For the self-employed

Your vehicle deduction is only as good as your log.

Contractors, consultants, trades and anyone who drives to clients: the business share of your driving is deductible, and the tax authority will ask how you know the share. Odie keeps that record while you drive.

Odie home screen with this month’s distance, Work and Personal totals and the money estimate.

Canada

Car costs × business share

On the T2125 you deduct the business part of real vehicle costs: fuel, insurance, maintenance, licence and registration, interest or lease, and capital cost allowance. The business part is business kilometres over total kilometres. There is no per-kilometre shortcut for the self-employed.

Example: $11,000 of car costs and 45% business kilometres is a $4,950 deduction. Parking for business is deducted in full.

The CRA on motor vehicle expenses

United States

72.5¢ then 76¢ a mile

On Schedule C you choose the standard mileage rate or actual expenses. At the standard rate each business mile in 2026 is worth 72.5¢ (Jan 1 to Jun 30, 2026) or 76¢ (Jul 1 to Dec 31, 2026), with business parking and tolls on top. Schedule C, Part IV asks for your business, commuting and other miles, and whether you have written evidence.

Example: 10,000 business miles, half before July 1 and half after, is a $7,425 deduction.

Schedule C instructions

What the log has to show

For each business trip: the date, the destination, the purpose and the distance. For the year: your total driving, which in Canada means the odometer reading at the start and end of the year (CRA motor vehicle records) and in the United States the total miles Schedule C asks for (Publication 463). Both want it kept at the time, not rebuilt in April.

What Odie does

Starts a trip when your car’s Bluetooth connects and you are moving, and ends it when you park.
Asks Work or Personal from the lock screen. Add the client and purpose in the trip.
Suggests the answer after the same route twice, and fills it in by itself once your last eight trips on a route were all marked the same way, marked Auto so you can check it.
Keeps fuel, charging, parking and toll receipts next to the trips, and can apply your business share to them.
Builds the year report: summary, monthly totals, per-client totals, expenses, the trip log and the odometer pair. Sample, Canada · sample, United States.

Questions

Do I need a log if I only drive for work now and then?

Yes. In both countries the deduction is the business share of your driving, and the share comes from the log. A handful of trips a month is still a share, and without the trips written down there is nothing to base it on.

Is the drive from home to my first client deductible?

It depends on where your business is based. The drive from home to a regular place of work is personal in both countries. If your home is your main place of business, the trip out to a client is business. The commuting post goes through the cases.

What does the free version cover?

40 automatic trips a month, trips logged by hand without limit, one car, and CSV export of every trip. That is enough to see whether detection works with your car. If you drive to more than a few places a day you will pass 40 in a month; Odie Pro records without limit and builds the year report: $4.99 CAD or $3.99 USD a month, $39.99 CAD or $29.99 USD a year.

Informational, not tax advice. Your accountant knows your situation.