Can You Deduct Driving to Your Rental Property?

You own a duplex, a condo you rent out, or the house you lived in before you moved. You have a day job. On Saturdays you drive over to fix a dripping tap, let the plumber in, show the empty unit, or pick up a check from a tenant who still pays on paper. Now it's time to put together the numbers for Schedule E, and you're wondering whether all that driving counts.

Most of it can. But one rule catches a lot of small landlords, because it sits in a single sentence of Publication 527 that tax software rarely asks about. This page explains that rule, what the 2026 rates are worth on a real set of trips, and what your log has to show.

Can you deduct mileage to a rental property?

Publication 527 says: “You may be able to deduct your ordinary and necessary local transportation expenses if you incur them to collect rental income or to manage, conserve, or maintain your rental property.” That covers the everyday reasons landlords drive: collecting rent, showing a vacant unit, meeting a contractor, doing repairs, checking on the place between tenants, and buying supplies for it.

You can deduct those miles with either of two methods: the standard mileage rate, or your actual car costs (gas, insurance, repairs, depreciation) multiplied by the share of miles that were for the rental. Most people with one or two rentals use the standard rate, because it needs a mileage log and nothing else. Our standard mileage vs actual expenses comparison goes through how to choose.

What is the 2026 mileage rate for rental property trips?

Landlords use the same business rate as everyone else. In 2026 the IRS changed it partway through the year, because fuel prices had gone up. The rate you use depends on the date you drove, not on when you file.

Miles driven	Business rate (rentals included)	IRS source
January 1 – June 30, 2026	72.5¢ a mile	Notice 2026-10
July 1 – December 31, 2026	76¢ a mile	Announcement 2026-11
2025 (for comparison)	70¢ a mile	2025 Schedule E instructions

Parking fees and tolls for rental trips are added on top. The Schedule E instructions tell you to include them on line 6 along with the mileage amount.

You can only use the standard rate for a car if you used it in the first year the car was in service (for a car you own), or for the whole lease (for a leased car). If you already claimed actual expenses and depreciation on that car in an earlier year, ask your preparer before you switch. You also have to use actual expenses if you use more than four vehicles at the same time in your rental activity.

Is the drive from your home to your rental commuting?

This is the sentence that catches people. Publication 527 goes on: “However, transportation expenses incurred to travel between your home and a rental property generally constitute nondeductible commuting costs unless you use your home as your principal place of business.”

So the question isn't just “was this trip for the rental?” It's also “where did the trip start?” Publication 587 sets the test for a home to count as your principal place of business when your management work happens there:

• You use a specific part of your home exclusively and regularly for administrative or management work, such as keeping the books, screening tenants, ordering supplies and scheduling repairs.
• You have no other fixed location where you do a substantial amount of that work.

A desk in a spare room used only for the rentals can pass. The kitchen table where you also pay household bills doesn't, because the use isn't exclusive. If you pay a property manager whose office handles the leases and the books, your home probably isn't where the management happens.

If your home doesn't qualify, trips between work locations can still count. Publication 463's rule for two places of work lets you deduct “the expense of getting from one workplace to the other” on the same day. So driving from your rental to the hardware store and back is deductible, and so is driving from one rental to another. The drive from your house to the first property is the part at risk.

The same logic applies to anyone with a day job. Business miles vs commuting miles explains the general rule and why a home office changes it.

Which rental trips count, and which don't?

Trip	Treatment
Home office that passes the Pub 587 test → rental, to fix a leak or collect rent	Deductible
Home with no qualifying office → rental	Generally commuting, not deductible
Rental → hardware store → same rental	Deductible (between work locations)
Rental A → rental B on the same day	Deductible (between work locations)
A trip whose main purpose is an improvement (a remodel, a new roof)	Treated as part of the improvement’s cost and recovered through depreciation, not deducted this year. Pub 527 says this for trips away from home; ask your preparer how to treat local miles for a large project.
Shopping for a property you haven’t bought yet	Not a rental expense of an existing property; ask about treating it as an acquisition cost
A detour for personal errands on the way	Only the direct route counts

How much is it worth? A worked example

Dana owns a duplex 9 miles from home, so a round trip is 18 miles. She has a W-2 job and manages the duplex herself. In 2026 she makes 30 round trips: 14 before July and 16 from July on. She also makes 8 hardware-store runs of 5 miles each, starting from the duplex and coming back to it: 3 before July, 5 after. She paid $18 in parking at the city permit office.

	Her spare room passes the Pub 587 test	She manages from the kitchen table
Home ↔ duplex, Jan–Jun	252 mi × 72.5¢ = $182.70	Commuting: $0
Home ↔ duplex, Jul–Dec	288 mi × 76¢ = $218.88	Commuting: $0
Duplex ↔ hardware store, Jan–Jun	15 mi × 72.5¢ = $10.88	15 mi × 72.5¢ = $10.88
Duplex ↔ hardware store, Jul–Dec	25 mi × 76¢ = $19.00	25 mi × 76¢ = $19.00
Mileage total	580 mi, $431.46	40 mi, $29.88

Where the trip starts makes a $400 difference. The parking fee goes on line 6 only for a trip that counts as rental travel. If her home office qualifies, it does. If it doesn't, ask your preparer, because the trip to the permit office started at home.

What $431 actually saves depends on the rest of her return. It's a deduction, so it reduces her rental profit. At a 22% federal bracket, that's roughly $95 less tax. If the rental already shows a loss, the passive activity loss rules (Publication 925) may postpone some or all of the benefit to a later year.

Where does rental mileage go on your tax return?

