Commuting Miles vs Business Miles 2026: What Freelancers Can Actually Deduct (Rev. Rul. 99-7)

Published: May 24, 2026 · Reading time: 8 min

TL;DR: Driving from home to a regular workplace is never deductible — that's commuting. But Rev. Rul. 99-7 carves out three situations where the same kind of driving becomes deductible business miles at $0.725/mile for 2026: (1) travel to a temporary work location outside your metro area, (2) travel from a regular work location to any temporary location in the same business, and (3) travel from a qualifying home office to any other work location. A home office is the game-changer — it converts your first-out and last-back trips into business miles. A "temporary" location is one you expect to work at for one year or less. Whatever you deduct, you need a contemporaneous log (date, miles, destination, purpose) under Treas. Reg. §1.274-5T — vehicle miles are listed property and get no Cohan estimate.

"Can I deduct the drive to my client's office?" is one of the most-asked — and most-misunderstood — questions in freelance taxes. The answer hinges on a single concept: the difference between commuting (personal, never deductible) and business miles (deductible at the standard rate). Get the line right and you can deduct thousands of miles a year. Get it wrong and you either lose the deduction or invite an audit adjustment. Here's exactly where the line falls in 2026.

The Default Rule: Commuting Is Personal

The starting point is firm: travel between your home and your regular place of work is a non-deductible personal commuting expense. This applies no matter the distance, the traffic, or whether you do business calls on the way. The IRS reasons that where you choose to live relative to your workplace is a personal decision.

So a freelancer who rents a regular studio across town and drives there each morning is commuting — those miles are not deductible. The interesting question is when a trip isn't a commute at all.

The Three Rev. Rul. 99-7 Exceptions

Rev. Rul. 99-7 lays out three situations where home-to-work travel is deductible business mileage:

1. Temporary Work Location Outside the Metro Area

You can deduct travel between home and a temporary work location outside the metropolitan area where you live and normally work. A "temporary" location is one where you realistically expect the work to last one year or less.

Example: A consultant who normally works from home drives 90 miles to a client's out-of-town site for a three-month project. Deductible.

2. From a Regular Work Location to a Temporary One

If you have at least one regular work location away from home, you can deduct travel between your home and a temporary work location in the same trade or business — regardless of distance, even within your metro area.

Example: A contractor with a regular shop drives from home directly to a one-week job site across town. Deductible under this exception.

3. From a Qualifying Home Office

If your home is your principal place of business — a home office used regularly and exclusively that qualifies under IRC §280A — then travel between your home and any other work location in the same trade or business is deductible. This is the big one for freelancers.

Example: A freelance designer with a qualifying home office drives to a client meeting, then to a print shop, then home. Every mile of that day is deductible business mileage.

Why the Home Office Changes Everything

Here's the practical punchline. Without a qualifying home office, your first trip out (home → first client) and last trip back (last client → home) are often non-deductible commuting. Only the trips between business stops count.

With a qualifying home office as your principal place of business, your home becomes a work location — so the first-out and last-back trips become business miles too. For a freelancer who makes several stops a day, that can convert thousands of "commuting" miles a year into deductible business miles.

This is exactly why establishing a legitimate home office matters beyond the home-office deduction itself. See our home office deduction guide and the Schedule C Line 30 home office guide for how to qualify.

The One-Year Temporary Rule

A location is temporary only if you realistically expect to work there one year or less — and you actually do. The trap:

• Expected from the start to last one year or less → temporary (deductible).
• Expected to last more than a year → regular from day one (commuting).
• Expected to be short, but expectation later changes to more than a year → temporary until the expectation changes, then regular going forward.

This mirrors the §162 "away from home" one-year rule for travel. Don't let a "temporary" gig quietly become your regular workplace without re-classifying your miles.

Trips That Are Always Business Miles

Regardless of the home-office question, these are deductible at $0.725/mile for 2026:

• Between two work locations the same day — client A to client B, office to a meeting, job site to supplier
• To a temporary work location (per the exceptions above)
• For a specific business errand — bank deposit, post office for shipping, picking up supplies
• To meet a client or attend a business event away from your regular workplace

And these are never deductible:

• Home → regular workplace (commuting), absent a qualifying home office
• Personal stops woven into a business trip (allocate them out)
• The miles bundled into the standard rate — you can't separately deduct gas, oil, or depreciation on top of $0.725/mile

Tolls and parking, however, are deductible on top of the mileage rate — see our tolls and parking guide.

Worked Example: A Field Photographer's Day

A freelance photographer with a qualifying home office drives this route in 2026:

Without the home office, the first 14 and last 17 miles (31 miles) would be commuting — only 15 miles would count, cutting the day's deduction by more than half.

Documentation: No Log, No Deduction

Vehicle mileage is listed property under §280F, which means the Cohan rule (estimating deductions without records) does not apply. Treas. Reg. §1.274-5T requires a contemporaneous log with four elements per business trip:

1. Date
2. Business miles
3. Destination
4. Business purpose

A raw GPS trail fails because it can't establish purpose. The best mileage apps capture purpose at a one-swipe classification step. See our GPS mileage tracking apps and IRS compliance guide and the track business mileage requirements guide.

Common Mistakes

1. Deducting the home-to-regular-office commute with no qualifying home office
2. Missing the home-office exception — failing to claim first/last-trip business miles you're entitled to
3. Treating a long-term assignment as "temporary" past the one-year line
4. No contemporaneous log — losing the deduction entirely under the listed-property rule
5. Double-dipping — claiming gas/repairs on top of the standard rate
6. Not allocating personal detours out of a business trip

Authoritative References

• Rev. Rul. 99-7 — Deductibility of daily transportation expenses
• IRC §162 — Trade or business expenses
• IRC §280A — Business use of home
• Treas. Reg. §1.274-5T — Substantiation requirements
• IRS Publication 463 — Travel, Gift, and Car Expenses
• IRS Standard Mileage Rates

Classify Every Trip Automatically

CentSense tracks your drives by GPS and lets you classify each trip as business, personal, or commute with one swipe — capturing the business purpose the IRS requires and applying the 2026 rate of $0.725/mile automatically. The Solo plan ($5/month) gives you unlimited AI receipt scanning with Schedule C auto-categorization, an audit-defensible mileage log, and a CPA-ready CSV export.

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