Two Different Athletes, Two Different Answers
Whether a car write-off works depends entirely on how you're paid. If you're a salaried player on a team's roster, you're a W-2 employee, and the IRS treats commuting to practice, games, or the facility as personal driving, no matter how far you travel or how nice the car is. Unreimbursed employee expenses have been suspended for federal purposes for years and are not deductible on your personal return.
The write-off opens up when you have self-employment income: endorsement deals, NIL payments, appearance fees, camps and clinics, autograph signings, or income run through your own LLC or S-corp. That income gets reported on Schedule C (or through your business entity), and against it you can deduct ordinary and necessary business expenses, which can include a vehicle used for business purposes.
What Actually Counts as Business Use
Driving to a sponsor photo shoot, a signing appearance, a training camp you're paid to run, or meetings with your agent or financial advisor about your endorsement business can count as business mileage. Driving to team practice, games, or the arena as a player does not, because that's tied to your employment, not your side business.
If your car is used for both personal life and business errands, you only deduct the business-use percentage. You need to track this with a mileage log: date, destination, purpose, and miles driven for each trip. A rough estimate at tax time won't hold up if the IRS asks questions.
Standard Mileage vs. Actual Expenses
You generally choose one of two methods, and you can't switch back and forth freely once you've committed to a vehicle:
- Standard mileage rate: Multiply business miles driven by the IRS rate for the current year. This is simpler and covers gas, maintenance, depreciation, and insurance in one number.
- Actual expense method: Deduct the actual business-use percentage of gas, repairs, insurance, lease payments or depreciation, and registration fees. This requires more recordkeeping but can produce a bigger deduction for expensive or heavily used vehicles.
Expensive cars financed or leased under a business entity sometimes get evaluated under actual expenses because the standard mileage rate doesn't reflect the real cost. Run both methods with your tax preparer before locking in.
Why This Matters More for Athletes Than Most Taxpayers
Athletes often have a short career window and a mix of income types in the same year: team salary, signing bonus, and separate NIL or endorsement income, sometimes running through a personal services corporation. Mixing business and personal driving on one vehicle, or claiming a car write-off against team salary, is a common mistake that draws IRS scrutiny, especially given how visible athlete finances already are.
If you have a legitimate business reason for the vehicle, structure it clearly: use a dedicated card or account for business fuel and maintenance where possible, log miles consistently, and keep the deduction tied to the entity that earns the self-employment income, not your team paycheck. Get this reviewed each year, because the standard mileage rate changes annually and the line between employee expenses and business expenses is one of the most commonly misapplied rules in athlete tax filings.