Auto Repair Shop Books Cleanup July changes the truck's rate
A service truck that logs one rate for all of 2026 is wrong for half the year.
Two rates, one log
On a 2026 shop-truck log the business mile is 72.5 cents on dates through June 30 and 76 cents on dates from July 1. The first figure is IR-2025-128 together with Notice 2026-10. The second is IR-2026-29 together with Announcement 2026-11. Charity miles remain 14 cents in both halves, and the medical and limited moving rates step from 20.5 cents to 23.5 cents when July begins. Copy the cents from the IRS standard mileage rates table rather than from memory. One blended cents figure for the whole year is the mistake this page exists to stop.
A shop truck that hauls parts and picks up cars is a business vehicle when the miles are business miles. The log has to say the date, the place, and the purpose. A mile driven from home to the bay is commuting, and commuting does not borrow the business rate. The July switch does not change that rule. It only changes the cents on the miles that qualify.
Why a single rate feels easier
One rate is easier to multiply. It is also how a second-half log overstates or understates the deduction, depending on which rate was kept. We split the log at June 30. Miles on and before that date use 72.5 cents. Miles on and after July 1 use 76 cents. The truck does not get a blended rate because the odometer is a single number.
Actual expenses are a different method, and a shop that has already chosen that method for the truck does not also take the cents. This page is for the shop that is on the cents. We will not talk a shop into switching methods on a phone call. We will say whether the log in front of us uses the rate that was in force on the day of the mile.
The log is the record
A memory of the trips is not a log. Bring the page the driver filled in, or the export from whatever the shop uses. We will mark the June 30 line and reprice only the miles that crossed it. No customer car needs to be on that page.
Send the mile log
You will be talking to the Steven Palmieri practice.