Are you tracking ALL your miles or just the delivery ones?

I see a lot of shoppers on here who only track miles from the store to the customer's house. If that's you, you're probably missing a big chunk of deductible miles.

Here's what actually counts as a business mile for Instacart:

- Driving FROM your house TO the store to start your first batch

- Driving between stores if you get a new batch at a different location

- Driving between the customer drop-off and the next store

- Driving home after your last delivery (as long as you were still looking for batches)

Basically, any mile driven with the intent of doing Instacart work is deductible. The IRS doesn't care if you had groceries in the car or not.

At $0.76/mile (the new rate since July 1), those extra 15-20 miles a day of driving TO batches adds up fast. That could be an extra $4,000-5,000 in deductions per year.

I used to only track the delivery portion and realized I was leaving thousands on the table. Now I track from the moment I leave my driveway until I get home.

Anyone else notice a big difference when they started tracking everything?