Taxes
Commuting vs business miles: what counts (and what doesn't)
The IRS does not let you deduct your commute. Here's the line between non-deductible commuting and deductible business miles for 1099 contractors.
By MileTracker · April 10, 2026 · 6 min read
One of the most-misunderstood IRS rules: your commute is not deductible. But the line between 'commuting' and 'business mileage' is not as obvious as people think.
The basic rule
Driving from your home to your regular place of business is commuting. Driving between business locations during the workday is business mileage.
Exceptions that benefit 1099 contractors
- Home office — if you have a qualifying home office, your home is your principal place of business and most driving for work counts
- Temporary work locations — driving to a job site for less than a year typically qualifies as business mileage
- Driving between two business locations — always business
Why this matters with an automatic tracker
MileTracker logs every drive. You decide which are business and which are personal at classification time. Pay attention to the commuting rule when you classify.
MileTracker detects every drive in the background, lets you classify business or personal in one tap, and exports an IRS-ready PDF and CSV at tax time. Download MileTracker free on the App Store.