How Do Real Estate Agents Track Mileage for Taxes?

Jul 22

2 min read

Updated: Jul 28

Real estate agents can deduct mileage for nearly all client-related driving — showings, open houses, inspections, and office trips — but only if the mileage is tracked consistently throughout the year, not estimated after the fact.

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Mileage is one of the biggest deductions available to real estate agents, and also one of the most commonly mishandled. The IRS offers two ways to calculate it: the standard mileage rate (a set amount per mile driven for business) or actual expenses (gas, maintenance, insurance, depreciation, calculated as a percentage of business use). Most agents come out ahead using the standard mileage rate because of how much driving the job involves.

What counts as deductible mileage:

Driving to and from showings
Trips to open houses
Meeting clients at properties
Trips to the title company, inspections, or your brokerage office
Errands directly tied to a listing (picking up signage, staging items, etc.)

What doesn't count: your regular commute from home to your primary office, if you have one.

The biggest mistake agents make is trying to reconstruct mileage at tax time using memory or a rough guess. The IRS expects a contemporaneous log — meaning mileage tracked as it happens, not recreated in March. A simple note of the date, starting point, destination, and purpose is enough, but it needs to happen consistently.

BossTax's app tracks mileage automatically in the background as you drive, so there's no manual logging required — it builds the record for you throughout the year.

Curious how much your mileage could be worth this year?

Click here to book a free intro call and we'll walk through it together.

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