CRA Mileage Log Requirements: How to Track Your Kilometres in 2026 (Without Losing the Deduction)

If you drive for work — whether you're an employee claiming reimbursement or self-employed claiming a deduction — the CRA doesn't take your word for it. It wants a logbook. And most of the logbooks people actually keep (a notes app, a windshield notepad, a spreadsheet filled in from memory on a Sunday night) don't hold up if the CRA asks to see them.

Here's exactly what CRA requires, the current 2026 rate, and what actually makes a mileage log audit-proof.

What CRA requires in a mileage log

For every trip you want to count as business use, the CRA expects your logbook to show:

• The date of the trip

• The destination

• The purpose of the trip (client visit, job site, supply run, etc.)

• The number of kilometres driven

On top of the trip-by-trip log, you need your odometer reading at the start and end of the year — this is what lets you calculate your business-use percentage: business kilometres ÷ total kilometres driven, times 100. That percentage is what you apply to your eligible vehicle expenses (or, if you're claiming the flat per-km allowance rather than actual expenses, it's what your employer uses to calculate a reasonable reimbursement).

A log that just says "Tuesday — client — 40 km" with no destination or odometer tie-back is exactly the kind of thing that gets rejected on review.

The 2026 CRA automobile allowance rate

CRA's reasonable per-kilometre allowance for 2026, announced by the Department of Finance on January 14, 2026:

Distance	Rate
First 5,000 km	$0.73/km
Each km after 5,000	$0.67/km
Northwest Territories, Yukon, Nunavut	+$0.04/km on both tiers

If a page, app, or employer policy is still quoting 70¢ or 72¢, it's showing last year's rate — worth flagging before it ends up on a T2200 or an employee reimbursement calculation.

Full logbook vs. the simplified 3-month method

You don't have to log every trip forever. CRA allows a simplified method once you've done the work once:

1. Keep a full logbook for one 12-month base year. It doesn't have to be a calendar year — any typical 12-month period works.

2. After that, log a 3-month sample in later years and use it to extrapolate, as long as your usage pattern stays within about 10% of the base year.

The math CRA uses: (sample-period business-use % ÷ base-year same-quarter %) × base-year annual % = your claimable business-use %.

You still need receipts for fuel, insurance, registration, and repairs for the full year either way — the simplified method shortens the logbook, not the expense records. And CRA wants six years of records kept from the date you file, so "I'll clean this up later" isn't really an option if you're audited two years from now.

Why a spreadsheet (or a GPS-only app) still gets flagged

Two different failure modes show up here, and they're worth separating.

The spreadsheet-from-memory problem is under-documentation — trips reconstructed after the fact, no destination or purpose recorded, numbers that don't reconcile to the actual odometer at year-end. That's the version most people picture when they think "my mileage log wouldn't survive an audit."

The less-obvious problem is what happens once you switch to a GPS-tracking app to fix it. Most mileage apps — MileIQ, Everlance, TripLog and similar — estimate distance from GPS pings or an OBD-II dongle. That's an approximation of your route, not a reading of your actual odometer.

Smartcar, the vehicle-data platform several of these apps connect through, has been explicit about this limitation in its own documentation: GPS and OBD-II methods calculate approximate mileage based on location data rather than reading the true odometer, and the gap between the two is large enough that more than half of drivers reportedly under-report mileage as a result. Under-reporting doesn't get you audited — but it does mean you're quietly leaving deduction or reimbursement dollars on the table every single trip, and a log that doesn't reconcile against a real odometer reading is a weaker document if it's ever questioned.

What a CRA-proof km tracking app actually needs

If you're evaluating a mileage tracker specifically for CRA purposes, the checklist is narrower than a generic "best mileage apps" list suggests:

• Automatic trip capture — date, start/end location, and distance logged without manual entry

• Business vs. personal classification per trip, with purpose notes attached

• A real odometer reading, not just a GPS-derived estimate — this is the piece most apps skip, and it's the difference between a log that estimates and a log that verifies

• An exportable report formatted to match what CRA actually asks for (date, destination, purpose, km, running odometer) — not just a raw trip list

• The current-year rate built in, so reimbursement or deduction math doesn't rely on someone remembering to update a number every January

Fuelshine's mileage tracking connects to your vehicle's actual odometer data (via Smartcar) rather than estimating from GPS alone, specifically to close that verification gap — the log ties back to a real odometer reading, not just a calculated route distance.

Ready to stop reconstructing trips from memory?

Start tracking free with Fuelshine →

Automatic, CRA-ready kilometre logs — verified against your actual odometer, not a GPS guess.

FAQ

Does CRA accept a mileage tracker app instead of a paper logbook?

Yes. CRA doesn't require a specific format — paper, spreadsheet, or app are all acceptable as long as the log captures date, destination, purpose, and kilometres, and reconciles to your year-start/year-end odometer readings.

How many years do I need to keep my mileage log?

Six years from the date you file the return the log supports.

Can I claim mileage without a logbook?

Not reliably. Without a logbook (full-year or the simplified 3-month sample after a base year), you have no basis to establish your business-use percentage if CRA asks.

Is a mileage reimbursement taxable?

A reasonable per-kilometre allowance — at or under the CRA rate, based on actual business kilometres driven — is generally not taxable to the employee. Reimbursements that aren't tied to actual kilometres driven (a flat monthly car allowance, for example) are typically treated differently — check with a tax professional for your specific situation.

What's the 2026 CRA mileage rate?

73¢/km for the first 5,000 km, 67¢/km after that (76¢/70¢ in the territories).