IRS Medical and Charitable Mileage Rates

In this article, you’ll learn what medical and charitable mileage is, the current rates per mile, when they apply, and what documentation you need to claim your medical and charity-related deductions.

Medical and charity rates in 2025

The 2025 IRS standard rates, applicable from January 1 until December 31, 2025, are:

• 21 cents per mile for medical or moving purposes for qualified active-duty members of the Armed Forces,
• 14 cents per mile for charity-related miles: the rate is set by statute and remains unchanged.

See all historical mileage rates.

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What’s included in the medical mileage rate

Trips to the doctor, hospital, and dentist visits are eligible for medical mileage rate deductions. 

However, it’s not every medical visit that you can get reimbursement for. 

The ones you can claim reimbursement or deduction for are usually not covered by your employer in your healthcare plan. However, while the medical deduction can save you a lot of money, the rates are limited by your adjusted gross income.

This means the total amount you can claim for medical reasons cannot exceed a particular limit. This figure is based on your adjusted taxable income and takes your age into consideration as well.

You can deduct medical expenses only if they exceed 7.5% of a person’s adjusted gross income. This means that if you earn $100,000 per year, you can claim medical deductions if they are over $7500 (you can’t claim any deductions up to $7500). Read more in this IRS publication.

Medical care expenses include expenses for diagnosis, cure, mitigation, treatment, or disease prevention, as well as payments for treatments affecting any structure or function of the body.

How to calculate medical mileage with the IRS medical mileage rate

To calculate your medical miles for taxes, you can use the standard medical miles rate.

Let's say you had to travel 200 miles for medical care in November 2024. To calculate your deduction, you would multiply the 200 miles by the 21 cents per mile rate.

200 (miles you drove) * 0.21 = $42

$42 is the amount you can claim as a medical deduction.

How to calculate your medical deductions

Above, you can find one example of calculating your medical write-off. However, you can also use our IRS mileage calculator to get an estimate for 2024 and 2025 quickly.

Medical expenses you can’t get a deduction for

There are some medical mileage expenses you cannot get write-offs for. 

You can’t claim a medical mileage deduction for journeys related to improving your overall health. For example, if you’re in perfect health and want to visit your doctor for some vitamin shots, this doesn’t contribute towards your deductible medical mileage.

Furthermore, you must always schedule your session or check-up in some way (like email, in person, or by phone) before claiming mileage for it.

Charitable mileage rate

Apart from business and medical, there’s a mileage rate set for charitable deductions. The charity mileage rate in 2024 and 2025 is $0.14 per mile driven.

With the charitable mileage rate, you can deduct mileage for volunteer or non-profit work. For example, if you drive to volunteer at a non-profit organization, that mileage is deductible as part of your charitable donations.

Why is the charitable mileage rate so low?

The charitable mileage rate is relatively low compared to others. The reason may be that it’s the only rate that has not changed in many years. 

The standard mileage rates for business and medical change yearly, while the one for charity has not changed since 1998. 

Using the actual expenses method for charitable miles

Alternatively to using the standard charity mileage rate, you can use the actual expenses method to get write-offs for your volunteer work. 

In the actual expenses method, you can include costs you incur, such as gasoline and oil, but NOT costs related to maintenance or general repairs, costs of tires, or insurance. None of the fixed costs, such as depreciation and tax, are accepted for charitable or medical mileage calculations.

What if I’m driving someone else who will volunteer?

You cannot claim deductions for someone else volunteering, whether it’s a spouse, your child, or someone else. You can only claim a deduction when you are volunteering and have to drive to the place of volunteering in your own vehicle.

Can I deduct mileage if I’m helping someone in need, for example a friend?

No. According to the IRS, you can only deduct mileage for charity when you volunteer for a qualified organization. However, you must also not indicate that your contribution is for a specific person. See quote below:

“Contributions to individuals who are needy or worthy. You cannot deduct these contri­butions even if you make them to a quali­fied organization for the benefit of a spe­cific person. But you can deduct a contribution to a qualified organization that helps needy or worthy individuals if you do not indicate that your contribution is for a specific person.”  Source.

Organizations considered qualified for charitable reimbursement

Non-profit organizations that are religious, benevolent, educational, scientific, or literary or that aim to prevent cruelty to children or animals are all considered qualified. 

Descriptions of these organizations can be found under the heading Organizations That Qualify To Receive Deductible Contributions in the IRS Publication 526. 

What if I take the bus/metro/train, or other public transport for charity?

If you’re not using your car but taking public transport instead, you can still get reimbursed for your commute to the non-profit organization. Make sure to keep any receipts and that all costs are directly related to the services you provide and are not personal, living, or family costs (and, thus, of course, not previously reimbursed).

How to report charitable and medical mileage

To properly report your charitable and medical mileage, you need to do the same thing as when you report your business and medical mileage - keep a logbook that fulfills the IRS mileage log requirements.

You need to keep a proper logbook where you track what kind of trip you drove with your car - business, personal, medical, or charity. That way, you’ll have all the data to figure out your tax claims quickly.

A mileage tracking app can make reporting easier

One way to easily track and log all your trips while sorting them properly is by using the Driversnote app. With our mileage tracker app, you can track all trips automatically and ensure you have all the needed information recorded.

After you generate your trip report, you can hand it over to your employer or accountant, and there shouldn’t be anything else left for you to do. Using an app is one of the easiest ways to track and log mileage today for business, medical, charity, or personal purposes.

For information on reporting your business mileage, check out our IRS mileage guide, which includes information for employers, employees, and the self-employed.

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