Medical, Moving and Charity Mileage: The Other Deductible Miles
For 2026 the medical and qualified-moving rate is 20.5 cents a mile through June 30 and 23.5 cents from July 1; the charitable rate is 14 cents all year. Each has narrow eligibility rules that catch more people out than the rates themselves.
Most mileage articles are about business driving, because that is where the money usually is. But the IRS publishes three more rates, and two of them reach people who never drive for work at all: patients and caregivers, and volunteers.
| Purpose | Jan 1 – Jun 30, 2026 | Jul 1 – Dec 31, 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| Medical or qualified moving | 20.5¢ | 23.5¢ |
| Charitable service | 14¢ | 14¢ |
| (Business, for comparison) | 72.5¢ | 76¢ |
The medical rate is much lower than the business rate because it is meant to cover only the variable cost of driving — fuel and oil — rather than depreciation and insurance. The charity rate is lower still, and does not move with costs at all: it is fixed by statute at 14 cents and has been for decades.
Medical mileage
You can count miles driven primarily for, and essential to, medical care: appointments, hospital stays, therapy, dental and vision care, pharmacy runs for prescriptions, and trips to care for a dependent who cannot travel alone. Parking and tolls on those trips count too.
The catch is on the deduction, not the rate. Medical mileage is only worth something if you:
- Itemize deductions rather than taking the standard deduction; and
- Have total medical expenses above 7.5% of adjusted gross income — only the amount above that threshold is deductible.
For a household with $80,000 of AGI, the first $6,000 of medical spending does nothing. Mileage is added to the pile of medical costs and helps you clear the floor, which is precisely why it is worth logging in a year with a serious diagnosis, a birth, or a long course of treatment — 1,200 miles of appointments is roughly $250 to $280 of expenses that most people simply forget to count.
Separately, if you fund an HSA or FSA, transportation for medical care is generally a qualifying expense — a route to value that does not require itemizing. Check your plan's rules.
Moving mileage
The moving-expense deduction is unavailable to most taxpayers. The meaningful exception is active-duty members of the Armed Forces moving under military orders due to a permanent change of station — they can still deduct moving costs, including mileage at the rate above, and they do not need to itemize to do it. Some states kept a broader moving deduction on the state return, so a cross-country move is worth asking about locally.
Charitable mileage
Drive for a qualified charitable organization and you can deduct 14 cents a mile: delivering meals, transporting supplies, driving to a shelter you volunteer at, ferrying scouts to an event. Parking and tolls on those trips count as well.
Two limits people trip over:
- You must itemize for charitable mileage to reduce your tax.
- The organization must be qualified. Driving for an individual, a political campaign, or an informal group does not count, however worthy. The IRS Tax Exempt Organization Search settles it.
The value of your time is never deductible — only the driving and out-of-pocket costs.
Log them the same way you log business miles
The record requirements do not soften because the rate is lower: date, miles, destination and purpose, kept as you go. Mile carries medical and charity as their own purposes with their own per-year rates, so a hospital run and a delivery shift can share one automatic log and still be valued correctly and reported separately.
None of these rates will change anyone's life on their own. But they are free money for driving you were doing anyway, and the only reason most people miss them is that nobody was counting.
This article is general information about US federal tax rules, not tax advice for your situation. Rates and rules change — check IRS.gov or ask a tax professional before you file.