What this line means
Your total vehicle expenses from Part II of Form 2106 — either the standard mileage rate or actual expenses, but not both. For 2025, the standard mileage rate is 70 cents per mile for business use.1 This goes in Column A only. Meal costs during driving are reported separately.
Does this apply to you?
- You are an Armed Forces reservist who drives more than 100 miles one way to reserve duty
- You are a qualified performing artist who uses your personal vehicle to travel between jobs
- You are a fee-basis state or local government official with unreimbursed vehicle costs
- You have impairment-related work expenses that require personal vehicle use
- You used your personal car, van, pickup, or panel truck for business purposes during the year
Easy to overlook
Choosing the wrong mileage method locks you in If you use the standard mileage rate in the first year you place a car in service, you can switch to actual expenses later. But if you start with actual expenses and claim depreciation using any method other than straight-line, you cannot switch to the standard mileage rate for that vehicle — ever. Many filers default to actual expenses in year one without realizing they are giving up future flexibility.1 IRS Publication 463 — Travel, Gift, and Car Expenses
Commuting miles do not count Driving from home to your regular workplace is commuting, not a business expense. Only miles driven from one work location to another, or from a home office that qualifies as your principal place of business, count as business miles. The IRS rejects mileage logs that include daily commutes.2 IRS Form 2106 Instructions — Line 1
Watch out for this
Failing to keep a written mileage log. The IRS requires contemporaneous records of each business trip — date, destination, business purpose, and miles driven. A lump-sum estimate at year-end does not count. If you get audited without a log, the entire vehicle deduction is disallowed.
Footnotes
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IRS Publication 463, Travel, Entertainment, Gift, and Car Expenses. https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p463.pdf ↩ ↩2
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IRS Form 2106 Instructions. https://www.irs.gov/instructions/i2106 ↩