Free Mileage Reimbursement Calculator

Contractors drive a lot: to look at jobs, to supply houses, between sites, back for the tool someone forgot. Those miles cost real money in fuel, tires, maintenance, insurance and the truck slowly wearing out, and they come up in three places.

• Reimbursing employees who use their own vehicle for work.
• Deducting business driving on your tax return, when you drive your own vehicle for the business.
• Pricing jobs, because the miles to and from a job are part of what it costs to do it.

The IRS publishes a standard mileage rate each year that stands in for the cost of operating a vehicle for business. For 2026 there are two of them. The rate was 72.5 cents a mile from January 1, and the IRS raised it to 76 cents a mile from July 1, 2026, citing higher fuel prices. Miles take the rate for the date they were driven, so a 2026 log has to be split at July 1.

This calculator handles both: a reimbursement for a set of trips at one rate, or a full 2026 total with the miles before and after July 1 at their own rates. Business parking and tolls are added on top at cost.

1. Business miles = miles per round trip × trips, plus any other business miles.
2. Mileage amount = business miles × the rate per mile.
3. Total = mileage amount + business parking and tolls.

For all of 2026:

1. Before July 1 = miles driven January 1 to June 30 × $0.725.
2. From July 1 = miles driven July 1 to December 31 × $0.76.
3. 2026 total = both, plus parking and tolls.

Parking fees and tolls for business driving are deductible separately, whether you use the standard rate or actual costs, so they’re added rather than folded into the rate.

Reimbursing a crew lead for a month

A crew lead drives his own pickup to a job 19 miles away, 38 miles a round trip, for 22 working days in August 2026. That’s 836 miles. At the 76 cent rate in effect from July 1, the mileage is 836 × $0.76 = $635.36. He paid $24 in tolls on the way, so the reimbursement is $659.36.

A full year of business driving

A remodeler’s log shows 7,200 business miles from January through June and 7,800 from July through December. The first half is 7,200 × $0.725 = $5,220. The second half is 7,800 × $0.76 = $5,928. The 2026 total is $11,148, before parking and tolls.

Using 76 cents for the whole year would give $11,400, which is $252 more than the rates allow. Using 72.5 cents for the whole year would leave $273 on the table.

Pricing the drive into a job

A bathroom remodel 30 miles away needs the crew there for 12 days, plus four supply runs of 20 miles each. That’s 12 × 60 + 4 × 20 = 800 miles. At 76 cents, the driving costs about $608. On a $14,000 job that’s over 4% of the price, which is worth knowing before you quote it.

Not every mile in a work truck is a business mile. IRS Publication 463 draws the main line: driving between your home and your main or regular place of work is commuting, and commuting isn’t deductible, however far it is and even if you take work calls on the way.

Miles that generally count as business driving include trips between job sites during the day, runs to suppliers, trips to meet clients and look at jobs, and trips to a temporary work location. Publication 463 explains the temporary-location rules, which depend on whether you have a regular place of business, so read it if most of your driving starts from home.

The standard rate is optional. You can instead deduct the actual costs of the business share of the vehicle: fuel, repairs, tires, insurance, registration and depreciation, in proportion to business miles.

A vehicle that’s expensive to run per mile can come out ahead on actual costs, and a cheap, efficient one often comes out ahead on the standard rate. Your tax professional can run both.

If crew members drive their own vehicles for the business, decide how you’ll pay them back and write it down. Most businesses pay a set rate per business mile against a log, and many use the IRS rate because it’s published, current and easy to defend. Set the rule for which trips count, such as runs between job sites and to suppliers but not the commute, and how often logs are turned in.

Publication 463 explains when an allowance paid under an accountable plan stays out of an employee’s wages: the payments cover business expenses, the employee proves the dates, places and business purpose within a reasonable time, and any excess is returned. If you pay a flat car allowance with no log, talk to your payroll provider about how it’s treated.

When the rate changes, as it did on July 1, 2026, update your reimbursement sheet the same day, so trips aren’t paid at the old rate.

Using one rate for all of 2026. The business rate changed on July 1. Split the year’s miles at that date.

Counting the commute. Home to your regular place of work isn’t business mileage, however long the drive.

No log. The IRS requires adequate records. A log kept as you go, with the date, miles, where and why, is far easier to defend than a total pieced together in April.

Forgetting parking and tolls. They’re separate from the mileage rate, so add them.

Reimbursing without proof. An allowance is easiest to keep out of an employee’s wages when it’s no more than the federal rate and the employee accounts for the trips. Pay against a log, not a guess.

Mileage is part of your overhead if it’s spread across all jobs, or a direct cost if one job causes it. Either way it has to be in the price. For local work, the miles are usually part of overhead and carried by your labor rate. For jobs far from your usual area, add the travel as its own line, so the price reflects it.

The labor rate calculator shows how vehicle costs carried as overhead raise the rate you charge, and the job cost calculator adds other job costs like travel to the price. If you’re self-employed, business mileage lowers your profit, and with it your self-employment tax.

BuildWell doesn’t track mileage. It builds each estimate from planned labor hours, materials priced at stores near the job and labor at your area’s wage, adds your overhead and markup, and lets you add any line, like travel, to any estimate.