1. Schedule E, line 6, “Auto and travel,” in the column for the property the miles were for. Put the mileage amount and the parking and tolls here.
2. Form 4562, Part V. The Schedule E instructions say that if you claim any auto expenses, with either method, you have to complete Part V of Form 4562 and attach it. Part V asks for your total miles, business and investment miles, commuting miles and personal miles, and whether you have written evidence.

Part V asks directly whether you have evidence to support the deduction and whether it's written, so a log isn't optional.

What does the IRS want in the log?

Publication 527 refers you to the recordkeeping rules in chapter 5 of Publication 463. For each trip, record:

• The date.
• Where you went: the property address, or “Oak St duplex → hardware store → Oak St duplex”.
• Why you went: “let plumber in, unit B” or “showing unit A to applicant”, not just “rental”.
• The miles. Also record the car's total miles for the year, from odometer readings on January 1 and December 31, because Form 4562 asks for it.

Write each entry at or near the time you drive. A log rebuilt in March from memory is much weaker evidence than one written the same day. If you're already in that position, reconstructing a mileage log after the fact explains how to rebuild one from receipts, contractor invoices and texts with tenants.

What if you own more than one rental?

Schedule E has a column for each property (A, B, C, with continuation pages for more), and line 6 is filled in separately for each one. So your log has to say which property each trip was for. For a trip that visits two properties, split the miles between them in a way you can explain, such as each leg to the property it went to, and write down how you did it.

If you're also self-employed, keep those miles separate. Rental miles go on Schedule E and business miles on Schedule C, and the same mile can't go on both. Real-estate agents who also own rentals run into this often. Our mileage guide for real-estate agents covers the agent side.

Where does TaxMiles help, and where doesn't it?

TaxMiles is our iPhone mileage tracker. It records drives in the background, and you swipe each one as business or personal. Each trip's value uses the IRS rate for the date it was driven: 72.5¢ before July 1, 2026 and 76¢ from then on. Each trip has a Purpose field and a Client / Project field. Put the property name or address in one of them and the reason for the trip in the other. The free version tracks 40 trips a month and allows one export per tax year. A landlord with one to three units usually makes a handful of trips a month, so the free version probably covers you. Pro is a subscription, and the App Store shows you its price.

Here's what it won't do:

• No “Rental” category. The categories are business, personal, commute, medical, charity and moving. Log rental trips as Business. If you also have a Schedule C business, name the property on every rental trip so you can separate them later. The app adds up all Business trips together.
• It doesn't decide the commuting question. Whether your home office passes the Pub 587 test is up to you and your preparer. If it doesn't, you need to mark the home-to-rental legs as Commute yourself.
• The accountant export is labeled “Schedule C CSV”. That's just a list of trips with dates, miles, rates, amounts and a Client column. Nothing in it is specific to Schedule C. You or your preparer copy each property's total onto Schedule E line 6. That export is a Pro feature. The free CSV has date, from, to, purpose, category, miles and amount, but no Client column, so put the property name in Purpose if you're on the free version.
• No full addresses on automatically detected trips. They're labeled with a place name, city and state, not a street address with a ZIP code. Add the property name yourself.
• Dates in the CSV are month/day/year.
• It doesn't fill in Form 4562 or Schedule E, and it doesn't track depreciation on the property.

Who it isn't for: if a property manager handles everything and you visit the rental twice a year, a note in your calendar is enough. You also don't need an app if you already keep a paper notebook in the glovebox with the date, property, reason and miles for every trip. The IRS cares what the log contains, not what you used to keep it.

What should you do this week?

Answer one question before you log another mile: does your home pass the Publication 587 test for your rental work? That means a space you use only and regularly for managing the rentals, and nowhere else where you do that work. Write down your answer and the reason. Then read your odometer so you have a starting number, and from your next trip on, write down the property and the reason on the same day. To see what the rest of 2026 is worth at 72.5¢ and 76¢, put your miles into the mileage deduction calculator. It splits the miles at July 1 for you.

Frequently asked questions

Can I deduct mileage to my rental property?

Yes, if the trip is to collect rent or to manage, conserve or maintain the property, such as repairs, showings or meeting a contractor. IRS Publication 527 allows these local transportation expenses on Schedule E. The drive from your home to the rental is generally treated as commuting unless your home is your principal place of business.

What mileage rate do landlords use for 2026?

The IRS business standard mileage rate: 72.5 cents a mile for miles driven January 1 to June 30, 2026 and 76 cents a mile from July 1, 2026. Parking fees and tolls for rental trips are added on top.

Is driving from my home to my rental property commuting?

Generally yes, according to Publication 527, unless your home is your principal place of business. Under Publication 587 that means you use part of your home exclusively and regularly for managing the rentals and have no other fixed location where you do substantial management work. Trips between two rentals, or from a rental to a store and back, count either way.

Where do I report rental property mileage?

On Schedule E, line 6 (Auto and travel), in the column for the property the miles were for, together with parking and tolls. If you claim any auto expenses, you also complete Form 4562, Part V, and attach it to your return.

Can I deduct mileage for renovating my rental?

Not usually as a current expense. Improvements such as a remodel or a new roof are capital costs recovered through depreciation, and Publication 527 says the cost of traveling away from home mainly to improve the property is recovered that way. Ask a tax professional how to treat local miles for a large project.

Sources: IRS Publication 527 (2025), Residential Rental Property · 2025 Instructions for Schedule E, line 6 · Publication 587, principal place of business · Publication 463, two places of work and recordkeeping · IRS Notice 2026-10 · Announcement 2026-11 (IRB 2026-29) · IRS standard mileage rates

This article is general information for US individuals with rental property, not tax advice. Rates, forms and IRS guidance change; check the current IRS publications or ask a tax professional about your own circumstances. TaxMiles, Cleanup My Phone, Trending Music and RecipeScan are our apps.