Who has to fill out Schedule C Part IV?

You complete Schedule C Part IV only if you claim car or truck expenses on Line 9 and are not otherwise required to file Form 4562 for that business. In practice this means freelancers using the standard mileage rate who have no depreciation, §179, or other Form 4562 items to report. If you use the actual expense method and claim depreciation or §179 on the vehicle, you file Form 4562 instead and answer the same vehicle questions in its Part V — so you leave Schedule C Part IV blank to avoid duplicating them.

What is the placed-in-service date on Line 43?

Line 43 is the date you first used the vehicle for your business, in month/day/year format. For a vehicle you bought specifically for the business, it's usually the purchase or first-use date. For a personal car you converted to business use, it's the date you started driving it for work — not the date you originally bought it. The placed-in-service date matters because it determines the first year of the standard-mileage-rate election under Rev. Proc. 2010-51, which can lock in your method for that car's life.

What's the difference between business and commuting miles on Line 44?

Line 44 splits your total annual miles into three buckets: business (44a), commuting (44b), and other/personal (44c). Business miles are trips between work locations, to clients, to the bank, to buy supplies, and similar. Commuting miles — driving between your home and a regular place of business — are never deductible, even for the self-employed. 'Other' is purely personal driving. The three should add up to your total odometer miles. A qualifying home office can convert what looks like commuting into deductible business travel, because trips from a home office to other work locations are business miles.

Why does Line 46 ask if I have another vehicle?

Line 46 asks whether you or your spouse have another vehicle available for personal use. The IRS uses it as a reasonableness check: if you claim a vehicle is used almost entirely for business and say you have no other car for personal use, that combination is statistically unusual and can draw attention. It doesn't disqualify your deduction — plenty of single-car households legitimately use one vehicle for both — but it should match the personal-use percentage you report on Line 44c.

What evidence does Line 47 require?

Line 47a asks if you have evidence to support your vehicle deduction, and Line 47b asks if that evidence is written. Under Treas. Reg. §1.274-5T, vehicle expenses require a contemporaneous record showing the date, mileage, destination, and business purpose of each trip. Checking 'Yes' to both means you keep a mileage log (paper, spreadsheet, or app) plus supporting receipts. A GPS-based mileage app satisfies the 'written evidence' standard and is far easier to defend in an audit than a year-end estimate.

What happens if I leave Part IV blank?

If you claim Line 9 car and truck expenses but skip Part IV (and you aren't filing Form 4562 for the vehicle), your return is incomplete and the IRS may question or disallow the deduction. The vehicle questions exist to confirm you're tracking business use properly. If you do file Form 4562 with depreciation or §179 on the vehicle, then leaving Schedule C Part IV blank is correct — the answers belong in Form 4562 Part V instead, and duplicating them is unnecessary.

Schedule C Part IV: Vehicle Information (Lines 43–47) Explained for Freelancers (2026 Guide)

Published: May 26, 2026 · Reading time: 8 min

TL;DR: Schedule C Part IV is the short vehicle questionnaire (Lines 43–47b) you fill out only when you claim car or truck expenses on Line 9 and are not required to file Form 4562. It asks: the placed-in-service date (Line 43), your annual mileage split into business / commuting / other (Line 44), whether the vehicle is available for personal use (Line 45) and whether you have another vehicle (Line 46), and whether you have evidence to support the deduction — and whether it's written (Lines 47a/47b). If you use the actual expense method with depreciation or §179, you file Form 4562 and answer these in its Part V instead, leaving Schedule C Part IV blank. Either way, the answers stand on your contemporaneous mileage log under Treas. Reg. §1.274-5T.

Most freelancers obsess over the dollar amount on Schedule C Line 9 and forget the six small questions at the bottom of the form. Part IV doesn't add to or subtract from your deduction — but leaving it blank, or answering it in a way that contradicts your mileage log, is exactly the kind of inconsistency that turns a routine return into an audited one. Here's every line, what it means, and how to answer it for 2026.

When Do You Even Use Part IV?

Part IV is conditional. The form's own instruction is precise: complete it only if you are claiming car or truck expenses on Line 9 and you are not required to file Form 4562 for this business.

