How do I track mileage for my real estate business?
Real estate professionals drive a lot. Property showings, client meetings, inspections, open houses, running between listings. All that driving adds up to a significant tax deduction if you track it properly.
Use a mileage tracking app. MileIQ, Everlance, and similar apps run in the background on your phone and automatically log your trips. At the end of each day or week, you swipe to classify each trip as business or personal. Trying to recreate mileage from memory at year end doesn’t work and the IRS knows it.
Know what counts as business mileage. Driving from your home to a property showing is deductible. Driving from one listing to another is deductible. Meeting a client at a coffee shop, running to the title company, picking up lockboxes. All deductible. What’s not deductible is commuting from your home to a regular office location. If you have a dedicated office you go to every day, that first and last trip is personal commuting, not business mileage.
For every trip, you need to document the date, starting point, destination, business purpose, and miles driven. Apps handle most of this automatically. If you’re doing it manually, a simple spreadsheet works as long as you record trips the same day they happen. Waiting until month end to fill in your mileage log creates gaps and guesswork.
The IRS allows two methods for deducting vehicle expenses. You can use the standard mileage rate, which is 67 cents per mile for 2024. Or you can track actual expenses, meaning gas, insurance, repairs, and depreciation, then calculate the business use percentage. Most real estate professionals use the standard mileage rate because it’s simpler and often results in a higher deduction for vehicles driven frequently.
Keep your app data and any manual logs for at least three years after you file your return. If you’re ever audited, you’ll need to show how you calculated the deduction. An app with GPS verification is harder for the IRS to dispute than a handwritten log created after the fact.
The deduction only helps if your bookkeeper or accountant knows about it. Make sure your mileage totals get included when you’re preparing for taxes. Many real estate professionals forget to mention mileage or provide incomplete numbers because they weren’t tracking consistently throughout the year.
If tracking feels like one more thing you don’t have time for, you’re not alone. A Los Angeles small business bookkeeper can help you set up a system that captures mileage deductions without adding friction to your daily routine. The goal is a method you’ll actually use, not a perfect system you abandon after two weeks.
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