Mileage Log for a Trip That Crosses the July 1 Rate Change: Split Legs by Date (2026)

TL;DR: For 2026 there are two business mileage rates, not one: 72.5 cents for January 1 through June 30 and 76 cents from July 1 through December 31. A trip that straddles June 30 and July 1 therefore needs its legs dated and priced separately. The IRS announcement that set the 76-cent rate says it applies to expenses paid or incurred on or after July 1, 2026, and that the earlier rate continues to apply to expenses before July 1. Log one line per leg, total each rate period on its own, and add parking and tolls on top. A flat rate across the whole trip gets the number wrong in one direction or the other.

Most freelancers think of the mileage rate as a single number for the year. In 2026 it is not, and a multi-day job that starts in late June and finishes in early July is exactly where that assumption breaks. A single line reading "Harbor job, 431 miles" is not wrong about the miles. It just has nowhere to put the date that decides which rate each of those miles earns.

This guide is about the log, not the strategy. It shows how to record a trip so the split is visible, how to total it, and what to do about the awkward cases: a drive that runs past midnight, and a trip that crosses New Year's Eve. For the rates themselves and why they changed, see our 2026 mileage rate guide.

What the IRS Actually Said About the Mid-Year Change

The IRS lists the 2026 business rate in two periods on its standard mileage rates page: 72.5 cents per mile for January 1 through June 30 and 76 cents per mile for July 1 through December 31. The earlier figure comes from Notice 2026-10, which sets the rate for 2026 at 72.5 cents per mile for all miles of business use.

The later figure comes from Announcement 2026-11, published in Internal Revenue Bulletin 2026-29. It revises the optional standard mileage rates because of recent increases in the price of fuel. On timing, the announcement says the revised rates "apply to deductible transportation expenses paid or incurred for business, medical, or moving expense purposes on or after July 1, 2026." It adds that the rates in Notice 2026-10 "continue to apply to deductible transportation expenses paid or incurred for business, medical, or moving expense purposes before July 1, 2026."

Read plainly, the date that matters is the date the driving happened, not the date you log it, file the return or get reimbursed. A mile driven on June 30 is a 72.5-cent mile and a mile driven on July 1 is a 76-cent mile, even if both belong to the same job.

Two limits on what that tells you. The announcement gives you the dividing line, July 1, 2026, and says nothing about a single drive that spans midnight, which we deal with below as a judgment call. And it concerns the rate; the records you must keep come from a different source, covered next.

What the Log Must Show

The rate split changes the arithmetic, not the substantiation rules. Publication 463's proof table for transportation asks for the cost of each separate expense and, for car expenses, "the cost of the car and any improvements, the date you started using it for business, the mileage for each business use, and the total miles for the year." It asks for the date of the use of the car, your business destination, and the business purpose.

Two further points from Publication 463 matter for a multi-day trip:

• Timeliness. The publication says you should record the elements "at or near the time" of the use, and that if you maintain a log on a weekly basis that accounts for use during the week, the log is considered a timely kept record. You do not need to write each leg the same night, but a trip log written weeks later from memory is weaker. The regulation under section 274(d) says a contemporaneous log is not required, but a record made at or near the time has a higher degree of credibility than a later statement. Our guide to contemporaneous mileage log requirements goes through what counts.
• Business purpose. Publication 463 says you must generally provide a written statement of the business purpose, though the degree of proof varies and a purpose that is clear from the surrounding circumstances needs no written explanation. For a trip with several stops, a short line per leg is cheap insurance. See what to write in a business purpose note.

The practical consequence: the date column is doing double duty. It satisfies the substantiation requirement and it selects the rate. If your log has a trip total but no per-leg dates, you have lost the second function even if you kept the first.

A Log Layout That Makes the Split Automatic

Use one row per leg and add a column for the rate period. Here is the layout we recommend:

The odometer columns are optional for the IRS but valuable in practice, because they let you prove that the miles on consecutive legs add up and let you split a drive at an exact reading if you ever have to. Our odometer readings guide explains how to capture them, and the multi-stop, multi-client day guide shows how to write the intermediate legs.

Two habits keep the layout honest:

1. Never merge days. A multi-day trip is several days of driving. Write each day separately even when every leg looks routine.
2. Fill the rate-period column when you write the row, not at year end. It takes a second and it removes the temptation to apply one rate to everything.

Worked Example: A Three-Day Job Across June 30 and July 1

Dana is a hypothetical freelance photographer. She drives to a two-site assignment that straddles the end of June. The legs below are invented for illustration, and the first leg is treated as business travel; whether a particular trip qualifies is a separate question covered in our business trip and vacation mileage guide.

