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How business-use mileage is calculated
MileLedger sums the distance of every drive you have categorized as Business and divides it by the total distance of all categorized drives to derive your business-use percentage. Only categorized drives count — uncategorized drives are excluded from both numerator and denominator.
Categorization is the key input
Every recorded drive has a categorization: Business, Personal, or Uncategorized. MileLedger uses only the drives you have explicitly categorized when computing reports.
Uncategorized drives are omitted from business-use calculations. This means your percentage and totals may be incomplete if you have a large backlog of uncategorized drives. Categorize them in the Drives tab before exporting for tax season.
The calculation
Business miles = sum of distanceMeters for all Business-categorized drives, converted to miles.
Personal miles = sum of distanceMeters for all Personal-categorized drives.
Business-use % = Business miles ÷ (Business miles + Personal miles) × 100.
This percentage appears on the full report sheet and is useful if you need to report vehicle business use to your accountant.
What MileLedger does not do
MileLedger does not apply commute-exclusion rules or any IRS-specific mileage rules (e.g., the first-and-last-trip rule). Whether a particular drive is legitimately deductible is a tax determination, not something the app makes.
Consult a qualified tax professional to determine which of your business drives are actually deductible on your return.
Important notes
- The app's calculations are only as good as your categorizations. Review all drives and correct any that were auto-categorized incorrectly before generating a final report.
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Still stuck? Contact support or browse Reports and taxes.