Mileage Deduction for Travel Nurses: What Qualifies and How to Track It

Mileage is one of the easiest travel nurse deductions to miss — and one of the easiest to document correctly once you understand the rules.

The 2024 Standard Mileage Rate

The IRS standard mileage rate for business driving in 2024 is $0.67 per mile. Every qualifying business mile driven reduces your taxable income by that amount.

For 10,000 qualifying miles: $6,700 deduction.

You can alternatively deduct actual vehicle expenses (gas, insurance, depreciation, repairs), but the standard mileage rate is simpler and often comparable for most nurses.

Which Drives Qualify

Qualifying business drives:

• Driving from your housing to the hospital for each shift
• Driving between your housing and a medical supply store (if purchasing items required for work)
• Driving to professional development events, licensing offices, or union meetings
• Driving related to your tax home (trips home between contracts)

Non-qualifying drives:

• Commuting from your permanent home to a regular workplace — the IRS does not allow commuting deductions. However, for travel nurses on temporary assignments, the drive from temporary housing to the assignment hospital is not “commuting” in the traditional sense.
• Personal drives unrelated to work

The commuting rule for travel nurses: Your drive from your temporary housing to your assignment hospital is generally deductible because your work location is “temporary” (expected to last less than one year). This is a meaningful distinction — it’s why travel nurses can deduct drives that permanent staff nurses cannot.

What the IRS Requires: Contemporaneous Records

The IRS specifically requires that mileage records be kept “contemporaneously” — meaning at or near the time of the drive, not reconstructed later from memory.

Your mileage log must record for each business drive:

• Date of the drive
• Starting location
• Destination
• Business purpose
• Number of miles

A phone note, paper log, or mileage app all qualify if they’re completed at the time of the drive. A year-end reconstruction from calendar appointments generally does not.

Practical Mileage Tracking Methods

Option 1: Manual log A small notebook in the car or a Notes app entry for each drive. Low-tech but effective.

Option 2: Mileage tracking app Apps like MileIQ, Stride, or Everlance track drives automatically using your phone’s GPS. You classify each drive (business/personal) with a swipe. Monthly reports download as CSV or PDF for your records.

The automatic tracking apps are the most reliable because they capture every drive — you can’t forget to log one.

Option 3: Calendar + odometer Record starting and ending odometer on the first and last day of each assignment period. Track any personal miles taken during that period. Business miles = total − personal. Less precise but simpler for nurses with predictable drive patterns.

Calculating Your Potential Deduction

A 13-week assignment where you drive 8 miles round-trip to the hospital, 36 hours/week = ~3 shifts/week:

3 shifts/week × 13 weeks = 39 shifts 39 shifts × 8 miles = 312 miles 312 miles × $0.67 = $209 deduction per 13-week assignment

For a nurse with 3 assignments per year driving 25 miles round-trip: 3 × 39 × 25 × $0.67 = $1,955 deduction

Not life-changing, but worth tracking. For nurses who drive between cities for assignments, the numbers are larger.

Driving Back to Your Tax Home

Trips to your tax home between contracts may also be deductible as travel expenses — these are business trips to maintain your tax home, not personal vacation. Keep records of the purpose and dates.

Download a free mileage tracking app today and start logging drives. The documentation requirement makes this a real-time habit, not something you can reconstruct at tax time.