What this line means
Travel costs for trips to your rental property for maintenance, repairs, rent collection, or management tasks. You can deduct either actual vehicle expenses (gas, maintenance, insurance prorated to rental use) or the standard mileage rate for drives to and from the property. Overnight travel expenses — airfare, hotel, meals at 50% — are deductible if the primary purpose of the trip is rental management.
Does this apply to you?
- You drive to your rental property to collect rent, inspect the unit, or meet contractors
- You own a rental property in a different city or state and travel to manage it
- You drive to the hardware store to buy supplies or materials for your rental
- You visit prospective rental properties as part of your rental business
Easy to overlook
Standard mileage rate applies to rental property trips The IRS standard mileage rate for 2025 applies to drives between your home and your rental property for management purposes. If you drive 30 miles round-trip to your rental property twice a month for inspections, that is 720 miles per year. At the standard rate, that deduction adds up even for local landlords. Keep a mileage log with dates, destinations, and the rental purpose of each trip. 1 IRS Publication 527 — Residential Rental Property
Local transportation is deductible, not just long-distance travel Line 6 is not only for landlords who fly to out-of-state properties. Every trip to the hardware store for rental supplies, every drive to meet a plumber or electrician, and every visit to pick up rent checks counts. Landlords managing local properties often assume travel deductions are only for long-distance property owners and miss dozens of deductible trips per year. 2 IRS Schedule E instructions — Line 6 auto and travel
Watch out for this
Deducting travel to a mixed-use vacation property when the primary purpose of the trip is personal. If you fly to your beach condo, spend five days relaxing and one day meeting a property manager, the airfare is not deductible. The primary purpose of the trip must be rental management for travel costs to qualify.
Footnotes
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IRS Publication 527, Residential Rental Property, Travel Expenses. https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p527.pdf ↩
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IRS Schedule E (Form 1040) Instructions, Line 6. https://www.irs.gov/instructions/i1040se ↩