicle information, marked Schedule C, Part IV · lines 43–44c, has a row for each car: In service, Odo. start, Odo. end, Business, Commute and Other. Other is every other mile: personal, medical, charity and moving drives, and any drive still unsorted.
- Those miles are the drives OdoTax recorded; Commute is the drives you mark Commute. The car’s total comes from the odometer readings you add under Settings → Odometer; if they span more miles than the three columns add up to, the rest is driving OdoTax did not record. The in-service date is In business use since, on the vehicle in the web account.
- The last page prints the questions from lines 45–47b, with Yes and No boxes for you to tick.
The app records each drive it detects and prices it at the rate for its date. The category, the purpose, the odometer readings, and any parking or tolls are yours to add.
The free plan covers 35 drives a month, and Pro removes the limit.
The bottom line
Line 9 is the car’s running cost; interest, property tax, depreciation and lease payments have lines of their own. Part IV describes the car, and a log with an odometer reading at each end of the year supplies its numbers.
Sources
- IRS, Instructions for Schedule C (Form 1040) (2025): who files Schedule C and single-member LLCs; line 9, Information on your vehicle; line 13, When to attach Form 4562; lines 16a and 16b; line 20a; line 23; lines 24a and 24b; Part IV, lines 44b and 47.
- IRS, Schedule C (Form 1040) (2025), Part II and Part IV, and the 2026 draft (not for filing), lines 16a–16c and Part IV.
- IRS, Publication 463: Travel, Gift, and Car Expenses (2025): chapter 4, Transportation (commuting, temporary work locations, office in the home, parking fees) and Car Expenses (the standard mileage rate, choosing it, when it is not allowed, five or more cars, interest, personal property taxes, parking fees and tolls, actual car expenses, business and personal use); chapter 5, Table 5-1 and Documentary evidence; chapter 6, Self-employed.
- IRS, Publication 334: Tax Guide for Small Business (2025): chapter 8, Car and Truck Expenses, Interest on car loans and Personal property tax.
- IRS, Instructions for Form 4562: Part V, Listed Property.
- IRS, Notice 2026-10: the 2026 standard mileage rates and the 35¢ basis reduction; Announcement 2026-11, I.R.B. 2026-29: the rates from July 1, 2026.
This article is general information, not tax advice. Tax situations vary — check with a qualified professional before you file.