Should I Track Mileage If I Barely Drive for Work?

“I only drive to one or two client meetings a month. Is it even worth tracking?”

I hear this question constantly. Someone does a bit of freelance work. They drive to networking events occasionally. Maybe they visit a client site once a week. The kilometres feel… insignificant.

So they don’t bother.

Then tax season arrives, and they realize those “insignificant” trips would have let them claim a bigger chunk of their vehicle expenses—if only they had records.

Here’s the thing: the threshold for “worth tracking” is a lot lower than most people think.

How Vehicle Deductions Work in Canada

Before we do the math, let’s be clear about how this works in Canada—because it’s different from the US.

Self-employed individuals cannot use the CRA per-kilometre rate directly as a deduction. That rate (73¢/km for the first 5,000 km in 2026) is what employers can reimburse tax-free. It’s not a flat deduction you can claim on your T2125.

Instead, self-employed Canadians must use the actual expense method:

1. Track your total vehicle expenses for the year (fuel, insurance, maintenance, repairs, licence fees, interest on car loans, CCA/depreciation)
2. Track your total kilometres driven (business + personal)
3. Calculate your business-use percentage (business km ÷ total km)
4. Deduct that percentage of your total vehicle costs

This is why tracking kilometres matters—even if you “barely” drive. Without a logbook, you can’t prove your business-use percentage, and without that percentage, you can’t claim any vehicle expenses.

The Real Math: When Does Tracking Pay Off?

Let’s run realistic numbers for different scenarios.

The “barely driving” freelancer:

• Total vehicle costs: $6,000/year (fuel, insurance, maintenance, depreciation)
• Total kilometres: 15,000 km/year
• Business kilometres: 3,800 km/year (about 320 km/month)
• Business-use percentage: 25%
• Deductible amount: $6,000 × 25% = $1,500

At a 30% combined federal/provincial tax rate, that $1,500 deduction saves you $450 in taxes.

Is $450 worth tracking 320 km a month?

The monthly client meeting consultant:

• Total vehicle costs: $7,200/year
• Total kilometres: 18,000 km/year
• Business kilometres: 3,000 km/year (4 client visits + 2 networking events monthly)
• Business-use percentage: 17%
• Deductible amount: $7,200 × 17% = $1,224

That’s $367 in tax savings at a 30% rate. Still real money.

The side-hustle seller with a day job:

• Total vehicle costs: $5,500/year
• Total kilometres: 16,000 km/year
• Business kilometres: 960 km/year (80 km/month for the side business)
• Business-use percentage: 6%
• Deductible amount: $5,500 × 6% = $330

Even at under 1,000 business km a year, you’re looking at about $100 in tax savings. Not life-changing, but would you leave a hundred dollars on the sidewalk?

The “Might As Well” Argument for Automatic Tracking

Here’s what changed my mind about low-mileage tracking: it takes almost no effort if you set it up right.

With an automatic mileage tracking app, you:

1. Download the app
2. Grant location permissions
3. Forget about it

The app runs in the background. It detects when you’re driving. It logs the trip automatically. At the end of the week (or month, or year), you review trips and mark them as business or personal.

Total time investment? Maybe 5 minutes per week for someone with low mileage. That’s 4-5 hours per year to capture potentially hundreds of dollars in deductions.

Compare that to reconstructing your mileage from memory at tax time. That takes hours, produces inaccurate records, and won’t survive a CRA review.

The “might as well” math:

Let’s say you spend 5 minutes per week reviewing trips: 260 minutes per year (about 4.3 hours).

If you capture $400 in tax savings, you’ve “earned” $93 per hour for that time.

Even if your deduction is only $200, that’s still $46 per hour—better than most side hustles.

The effort is so minimal that the question isn’t really “is tracking worth it?” It’s “why wouldn’t I track?”

The Hidden Benefit: CRA Review Protection

Here’s something people overlook: mileage records protect you even if the deduction is small.

If you claim vehicle expenses and the CRA reviews your return, they’ll ask for documentation. Without a logbook, you have two options:

1. Lose the entire deduction
2. Try to reconstruct from memory (which reviewers don’t accept)

With a proper vehicle logbook—dates, destinations, purposes, kilometres—you can confidently defend your business-use percentage. The review becomes a paperwork exercise instead of a negotiation.

What the CRA actually requires:

According to the CRA’s vehicle expenses guidance, you need a logbook showing:

• Date of each trip
• Destination
• Business purpose
• Kilometres driven
• Odometer readings at the start and end of the year

A tracking app produces exactly this documentation, automatically. It’s timestamped, GPS-verified, and organized. CRA reviewers appreciate clean records because they’re hard to fabricate.

One accountant I know put it this way: “The people who get crushed in vehicle expense reviews aren’t the ones claiming huge deductions. They’re the ones claiming reasonable amounts with zero documentation.”