Computed in two groups: 184 miles on June 30 at $0.725 is $133.40, and 247 miles on July 1 and July 2 at $0.76 is $187.72, for $321.12.

Now the shortcuts, so you can see what they cost:

The dollar gaps are small on one trip, which is the dangerous part. A freelancer who drives like this every month and uses the wrong shortcut for a year carries the error on every row, and the flat-76 shortcut in particular overstates the deduction.

Dana also paid $18.50 in tolls on June 30, $27.25 in tolls on July 2 and $32.00 for parking at the motel. Those are actual costs added on top of the mileage, not mileage. Publication 463 says "In addition to using the standard mileage rate, you can deduct any business-related parking fees and tolls," and notes that parking fees paid to park at your place of work are nondeductible commuting expenses. That adds $77.75 in tolls and parking, so the vehicle line for the trip is $321.12 plus $77.75, or $398.87. The tolls and parking receipts are unaffected by the rate change, but they belong in the same trip folder as the log. See our guides to parking and tolls and to toll transponder statements.

Every figure here is hypothetical, built to show structure rather than to promise a result. How much of your own trip is deductible depends on your facts.

The Awkward Case: A Drive That Runs Past Midnight

Suppose Dana had left at 10 p.m. on June 30 and arrived at 3 a.m. on July 1, one continuous drive with no stop. Which rate covers it?

The announcement does not say. It talks about expenses paid or incurred before July 1 and on or after July 1, and a continuous overnight drive is both. There is no IRS example of how to carve it up, so what follows is a judgment about applying the wording, not a rule.

The approach with the cleanest paper trail is to split the drive where the clock turns over. Note the odometer reading at a nearby stop or from your phone's timestamped record, value the miles before midnight at 72.5 cents and the miles after at 76 cents, and write both rows in the log with the reading you used. If you did not stop and have no reading, a timestamped navigation history can support an estimate of where you were at midnight. Keep whatever evidence you used to choose the split point, because the choice is yours to defend.

The alternative of valuing the whole drive by its start date is simpler but less faithful to the wording. The difference on one drive is usually a few dollars, so the value of this decision is mostly the habit of writing down your reasoning. If the trip is long or the numbers are large, ask a CPA or EA how they would treat it.

The Other Boundary: Trips That Cross December 31

A trip that crosses New Year's Eve has a different problem. The rate period is the same issue, but the more important boundary is the tax year. Miles are reported on the return for the year in which you drove them, so the December miles belong with one return and the January miles with the next.

Keep the same dated per-leg log and the split happens by itself. Two cautions:

• Do not assume the 2026 rates carry over. The IRS standard mileage rates page, as checked on the date this guide was published, lists no rate for 2027. Check the page for the new year's figure before you value January miles. Pinning down a number you have not seen is how the stale-rate errors in tax content happen.
• Cash-basis timing applies to the receipts too. Under the cash method an expense generally belongs to the year you pay it: a toll charged to your bank card on December 30 is a December expense, but a toll-by-mail invoice you pay in January is not. Our guide on which tax year a receipt belongs to covers the card-charge versus store-account distinction.

If You Reimburse Someone Else's Driving

The same date test shows up if you reimburse a helper for using their own car. Announcement 2026-11 applies the revised rates to mileage allowances paid to an employee on or after July 1, 2026, for transportation expenses the employee incurred on or after July 1, 2026. That is a narrower, two-part condition, and it matters for accountable plans. We cover it in the guide to reimbursing mileage for an employee or contractor. It does not change how you log your own miles.

If You Did Not Log by Leg

If you already have a trip written as one line, you are not necessarily stuck. Rebuild the legs from calendar entries, client addresses, receipts and a navigation or location history, and mark the result as a reconstruction. Publication 463 says a timely kept record has more value than a statement prepared later, because of lapses in recall, so the reconstruction is a weaker position than a contemporaneous log. Our guides to reconstructing a mileage log after the fact and to mileage log sampling cover what supports a rebuilt record and what Publication 463 says about representative periods.

If you changed tracking apps in the middle of the year, the same dated-leg discipline helps you stitch two exports together; see switching expense and mileage apps mid-year.

A Short Checklist for the Next Trip

• Photograph the odometer at departure and at the end of each driving day.
• One row per leg, one date per row, with the destination and a one-line purpose.
• Mark the rate period on each row as you write it.
• Total each rate period separately, multiply, then add.
• File parking and toll receipts under their own dates, and keep the whole packet together.

