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Reseller Mileage Deduction Guide & Calculator (2026)

How the IRS standard mileage rate deduction works for resellers, sourcing trips, and shipping runs — with a calculator that uses the current rate you look up, not a guessed number.

By Marginory team · Online sellers with hands-on experience across Etsy, Shopify & PODUpdated Fee data verified against official platform documentation

Not tax advice. This page explains the general mechanism of the mileage deduction and provides a calculator for the arithmetic — it is not personalized tax guidance. Marginory is not an accounting or tax preparation firm. Confirm your specific eligibility and documentation requirements with a licensed CPA or tax professional.
We are not printing a 2026 mileage rate on this page. The IRS updates the standard mileage rate periodically, and a hardcoded figure here would eventually be wrong without warning. Look up the current rate yourself at irs.gov/tax-professionals/standard-mileage-rates before filing, and enter it into the calculator below.

How the standard mileage deduction works

Rather than tracking every dollar spent on gas, oil changes, tires, and insurance, the IRS lets eligible taxpayers claim a flat per-mile rate for business driving. Multiply your qualifying business miles for the year by the current IRS standard mileage rate, and that's your deduction under this method.

Enter the current IRS rate yourself. The rate field starts at $0.00 on purpose — look up the current standard mileage rate at irs.gov before using this calculator for a real filing.

From your contemporaneous mileage log

$

Look this up at irs.gov — don't guess

Mileage deduction

Business miles0
Rate per mile$0.00
Standard mileage deduction$0.00

What counts as a business mile for a reseller

Sellers commonly track mileage for: driving to thrift stores, estate sales, or auctions to source inventory; trips to the post office, UPS, or FedEx to ship orders; and drives to pick up packaging or other business supplies. Regular commuting from home to a fixed workplace generally doesn't qualify — but if your home is your principal place of business (a qualifying home office), the rules for what counts as a deductible trip can shift. That distinction is worth confirming with a tax professional rather than assuming.

Keep a contemporaneous log

The most common way a mileage deduction gets challenged isn't the amount — it's the recordkeeping. Log the date, business purpose, starting/ending odometer or estimated miles, for each trip as you take it, rather than trying to reconstruct a year of driving from memory in April. A dedicated mileage app or a simple spreadsheet both work; consistency matters more than the tool.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Is this page tax advice?
No. This page explains, in general terms, how the standard mileage deduction mechanism works and provides a calculator to help you do the arithmetic — it is not tax, legal, or accounting advice, and Marginory is not a tax preparation or accounting firm. Whether you qualify to claim mileage, which method (standard mileage vs. actual expenses) is better for you, and how to document it correctly are questions for a licensed CPA or tax professional.
What is the current IRS standard mileage rate?
We're intentionally not printing a specific rate on this page. The IRS updates the standard mileage rate periodically (sometimes more than once a year), and a hardcoded number here would eventually go stale and mislead sellers. Look up the current rate directly at irs.gov before filing — search "IRS standard mileage rates" — and enter it into the calculator above.
What trips can resellers typically deduct mileage for?
Commonly cited business trips for resellers include driving to source inventory (thrift stores, estate sales, auctions, wholesale suppliers), trips to the post office or a shipping drop-off point, and trips to buy packaging or business supplies. Ordinary commuting from home to a fixed regular workplace generally is not deductible, and a home office can change what counts as a 'business trip' versus commuting — this is a detail worth confirming with a tax professional given your specific setup.
Standard mileage rate vs. actual expenses — which should I use?
The standard mileage rate bundles gas, maintenance, depreciation, and insurance into one per-mile rate, while the actual expense method requires tracking and allocating your real vehicle costs by business-use percentage. Which is better depends on your vehicle's costs, business-use percentage, and other factors — a CPA can help you compare the two methods for your situation. Note that switching between methods has rules of its own.
What records do I need to support a mileage deduction?
Generally, a mileage log with the date, purpose, and miles driven for each business trip, kept contemporaneously rather than reconstructed later. A dedicated mileage-tracking app or a simple notebook both work — what matters most is that the record is consistent and created close to when the trip happened.