Government Mileage Reimbursement Rate: IRS & GSA Rates and Rules

The government mileage reimbursement rate for business driving in 2026 is 72.5 cents per mile, up from 70 cents in 2025.¹ The IRS sets this figure annually based on the average cost of fuel, insurance, depreciation, and maintenance for a typical vehicle, and separate rates apply to medical travel, military moves, and charitable driving. Federal employees on official travel follow rates published by the General Services Administration, which for automobiles match the IRS figure.

2026 IRS Standard Mileage Rates

Effective January 1, 2026, the per-mile rates are:

The rates apply the same way to gasoline, diesel, hybrid, and fully electric vehicles.¹ Parking fees and tolls paid on a deductible trip are claimed separately, on top of the mileage figure.³

GSA Rates for Federal Employees on Official Travel

Federal workers driving a personal vehicle on government business follow rates set by the GSA, which is required by law to establish them.⁴ For 2026:

The gap between the two automobile rates has a reason behind it. If your agency authorized you to use your own car, you receive the full 72.5 cents. If a government vehicle was available and you chose to drive your personal car anyway, the reimbursement drops to 20.5 cents because the agency is only covering fuel, not wear and tear.

Private employers and nonprofits often peg their own policies to the IRS or GSA figure, but federal law does not require them to. A handful of states require employer reimbursement for business driving; most do not.

Who Can Actually Deduct Mileage

A common misunderstanding: regular W-2 employees generally cannot deduct business mileage on a federal tax return, even when the employer offers no reimbursement. The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act eliminated the deduction for unreimbursed employee business expenses beginning in 2018, and that suspension is now permanent.⁶ If your employer doesn’t reimburse, the tax code offers no direct relief for most employees.

The people who can still claim mileage at the standard rates:

Self-employed individuals, who deduct business mileage on Schedule C.
Armed Forces reservists traveling more than 100 miles from home to reserve duties, using Form 2106.⁷
Qualified performing artists, fee-basis state or local government officials, and employees with impairment-related work expenses, also using Form 2106.⁷
Active-duty military members relocating under permanent change of station orders, using Form 3903.⁸
Anyone who itemizes, for medical travel at 20.5 cents and charitable driving at 14 cents, subject to the usual limits on each deduction.

Deductible business travel means trips between work locations, drives to clients or suppliers, and travel to temporary job sites. It does not include the daily commute between home and your regular workplace, which the IRS treats as a personal expense regardless of distance.⁹

How Employer Reimbursements Are Taxed

When your employer reimburses at or below the IRS standard rate through a properly structured accountable plan, the money is not taxable. It stays off your W-2 and off your return. An accountable plan has three requirements: the expense must have a clear business connection, you must document it within a reasonable time (the IRS safe harbor is 60 days), and you must return any excess reimbursement you didn’t actually spend.

Pay above 72.5 cents per mile in 2026 and the overage is taxable wages unless you return it. An employer paying 80 cents, for example, would treat the extra 7.5 cents per mile as W-2 wages if the employee keeps it. Where the plan lacks documentation or return-of-excess rules entirely, the whole reimbursement becomes taxable, not just the amount above the rate.

Reimbursing below the IRS rate is legal, but the employee cannot deduct the shortfall on a personal return, given the suspension of unreimbursed employee expenses noted above. Under-reimbursed workers absorb the difference.

Recordkeeping the IRS Expects

Whether you’re taking a deduction or submitting a reimbursement claim, you need a written log built at or near the time of each trip. Reconstructing miles from memory at tax time is exactly what the IRS rejects on audit. Publication 463 sets out the required elements for each entry:¹⁰

Date of the trip.
Destination (city, town, or area).
Business purpose, in a short note (“client meeting with Smith Corp,” “delivered supplies to food bank”).
Starting and ending odometer readings.
Total miles for that trip.

For routine travel over the same route, you can log the route distance once and then record only the date of each subsequent trip.¹⁰ Everyone else should keep trip-by-trip entries. An account book, spreadsheet, or mileage app all qualify as long as the five elements are captured. Keep the logs for at least three years after filing the return that claims the deduction, or two years after paying the tax, whichever is later.¹¹ A missing or incomplete log usually means the deduction is disallowed, with back taxes and interest owed.

Doing the Math

Multiply eligible miles by the rate for the category. A self-employed consultant with 10,000 business miles in 2026 claims 10,000 × $0.725 = $7,250 on Schedule C. Someone driving 500 miles to medical appointments adds 500 × $0.205 = $102.50 to their medical expenses (subject to the AGI floor for medical deductions). A volunteer logging 1,200 miles for a qualified charity claims 1,200 × $0.14 = $168 as a charitable contribution.

Add parking fees and tolls from deductible trips on top of those totals.³ Parking at your regular workplace and tolls on your normal commute stay personal. Federal employees filing a travel voucher use the same multiplication, with the money coming from the agency rather than through a tax return.

1
Internal Revenue Service. IRS Sets 2026 Business Standard Mileage Rate at 72.5 Cents Per Mile, Up 2.5 Cents
2
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 170 – Charitable, Etc., Contributions and Gifts
3
Internal Revenue Service. Topic No. 510, Business Use of Car
4
General Services Administration. GSA Bulletin FTR 26-02 – Calendar Year (CY) 2026 Privately Owned Vehicle (POV) Mileage Reimbursement Rates and Standard Mileage Rate for Moving Purposes (Relocation Allowances)
5
General Services Administration. Privately Owned Vehicle (POV) Mileage Reimbursement Rates
6
Internal Revenue Service. Instructions for Form 2106 – Employee Business Expenses
7
Internal Revenue Service. Instructions for Form 2106
8
Internal Revenue Service. Topic No. 455, Moving Expenses for Members of the Armed Forces and the Intelligence Community
9
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 U.S. Code 162 – Trade or Business Expenses
10
Internal Revenue Service. Publication 463 – Travel, Gift, and Car Expenses
11
Internal Revenue Service. How Long Should I Keep Records?