For the conference version of this packet, with registration, agenda and hotel records, see our guide to conference and trade show receipts.

Frequently Asked Questions

Which 2026 mileage rate applies to a trip that starts June 30 and ends July 2?

Value each drive by its own date. For 2026 the IRS lists 72.5 cents per mile for January 1 through June 30 and 76 cents per mile for July 1 through December 31. Announcement 2026-11 says the revised rates apply to deductible transportation expenses paid or incurred on or after July 1, 2026, and that the earlier rates continue to apply to expenses paid or incurred before July 1, 2026. So miles driven on June 30 are valued at 72.5 cents and miles driven on July 1 or later at 76 cents. Applying the rate by the date of each drive follows that wording; confirm with a CPA or EA if the trip is large or unusual.

Can I just use 76 cents for the whole trip because it ends after July 1?

No. Announcement 2026-11 says the 76-cent rate applies to expenses paid or incurred on or after July 1, 2026, and that the 72.5-cent rate continues to apply to expenses paid or incurred before July 1, 2026. Pricing June 30 miles at 76 cents overstates the deduction. In the worked example in this guide the flat 76-cent shortcut overstates it by $6.44. Split the legs by date and confirm any unusual facts with a CPA or EA.

What if one long drive runs past midnight on June 30?

Announcement 2026-11 speaks of expenses paid or incurred before July 1, 2026 and on or after July 1, 2026, and does not address a single drive that straddles midnight. A reasonable approach is to note the odometer reading at midnight or at the nearest stop and value the miles on each side at that side's rate. That is a judgment about how to apply the wording, not an IRS rule, so keep the odometer readings and times that support the split and confirm the approach with a CPA or EA.

Do parking and tolls change at the July 1 rate change?

No. Parking fees and tolls are actual costs, not part of the per-mile rate. Publication 463 says that in addition to using the standard mileage rate, you can deduct any business-related parking fees and tolls, and it notes that parking fees you pay to park at your place of work are nondeductible commuting expenses. Keep the receipt or transponder statement for each charge and file it under the date it was incurred. Confirm how your facts apply with a CPA or EA.

What does my mileage log need to show for a multi-day trip?

Publication 463's proof table for car expenses asks for the cost of the car and any improvements, the date you started using it for business, the mileage for each business use, and the total miles for the year, along with the date of each use, your business destination and the business purpose. Publication 463 also says a log kept on a weekly basis that accounts for use during the week is considered a timely kept record. Record each day's legs separately so the rate split is visible, and confirm your own recordkeeping with a CPA or EA.

Does the rate split matter if I deduct actual car expenses instead?

The standard mileage rate does not enter into the actual expense method, so the 72.5 and 76 cent figures do not apply there. Publication 463 says that if you use your car for both business and personal purposes you must divide your expenses between them, and that you can divide them based on the miles driven for each purpose, so a dated log of business and total miles still matters. Which method you can use depends on your history with the car, so confirm with a CPA or EA before switching.

What if a trip crosses December 31 into January?

Each day's miles belong with the calendar year in which you drove them, because the miles are reported on separate annual returns. Keep the log dated by day so the totals for each year can be pulled apart. The IRS standard mileage rates page, as checked on the date this guide was published, lists no rate for 2027, so do not assume the 2026 figures carry over; check the IRS page for the new year's rate before you value January miles, and confirm unusual facts with a CPA or EA.

Authoritative References

• IRS: Standard mileage rates (2026 rates by period, with IR-2025-128 and IR-2026-29 sources)
• IRS: Internal Revenue Bulletin 2026-29 (Announcement 2026-11, revised optional standard mileage rates effective July 1, 2026)
• IRS: Internal Revenue Bulletin 2026-04 (Notice 2026-10, 2026 standard mileage rates)
• IRS: Publication 463, Travel, Gift, and Car Expenses (Table 5-1; Timely kept records; Parking fees and tolls; Actual Car Expenses)
• 26 CFR 1.274-5T, Substantiation requirements, Cornell Legal Information Institute

Date every leg as you drive it. Start a free CentSense account and, on the Solo plan, log each trip in the mileage tracker so the date on every leg is already there when the rate changes. The free tier includes 10 AI receipt scans a month with no credit card, and the Solo plan ($5/month) adds unlimited scanning and mileage tracking.

This guide is general education for U.S. self-employed freelancers filing a Schedule C in 2026. It is not personalized tax advice. Dana and her trip are hypothetical and the figures are illustrative. How the mileage rates, a midnight-straddling drive or a year-end trip apply to your facts depends on your circumstances, so confirm them with a CPA or EA before you file.