That splits freelancers into two camps:

Your situation	Where the vehicle questions go
Standard mileage rate, no other Form 4562 items	Schedule C Part IV (Lines 43–47b)
Actual expense with depreciation or §179	Form 4562 Part V (Part IV stays blank)

The reason is simple: Form 4562 has its own identical vehicle questionnaire in Part V. The IRS doesn't want the same answers in two places, so it routes you to whichever form you're already filing. If you take the standard mileage rate and have nothing else to depreciate, Form 4562 isn't required — so Part IV is your home for the vehicle questions.

Line 43 — Placed-in-Service Date

Enter the month, day, and year you first used the vehicle for business. Two traps:

For a personal car you converted to business use, the date is when you started using it for work — not when you bought it years earlier.
This date sets the first year of your method election under Rev. Proc. 2010-51. Choosing the standard rate in that first year preserves your right to switch to actual later; choosing actual (or §179) locks you in. See our standard mileage vs actual expense guide for why year one is decisive.

Line 44 — The Three-Way Mileage Split

This is the heart of Part IV. From your log, enter:

44a — Business miles: trips to clients, job sites, the bank, suppliers, and between work locations.
44b — Commuting miles: driving between home and a regular place of business. Never deductible, even for the self-employed.
44c — Other (personal) miles: everything else.

The three buckets should reconcile to your total odometer miles for the year. A common, costly mistake is dumping everything into "business." See our commuting vs business miles guide for the line between 44a and 44b — and note that a qualifying home office can turn would-be commuting trips into deductible business miles, because travel from a home office to another work site is business travel.

Lines 45 & 46 — Personal Use and a Second Vehicle

Line 45: Was the vehicle available for personal use during off-duty hours? For most freelancers using a personal car, the honest answer is Yes.
Line 46: Do you or your spouse have another vehicle available for personal use?

These are reasonableness checks. A return that claims 95% business use, says the car is not available for personal use (Line 45 "No"), and reports no second vehicle (Line 46 "No") describes a household with one car used almost entirely for business and essentially no personal driving — statistically rare and a magnet for questions. None of these answers disqualify your deduction; they just need to be consistent with the percentage implied by your Line 44 split.

Lines 47a & 47b — The Evidence Questions

47a: Do you have evidence to support your deduction?
47b: If "Yes," is the evidence written?

You want to check "Yes" to both. Under Treas. Reg. §1.274-5T, vehicle expenses are subject to strict substantiation: you need a contemporaneous record of the date, mileage, destination, and business purpose of each trip. "Contemporaneous" means recorded at or near the time of the trip — not reconstructed from memory in April.

A paper logbook qualifies, but a GPS mileage app that timestamps and classifies each trip is the strongest form of written evidence and the easiest to produce if you're ever asked. Our GPS mileage tracking and IRS compliance guide covers what a defensible log looks like.

Worked Example: A Standard-Mileage Freelancer

Priya, a freelance graphic designer, drove 18,000 total miles in 2026: 11,000 to clients and the print shop, 2,000 commuting to a coworking space she rents on fixed days, and 5,000 personal. She uses the standard mileage rate and has nothing to depreciate, so she files Schedule C Part IV (no Form 4562):

Line 43: 03/14/2023 (when she first used the car for the business)
Line 44a: 11,000 · 44b: 2,000 · 44c: 5,000 (= 18,000 total)
Line 45: Yes · Line 46: Yes (her spouse has a second car)
Line 47a: Yes · Line 47b: Yes (she keeps a GPS app log)

Her Line 9 deduction is 11,000 × $0.725 = $7,975, and Part IV's answers corroborate it. Note the 2,000 coworking-space miles are commuting, not business — a home office would have changed that.

How Part IV Connects to the Rest of Schedule C

Part IV is paperwork, but it's the paperwork that defends your Line 9 number. The cleanest filing has three things in lockstep: the dollar amount on Line 9, the mileage split on Line 44, and a written log that backs both. When those agree, the vehicle deduction is one of the least risky on the form. When they don't — Line 9 implies 90% business use but Line 44 shows 60% — you've handed an examiner the discrepancy. For the broader picture of how the lines fit together, see our Schedule C line-by-line overview.

Authoritative References

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