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Trip log

Publication 463, Table 5-1, lists what a record of car expenses must show. For each business use, the date, your business destination, the business purpose, and the mileage. For the year, the total miles. The CRA lists the date, destination, purpose, and kilometres. Every drive in Miles carries all of them.

This page is general information, not tax advice.

What a drive records

  • Date and time. Start and end times, from the phone's clock.
  • Where. The start and end addresses, resolved with Apple Maps, and the place names you gave them. "Sunset Dental" instead of "3808 SE Hawthorne Blvd".
  • How far. The distance from the GPS track, in miles or kilometres depending on the vehicle's tax region. Odometer readings are optional, and the log keeps both when you enter them.
  • The route. A map of the drive, which is the evidence for the distance.
  • Purpose. Business, commute, personal, medical, charitable, or moving. See classify drives.
  • Business purpose. A note. "Quarterly review with Sunset Dental." For a regular route, Publication 463 does not require a written explanation of every trip, and a rule can fill the note for you.
  • Tags. Platform names and anything else you want to filter by.
  • Vehicle. Which of your vehicles made the drive.
  • Expenses. Parking and tolls attached to the drive. See expenses.
  • Recorded. The time the record was created, and the time it was last edited. Publication 463 gives more weight to a record kept at or near the time of the drive, and this is the evidence that yours was.

Review note. Whether a poor GPS track is snapped to roads with MapKit directions needs a product decision.

Adding a drive you missed

The phone was off, detection was disabled, or you were in a rental. Tap Add drive, choose the start and end addresses, and Miles computes the driving distance with Apple Maps directions. Pick the date and the purpose, and the record is filed with the time you created it, so the log is honest about which drives were recorded live and which were added later. Publication 463 allows a reconstructed record when it is supported by your own statement and other evidence. See reconstructing a mileage log.

Editing a drive

Everything on a drive can be corrected. Split a drive that ran two errands together, merge two drives that a long red light separated, change the vehicle, fix an address. Edits keep the original values in the record's history, and the export shows the drive as it stands.

Odometer readings

Schedule C asks for total miles, and the CRA asks for odometer readings at the start and end of the year. Miles reminds you to enter them on January 1 and December 31, and whenever you add or remove a vehicle. You can also enter the reading on any drive. See vehicles below.

Search and filter

Filter the log by purpose, vehicle, tag, place, or date range, and search the notes. Every filter is also an export, so "all business drives in the Civic in Q3" is a report.

Combined records

A shift of deliveries is one record with the individual drives kept underneath it, and a round trip with a stop for lunch on the way is one business use. Publication 463 allows both. See shift mode.

Vehicles

A vehicle in Miles is more than a name. It carries the facts that Schedule C, Form 4562, and the T2125 ask about, and it is the unit the reports are built on.

What a vehicle records

  • Name, make, and model. "Civic", 2023 Honda Civic.
  • Tax region. United States or Canada. This sets the units (miles or kilometres), the rules, the rates, and the exports for every drive in the vehicle.
  • Date placed in service. The date you first used the vehicle for business. Schedule C, Part IV, line 43 asks for it, and it decides which depreciation limits apply if you use actual expenses.
  • Owned or leased. A leased vehicle has its own rules. If you use the standard mileage rate for a leased car, you must use it for the whole lease. In Canada, lease payments are capped at $1,100 a month for leases entered in 2026.
  • Odometer readings. See odometer readings above.
  • Deduction method. Standard mileage rate or actual expenses, chosen per year. See standard mileage rate vs. actual expenses.
  • Default. The vehicle new drives are assigned to.

Five or more vehicles

Publication 463 does not allow the standard mileage rate for a vehicle used in business at the same time as four or more others. Alternating vehicles is fine. Miles counts the vehicles with business drives on the same day and warns you when five or more overlap, so the method on the tax summary is one you are allowed to use.

Changing a vehicle's use

If a vehicle goes from personal to business use during the year, the business-use percentage only covers the period after the change. Enter an odometer reading on the day the use changed, and Miles figures the percentage for the rest of the year and prorates it by month the way Publication 463 describes.

Selling or trading a vehicle

When you retire a vehicle, Miles asks for the final odometer reading and the date. If you used the standard mileage rate, the tax summary shows the depreciation that was built into the rate for every year you used it, which reduces your basis in the vehicle when you figure gain or loss on the sale. See depreciation and the standard mileage rate.

Canada

A vehicle whose tax region is Canada tracks kilometres, keeps a full or a simplified logbook, and produces the T2125 Chart A figures. The 2026 limits ship with the app. A $39,000 passenger vehicle ceiling, $61,000 for a zero-emission vehicle, a $1,100 monthly leasing cap, and a $350 monthly interest cap. See T2125 motor vehicle expenses.

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