Vehicle Mileage Records for a Manchester Small Business

What mileage records does a Manchester business need to keep?

A written log of every business trip, plus the vehicle's total miles for the year. IRS Publication 463 lists what a car expense record should show: the date, the business destination, the business purpose and the miles for each business use. It also asks for the cost of the car and the date you started using it for business.

The format is up to you. The IRS names an account book, diary, log, trip sheets or a similar record, and says a record made on a computer counts too. A notebook in the glovebox works. So does a phone app, as long as it captures the same things.

Say you run a small firm from downtown Manchester, one of the roughly 200 locally owned businesses the town's economic development office counts there. A run to a supplier, a visit to a customer and a trip to a meeting across Hartford County each get their own line.

Why does the date on each trip matter in 2026?

Because the IRS business rate changed partway through the year. The IRS standard mileage rates page lists two rates for business use in 2026, one for each half of the year.

How we got these numbers: the rates are copied from the IRS standard mileage rates page, read on October 27, 2026. They're the self-employed and business rates only; the charity, medical and moving rates on the same page are left out.

A log that only says how many business miles you drove in 2026 can't be split between the two periods. One with a date on every line can. Whether to use the standard rate or your actual vehicle costs is a question for your tax professional. Either way, the dated log is what the books rest on.

Which drives count as business miles?

Trips made for the business count; the daily drive to your own workplace doesn't. IRS Publication 463 treats driving between your home and your main or regular place of work as personal commuting, however far it is.

So a Manchester owner who drives from home to their shop each morning is commuting. The drive from the shop to a customer or a business meeting is a business trip, because the IRS lists getting from one workplace to another and visiting clients or customers as transportation expenses. If your home office qualifies as your principal place of business, the publication says daily trips from home to another work location in the same business can count. Where a trip isn't clear-cut, write the purpose down anyway and ask your tax professional.

If you make deliveries or call on customers along an established route, the IRS gives a shortcut for that route: record its length once, then the date of each trip and the total miles for the year.

What else goes in the books for a business vehicle?

The receipts that back up the log. IRS Publication 463 says you generally need documentary evidence such as receipts, canceled checks or bills, and it names business-related parking and tolls alongside the mileage rate. Fuel, repairs, insurance and registration all leave a paper trail too.

In the books, each of those costs needs its paperwork kept with it, which is what Brittany's business expense tracking covers. Putting each cost in the right category is transaction categorization, a separate service on her list. If some of the fuel went on a personal card, this guide to recording a business expense paid with a personal card walks through it.

The same habit of dating and costing what you buy helps with Manchester's yearly personal property declaration. The town's Assessor says every person or business conducting business in town on October 1 must file, including home-based businesses, and publishes an Asset Listing worksheet for tracking business property through the year. There's more on Brittany's Manchester page, and on what the declaration needs from your books.

How do you keep a mileage log up to date?

Write it as you go, or at least every week. IRS Publication 463 says a record made at or near the time has more value than one prepared later, and a log kept weekly that accounts for the week's use counts as timely.

1. Note the odometer reading on January 1, or on the day the vehicle starts doing business work.
2. Log each business trip with the date, destination, purpose and miles.
3. Catch up the log once a week if you don't write it after every trip.
4. Keep each fuel, repair, parking or toll receipt with its card or bank line.
5. Note the odometer reading on December 31, and hand the log over with the year's statements.

If you've let the log slip, start a proper one now rather than rebuilding months from memory. The IRS says you can't deduct amounts you approximate or estimate, and it allows a record kept for part of the year only where you can show that period is typical of the whole year.

How long should you keep mileage records?

Three years is the general baseline on the IRS page on how long to keep records, and the same page notes that insurers or creditors may want them kept longer. Records about the vehicle itself, such as what you paid for it, follow a different rule: the same page says to keep records relating to property until the period of limitations expires for the year in which you dispose of the property. Keep the log with the receipts and statements for the same year so they can be read together.