IRS reminds A Simple Gesture volunteers to track charitable mileage deductions

The gap is hard to miss: the IRS sets the charitable mileage deduction at 14 cents a mile in 2025 and leaves it there in 2026, even as the business rate is 70 cents this year and 72.5 cents next year. For volunteers who use their own cars for A Simple Gesture pickups, that difference makes recordkeeping the difference between a usable deduction and miles that vanish at tax time.

Under IRS rules, charitable driving is claimed as a charitable contribution, not a business expense, and it generally requires itemizing on Schedule A. Parking fees and tolls can also be deducted, but only if they are documented properly, whether a taxpayer uses actual car expenses or the standard mileage rate. The IRS also says taxpayers should keep reliable written records of car expenses, which means a note scribbled after the fact is not the same thing as a contemporaneous log.

That matters inside A Simple Gesture’s food-recovery operation, where volunteers drive clean personal cars to pick up and deliver donations across Guilford County, North Carolina. The nonprofit says it has operated there since 2015, and its volunteer calendar stretches across East Greensboro, West Greensboro, Jamestown, Summerfield, Oak Ridge and the High Point area. Volunteers are asked to be able to lift 20-pound boxes and use a smartphone, a reminder that the work is physical, scheduled and spread out over a wide service area.

For drivers, the practical mistake is assuming any mileage log will do. The IRS expects the basics: date, destination, purpose and miles driven. Without those details, charitable miles can be hard to substantiate later, especially when the trips blur together between food pickups, special events, pantry deliveries and training sessions. For staff and coordinators, that makes mileage guidance worth folding into onboarding, volunteer FAQs and route planning.

A simple log also shows the hidden cost of A Simple Gesture’s model. Every mile driven in a volunteer’s own car is part of the organization’s operating infrastructure, even if no reimbursement changes hands. That is why the National Council of Nonprofits has pushed the Volunteer Driver Tax Appreciation Act, reintroduced in 2025 as S.1177 and H.R. 1582, to raise the charitable mileage deduction from 14 cents a mile to the business rate. Until that changes, the safest move is straightforward: keep the log, save the receipts for tolls and parking, and make sure the mileage can be tied to service for a qualified charitable organization.

A Simple Gesture lists its Greensboro office at 3503 Redington Drive and its phone number as 336-547-7000, a useful point of contact if volunteers need a single place to check how mileage guidance fits into their records.