Low-Mileage Scenarios That Add Up

People underestimate their business driving because they don’t think certain trips count. Here are common deductible kilometres that low-mileage workers often miss:

For freelancers and self-employed:

• Driving to meet clients (coffee, lunch, their office)
• Bank runs for business deposits
• Office supply store trips
• Post office or courier drop-offs
• Networking events and industry meetups
• Professional development (workshops, conferences)
• Meeting with your accountant or lawyer

For gig workers and part-timers:

• Kilometres between gigs (even if you only work a few hours per week)
• Driving to pick up supplies for the gig
• Returning home from your last gig (if you have a home office)

For employees with side businesses:

• All kilometres related to your side business count toward your T2125 business-use percentage
• Even if you drive 25,000 km for your employer (which requires a T2200 to deduct), the 2,500 km for your Etsy store increases your side business’s deductible portion

For landlords:

• Driving to rental properties for maintenance, inspections, or tenant meetings
• Trips to buy supplies or meet contractors
• Yes, even if you only own one rental property

I worked with a landlord last year who owned a single duplex in Mississauga. She visited the property maybe twice a month—inspections, meeting tenants, checking on repairs. She’d never tracked those kilometres.

When we reconstructed her driving, it came to about 1,300 km per year. Her total vehicle costs were $6,500, and total annual driving was 14,000 km. That 1,300 business km represented a 9% business-use percentage—$585 in deductible expenses she’d been leaving on the table annually. Over five years of ownership? Nearly $3,000.

The Minimum Threshold: When Tracking Genuinely Isn’t Worth It

Fair question: is there a floor below which tracking genuinely isn’t worth it?

If you’re self-employed or have any self-employment income:

Track everything. Your business-use percentage determines how much of your actual vehicle costs you can deduct. Even 500 business kilometres bumps up that percentage enough to matter. The tracking is free. Just do it.

If you’re an employee without a T2200:

For most salaried employees, vehicle expenses aren’t deductible without a T2200 signed by your employer. Your path to recovering mileage costs is through employer reimbursement, not tax deductions.

Still, tracking can help you:

• Negotiate for mileage reimbursement (showing your employer what you drive)
• Build your case for getting a T2200 signed
• Prepare for a future side business

The honest floor:

If your total business driving is under 300 km per year (about 6 km per week), and you have no self-employment income, and you’re not trying to get employer reimbursement… fine, maybe tracking isn’t strictly necessary.

But at 300+ km per year with any self-employment income? The numbers justify tracking.

The Habit Argument: Start Before You Need To

Here’s the most compelling reason to track even minimal mileage: you don’t know when your driving will increase.

Businesses grow. Side hustles expand. Jobs change. The freelancer doing 3,000 km this year might be doing 15,000 next year if they land a major client.

If you’re already tracking, you won’t miss a beat. If you’re not, you’ll spend months trying to remember where you drove before you got the habit in place.

I’ve seen this pattern repeatedly:

January: “I barely drive for work. Not worth tracking.” June: Land a big client. Start driving 500 km per month. December: Realize you have records for July-December but nothing for January-June. Tax time: Either guess at six months of mileage (risky) or accept a lower business-use percentage (costly).

The freelancer who installed a tracking app before they needed it? They captured every kilometre from day one.

The cost of waiting:

Let’s say you start a side business in March but don’t start tracking until September.

Missing 6 months of mileage at 250 km per month = 1,500 km lost from your business total.

If your total vehicle expenses are $6,000 and you drove 16,000 km total, those missing 1,500 km represent a 9% lower business-use percentage than you could have claimed. That’s $540 in deductions lost—about $162 in tax savings, gone.

The app was free. The setup took 10 minutes. The cost of waiting was $162.

The Simplified Logbook Method: A Bonus for Consistent Trackers

Here’s something most people don’t know: the CRA offers a simplified logbook method that rewards good record-keeping.

How it works:

1. Base year: Keep a full, detailed logbook for one complete 12-month period
2. Sample years: Each following year, keep a logbook for any continuous 3-month period
3. Comparison: If your business-use percentage during the sample period is within 10 percentage points of the same period in your base year, you can use your base year percentage for the full year

This means if you track diligently for one full year, you can reduce your tracking burden significantly in future years.

But you need to start tracking to get that base year established.

Quick Decision Framework

Still not sure if you should track? Answer these questions:

1. Do you have any self-employment income (T2125, freelance, sole proprietorship)?

• Yes → Track your kilometres. Period. You need it for your business-use percentage.
• No → Continue to question 2.

2. Do you drive more than 300 km per year for business purposes?

• Yes → Track your kilometres. It increases your deductible vehicle expenses.
• No → Continue to question 3.

3. Are you trying to get mileage reimbursement from your employer or a T2200 signed?

• Yes → Track your kilometres. You need data to make your case.
• No → Continue to question 4.

4. Might your work driving increase in the next year?

• Yes → Start tracking now. Build the habit and establish your base year before you need it.
• No → You might be in the rare category where tracking truly doesn’t matter. But consider: the app is free. Setup takes 10 minutes. Why not?

The Real Question

“Should I track mileage if I barely drive for work?”

The real question is: how much of your vehicle expenses are you comfortable not claiming?

Every business kilometre you drive increases your business-use percentage—which determines how much of your fuel, insurance, maintenance, and depreciation you can write off. A few client meetings, some supply runs, an occasional networking event—suddenly your business-use percentage climbs from 5% to 15%, and your deductible amount triples.

The tracking is free. The effort is minimal. The tax savings are real.

And if it turns out your mileage truly was negligible? You’ve lost nothing but 10 minutes of setup time—and you’ll have a base year ready for when your business grows.

Start tracking today. Even if you “barely” drive for work. Your future self—the one filing taxes next April—will thank you.

Set up automatic mileage tracking now and capture every business kilometre from this point forward. The math says it’s worth it. The effort says there’s no reason not to.