Updated October 19, 2026. Quick answer: Publication 463 is the IRS guide to business travel, meals, gifts and car expenses, and to the records that prove them. The edition on irs.gov is for 2025 returns and gives the 2025 standard mileage rate as 70 cents a mile.
More IRS forms and schedules for individual filers, read line by line: Form 2106 instructions, Form 2106 standard mileage rate and who can still use Form 2106.
Quick reference
| Item | As the IRS publication states it |
|---|---|
| Standard mileage rate for business use of a car, 2025 (What’s New) | $0.70 per mile |
| Limit on meals for most business travel (Travel chapter) | 50% |
| Business gifts, most you can deduct per person per year (Gifts chapter) | $25 |
| Section 179 cost limit for a sport utility vehicle, 2025 (What’s New) | $31,300 |
| Passenger car depreciation limit, first tax year, with additional first-year deduction (What’s New) | $20,200 |
| How long to keep records that support a deduction (Recordkeeping) | 3 years |
What the publication covers
The first page of the web edition reads “For use in preparing 2025 Returns”. The introduction says “You may be able to deduct the ordinary and necessary business-related expenses you have for:” travel, non-entertainment-related meals, gifts and transportation. It defines the first term this way: “An ordinary expense is one that is common and accepted in your trade or business.”
The chapters are Travel, Meals and Entertainment, Gifts, Transportation, Recordkeeping and How To Report. Transportation includes a long section on car expenses: the standard mileage rate, actual car expenses, the section 179 deduction, the special depreciation allowance, depreciation limits, leasing a car and disposing of a car. The publication says it is for “an employee or a sole proprietor who has business-related travel, non-entertainment-related meals, gift, or transportation expenses.”
Figures the publication states
The What’s New section says “For 2025, the standard mileage rate for the cost of operating your car for business use is 70 cents ($0.70) per mile.”
On meals, the Travel chapter says “regardless of the method you use, you can generally deduct only 50% of the unreimbursed cost of your meals.” On gifts it says “You can deduct no more than $25 for business gifts you give directly or indirectly to each person during your tax year.”
For cars placed in service in 2025, What’s New gives these depreciation limits: “first tax year, $20,200; second tax year, $19,600; third tax year, $11,800; and each succeeding year, $7,060.” For the section 179 deduction it says “the aggregate cost of any Code section 179 property that a taxpayer elects to treat as an expense cannot exceed $2,500,000 and the cost of any sport utility vehicle that may be taken into account under Code section 179 cannot exceed $31,300.”
Tables, charts and worksheets inside it
Table 1-1 summarizes deductible travel expenses. Table 4-1 is the 2025 MACRS Depreciation Chart for figuring depreciation on a car. Table 5-1 shows how to prove certain business expenses, and Tables 5-2 and 5-3 are a daily business mileage and expense log and a weekly traveling expense record. Table 6-1 explains how reimbursements and expenses are reported. There is also a Reimbursement Allocation Worksheet and a set of appendices, A-1 through A-8, with inclusion amounts for passenger cars first leased from 2018 through 2025.
This site has pages on Form 4562, Schedule C lines 8 and 9 car and truck expenses and Schedule C lines 24a and 24b travel and meals.
Recordkeeping
Chapter 5 covers how to prove expenses. On how long to keep them, the publication says “You must keep records as long as they may be needed for the administration of any provision of the Internal Revenue Code.” It adds “Generally, this means you must keep records that support your deduction (or an item of income) for 3 years from the date you file the income tax return on which the deduction is claimed.”
Where to go next
Related pages on this site include Schedule C, Form 8829 and the home office deduction. The publication also points to Pub. 946 for depreciation tables.
Where this comes from
The IRS page About Publication 463 opens with “Publication 463 explains what expenses are deductible, how to report them on your return, what records you need to prove your expenses, and how to treat any expense reimbursements you may receive.” It links the PDF and eBook editions and the earlier revisions of the publication.
This page describes the web edition of Publication 463 (2025), Travel, Gift, and Car Expenses, as served on irs.gov on October 19, 2026. The IRS can revise a publication after we read it, and the IRS page controls. General information, not tax or legal advice.
Common mistakes
- Treating the 70 cent rate as a permanent figure. The publication gives it for 2025 only.
- Assuming meals are deductible in full. The publication says the 50% limit applies even to unreimbursed meals on business travel.
- Applying the $25 gift limit to a whole year of gifts. The publication states it per person, with incidental costs such as engraving or mailing generally not counted toward it.
- Using the Table 4-1 chart in every case. The publication says some people must use the tables in Pub. 946 instead.
Related: IRS publications by number, Form 4562, Schedule C, Schedule C lines 8 and 9, Schedule C lines 24a and 24b, Schedule C vehicle information, and Home office deduction.
Sources
- IRS, Publication 463 (2025), Travel, Gift, and Car Expenses (irs.gov): https://www.irs.gov/publications/p463
- IRS, About Publication 463 (irs.gov): https://www.irs.gov/forms-pubs/about-publication-463
Read from the IRS pages linked above on October 19, 2026. General information, not tax or legal advice. The IRS publication and the instructions for your own form control, and your own facts decide the outcome.