Can you deduct gas for work?

The two methods

Publication 463 (2025) says that if you use your car for business you can generally figure the deduction in one of two ways: the standard mileage rate or actual car expenses. Gas belongs to the second. The actual expenses list in the publication includes depreciation, lease payments, registration fees, licenses, insurance, repairs, gas, garage rent, tires, oil, tolls and parking fees. The standard mileage rate, which was 70 cents ($0.70) per mile for 2025, is a single cents-per-mile figure that already stands in for these costs, so the publication states that if you use it for a year you cannot deduct depreciation, lease payments, maintenance and repairs, gasoline (including gasoline taxes), oil, insurance or vehicle registration fees for that year.

Splitting gas between business and personal

If you use the car for both purposes, you must divide the expenses, and the publication says you can divide them based on miles driven for each purpose. Its example is a contractor who drives 20,000 miles, of which 12,000 are for business and 8,000 personal. The contractor can claim only 60% (12,000 divided by 20,000) of the cost of operating the car as a business expense. A full tank of gas for the weekend is personal; the tank you burn visiting clients is business, which is why a mileage record is the base of both methods.

What is never deductible: commuting

You cannot deduct the cost of driving between your home and your main or regular place of work, no matter how far apart they are and even if you work or make business calls during the drive. Hauling tools or instruments in the car does not change that, although extra costs for hauling, such as renting a trailer, can be deducted. If you have no regular office, the first business contact inside your metropolitan area is treated as your office and the trip home from the last contact is also commuting. You can deduct driving from one client to the next, and driving to a temporary work location when you have a regular workplace elsewhere. A qualifying home office can make the trip from home to a client deductible. See the mileage deduction calculator for business miles at the current rate.

Who can claim any of this

For employees, the publication states that car costs, whether actual or at the mileage rate, can no longer be claimed as an unreimbursed employee travel expense because the 2% miscellaneous itemized deductions are suspended after 2017. The exceptions are the four groups that still use Form 2106; see this page. A sole proprietor reports car expenses on Schedule C, line 9, and completes Part IV unless Form 4562 is needed. An employee who uses an employer-provided vehicle can deduct actual unreimbursed costs, such as gas for a car the employer provides, but cannot use the standard mileage rate.

Choosing a method, and sticking with it

If you want the standard mileage rate for a car you own, you must choose it in the first year the car is available for business. Later years you can use either method. You cannot use it if you use five or more cars at the same time, as in fleet operations, or if you have claimed a section 179 deduction, the special depreciation allowance, or MACRS depreciation on the car. Compare both ways before filing, as the publication suggests; our standard mileage vs actual expenses calculator goes deeper on that choice, and the rate history shows earlier years.

Worked example

You drive 20,000 miles in the year, 12,000 for business, and your actual costs excluding depreciation are $9,000. Actual method: 60% of $9,000 is $5,400, before any depreciation share. Standard method: 12,000 miles times $0.70 is $8,400. The standard method wins here because depreciation, insurance and the rest are already inside the 70 cents, but the answer flips for a high-cost vehicle with large depreciation or for a low-mileage year. Use the calculator above with your own figures. Whatever the numbers show, parking and tolls on business trips are deductible on top of the standard mileage rate; see the parking and tolls page.

Sources

• IRS Publication 463, Travel, Gift, and Car Expenses (2025): Chapter 4, Commuting expenses; Car Expenses; Standard Mileage Rate; Choosing the standard mileage rate; Actual Car Expenses; Business and personal use; chapter 6, Where To Report. Read November 2, 2026.

Edition read: Publication 463 (2025), for use in preparing 2025 returns. Rates and dollar limits on this page are the 2025 figures printed in that edition; check the current publication, form instructions and GSA.gov per diem tables for your tax year. This page summarizes the publication and does not replace it.