DoorDash mileage deduction in 2026: both IRS rates, what counts, and a worked month

Every mile you drive for DoorDash takes money off your taxable profit. In 2026 there are two rates, one for each half of the year, and most spreadsheets only know one of them. This page has both rates, the list of what counts as a business mile, the record the IRS asks for, and one part-time Dasher's month worked through to the dollar.

Tracking miles yet? Two IRS rates apply in 2026.

The tracker logs every trip at the right rate, estimates your SE tax and shows what to set aside each week. Excel, Sheets and a printable log.

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Two rates in one year

The IRS set the 2026 standard mileage rate at 72.5 cents a mile in Notice 2026-10, published in December 2025. That was a 2.5 cent rise on 2025. Then fuel prices climbed through the spring, and on July 13, 2026 the IRS announced a mid-year increase to 76 cents a mile for business miles driven from July 1 through December 31. The medical rate moved to 23.5 cents at the same time.

Mid-year changes are rare. The last one was in 2022, when gas prices spiked. So a lot of the advice online, and a lot of the free spreadsheets, still carry one number for the whole year. If yours does, half your miles are counted at the wrong rate.

The rule is simple once you see it. The date of the trip decides the rate. A delivery on June 30 is worth 72.5 cents a mile. The same delivery on July 1 is worth 76 cents a mile. Your log needs a date on every row so the two halves can be added up separately.

What the rate already covers, and what it does not

The standard rate is one number that stands in for the cost of running the car. IRS Publication 463 and Topic 510 list what is inside it: gas, oil, tires, repairs and maintenance, insurance, registration, and depreciation. If you take the standard rate you do not deduct any of those again. Writing off your gas receipts on top of the mileage rate is the mistake that gets a Schedule C pulled for a second look.

Some costs sit outside the rate and come off on top of it. Tolls and parking paid while dashing. Hot bags, drink carriers and a phone mount. The business share of your phone plan, which for most Dashers is somewhere between a third and a half. Tax software or a preparer's fee for the Schedule C. Keep the receipts for those, and they go on the expense lines of Schedule C rather than into the mileage total.

Which miles count

The IRS treats you as running a business from the moment you leave to work. That makes more of your driving deductible than most new Dashers expect.

Business miles include the drive from home to your zone, every mile between a pickup and a drop, every mile between one drop and the next pickup, the drive to a hotspot while you wait for an offer, and the drive home after your last delivery. Miles you drive while online and waiting for an offer count too, since you are available for work.

Personal miles do not count. If you finish a drop and then swing by the grocery store before the next dash, the trip to the store and back is personal. If you go home for lunch and come back out, the second trip out counts again from your door, but the drive home for lunch is a gray area most preparers leave out. The cleanest approach is to end the dash in your log when you go off task and start a new row when you come back.

A Dasher who mixes personal errands into a dash and logs the whole loop as business is the one who has trouble in an audit. Nobody gets questioned over the miles between deliveries. The day where 40 personal miles were counted as work is what draws attention.

What the IRS wants in the log

Publication 463 sets the standard. Each trip needs the date, the number of miles, where you went, and the business reason, and the record has to be made at or near the time of the trip. A log filled in the following April from memory is the kind that gets thrown out.

For a Dasher that is easier than it sounds. Your Dasher app already records the hours you were online and the deliveries you made, so the where and why are covered for every active trip. What the app does not keep is your odometer. Write the start and end odometer at the beginning and end of each dash, or run a tracking app in the background, and you have a log the IRS will accept.

Keep the log for at least three years after you file the return. The IRS can ask for it any time in that window.

Log every mile at the correct 2026 rate: DoorDash Driver Mileage & Tax Tracker, $9 one time →

A worked month with real numbers

This is a month from the example rows in our tracker. The Dasher worked 12 days, 68 hours online, and grossed $1,287.25.

• Business miles for the month: 668. Eight of the dash days fell before July 1 and were paid at 72.5 cents. The rest fell after and were paid at 76 cents. Added up, the mileage deduction is $492.88.
• Other expenses, the ones outside the rate: $136.97 (the business share of the phone plan, some parking, a few tolls and a hot bag).
• Net profit: $1,287.25 less $492.88 less $136.97 = $657.41.
• Self-employment tax: 15.3% of 92.35% of $657.41 = $92.89.
• Income tax at a 12% bracket: $78.89.
• The month's total tax: $171.78.

Now take the log away. Without the 668 miles the same month shows about $1,150 of profit and about $300 of tax. The log saved this Dasher about $128 in one month. Over a year of similar months that is more than $1,500, for the price of writing two odometer numbers a day.

Scale it up and the numbers get large fast. A full-time Dasher who drives 15,000 business miles in 2026, split evenly across the year, gets a deduction of about $11,137. At 15.3% self-employment tax plus a 12% income tax bracket, that deduction is worth about $2,900 in tax.

Standard rate or actual expenses

There are two ways to deduct the car. The standard mileage rate is miles times the rate. The actual expense method is every real cost of the car for the year, times the share of miles that were business. You pick one method per car, and if you want to keep the option of the standard rate in later years you have to use it the first year the car is in service.

For an economical car, the standard rate is almost always the larger number. A car that costs 40 cents a mile to run still earns 72.5 or 76 cents a mile from the IRS. The actual expense method only wins for an expensive car with high running costs, and it needs every fuel and repair receipt for the year plus a depreciation schedule. Most Dashers are better off with the standard rate and a good log.

Where the deduction goes on the return

The mileage deduction goes on Schedule C, line 9, car and truck expenses. The form also asks for your total miles for the year, your business miles, and whether you have evidence to support the deduction. Answer yes only if you have the log.

The net profit from Schedule C flows to Schedule SE for self-employment tax and to your 1040 for income tax. So the deduction cuts both taxes at once, which is why 668 miles were worth $128 in the example above rather than the $79 the income tax side alone would give.

If you would rather not build the spreadsheet yourself, our tracker picks the right rate from the date of each trip, adds the two halves of the year separately, keeps the expenses outside the rate on their own lines, and works out the self-employment tax and the amount to set aside. It is $9, one time, in Excel and Google Sheets, with a printable log sheet for the car.

Log the miles. Keep the deduction.

The IRS wants a log with the date, miles, destination and purpose of every trip. This workbook does the math for you: each trip at the correct 2026 rate (72.5¢ before July, 76¢ after), your self-employment tax estimate, what to set aside each week, and the four 1040-ES due dates. Excel, Google Sheets and a printable log sheet. $9, one time.

• Never logged a mile? Start on the Mileage Log tab. Each row gets 72.5¢ or 76¢ from its own date.
• Dreading April? The Quarterly Taxes tab shows what to pay by each 1040-ES date.
• Not sure what you really make? The Dashboard gives net profit per hour and per mile.
• Kept your gas receipts? The Expenses tab records them and keeps them out of the mileage deduction, so nothing is counted twice.

Get the DoorDash Driver Mileage & Tax Tracker – $9 →

Rather fill it in online? Milepad builds a printable IRS mileage log in your browser, free for up to 20 trips.

Frequently asked questions

Rates checked on irs.gov in September 2026. This page is general information, not tax advice. A tax preparer can confirm your own numbers.