Taxes » Tax Deductions » Mileage Deduction Amounts
Americans love automobiles. The Internal Revenue Service even shares the national motoring madness by annually adjusting most of the standard mileage rates taxpayers can use to claim certain types of road trips as tax deductions.
The annual adjustments are based on inflation, as well as the IRS' yearly study of the fixed and variable costs of operating a vehicle.
Below are the adjusted per-mile amounts you can claim for different types of tax-deductible travel in 2011, as well as 2012 rates for your planning purposes.
Note that in 2011 there are different rates for the first and last six months of the year. The Internal Revenue Service made the midyear adjustment because of rising gasoline prices.
Mileage rate deductions
| Business | Moving | Medical | Charitable |
| Jan. 1, 2011, to June 30, 2011 per-mile rates | 51 cents | 19 cents | 19 cents | 14 cents |
| July 1, 2011, to Dec. 31, 2011 per-mile rates | 55.5 cents | 23.5 cents | 23.5 cents | 14 cents |
| 2012 per-mile rates | 55.5 cents | 23 cents | 23 cents | 14 cents |
While the reimbursement rate for business mileage, as well as qualified moving and medical travel, is adjusted annually for inflation, the rate allowed for miles driven in aid of a charity is set by statute at 14 cents per mile. In times of extraordinary disaster, Congress has increased the standard mileage rate for miles driven in connection with a specific charitable cause, such as was the case following Hurricane Katrina. However, such changes are temporary.