Do You Need Receipts for Mileage Deductions?

No — under the standard mileage rate, mileage deductions are substantiated by a mileage log, not receipts. The rate itself (set annually by the IRS — 70 cents per business mile for 2025) already bundles fuel, maintenance, insurance and depreciation, so the evidence you need is proof of the miles: date, destination, business purpose and distance for each trip. Fuel receipts only become essential if you deduct actual vehicle expenses instead.

This is general information, not tax advice.

The two methods, and what each demands

• Standard mileage rate: deduct a flat rate per business mile. Substantiation = mileage log + the year's total, business and commuting miles. No fuel or maintenance receipts required. Parking and tolls are deductible on top — keep those receipts.
• Actual expense method: deduct the business-use share of real vehicle costs — fuel, repairs, insurance, depreciation. Substantiation = receipts for everything, plus the same mileage records to establish the business-use percentage.

Note the asymmetry: the log is required under both methods. Receipts are only added by the second.

What a compliant mileage log contains

For each business trip:

1. Date.
2. Destination (city or address).
3. Business purpose ("client meeting — Acme Corp").
4. Miles driven (odometer readings or computed distance).

Plus, annually: total miles the vehicle drove, and the odometer at year start and end. The IRS wants records made "at or near the time" of the trip — a contemporaneous log, the same principle behind the $75 receipt rule. A year reconstructed from memory in March is the classic audit casualty; courts routinely deny reconstructed mileage.

Apps make contemporaneous automatic

Mileage-tracker apps (MileIQ, Everlance, the trackers built into QuickBooks and similar) log trips by GPS and let you swipe business/personal. The exported report is exactly the substantiation the IRS describes — date, route, distance, purpose — with no shoebox involved. Calendar entries plus a weekly distance calculation also work, if actually done weekly. The general capture habit is the same one from how self-employed people should track receipts.

The receipts you still keep

• Parking and tolls — deductible in addition to the mileage rate; keep receipts (the parking receipt template shows the standard fields if you need to reconstruct a record of a real charge).
• The vehicle itself — purchase or lease documents matter for basis and for the actual-expense method.
• Everything, if you might switch methods — you generally must choose the standard rate in the car's first business year to preserve the choice; keeping receipts year one keeps both doors open.

Commuting never counts

Home to your regular workplace is commuting — nondeductible under both methods, no matter what's in the trunk. Deductible miles are between workplaces, to client sites, or from a qualifying home office to business stops; the home-office angle is covered in what receipts you need for the home office deduction.

The bottom line

Mileage deductions run on logs, not receipts: date, destination, purpose, distance, recorded as you go. Install a tracker app today, keep parking and toll receipts in the same folder, and the deduction substantiates itself — the wider context sits in what receipts you need for an expense report.