The Fello mileage reimbursement form is how participants in Fello’s self-directed services programs claim payment for business driving in a personal vehicle. You log each qualifying trip, multiply your total business miles by the IRS standard rate (72.5 cents per mile for 2026, up from 70 cents in 2025), add any parking or toll receipts, and submit the form through the FMS Engine portal or to your program administrator. Get the four required details right for every trip and file within your program’s deadline, and the reimbursement comes to you tax-free.
Which Trips You Can Claim
The IRS draws a hard line between commuting and business travel, and Fello’s form follows it. Your regular drive from home to your main workplace is commuting, and commuting is never reimbursable, no matter how far you drive or whether you work along the way.
Trips that do qualify include driving between work locations during the day, traveling to meet clients or attend off-site meetings, and going from home to a temporary workplace when you already have a regular one. A quick lunch stop between two business destinations still counts as part of the business trip. A significant personal detour does not.
Getting this right before you fill anything in matters. Claiming commuting miles as business miles can disqualify the whole reimbursement and create tax problems for you and your employer. When in doubt, ask whether the trip took you somewhere other than your everyday workplace. If it did, it’s likely reimbursable.
What to Gather Before You Start
The IRS requires four pieces of information for every business trip: the date, the business destination, the business purpose, and the miles driven. Without all four, the reimbursement may not qualify for tax-free treatment and your administrator can reject the claim.
Record your odometer reading when you leave and when you arrive; the difference is your exact business mileage. If one trip mixes personal and business stops, only the business portion is reimbursable, so note where the business segment begins and ends.
Keep receipts for out-of-pocket costs beyond mileage, like parking fees and bridge tolls. Those are reimbursed separately from the per-mile rate, but you need proof. Digital photos of paper receipts work fine as long as the amount and date are legible.
How to Fill Out the Form
The current form is a downloadable PDF on the Fello website and is also available through the FMS Engine portal at fello.org. Open it and start with the header fields: your name, employee or participant identification number, and the reporting period.
The body is a trip log. Each row is one trip, and the columns come straight from the records you gathered:
- Date of the trip.
- Destination, given as an address or location name.
- Business purpose, in a short phrase like “client meeting” or “supply pickup.”
- Miles driven, calculated from your odometer readings.
Once every trip is entered, total the miles column and multiply by $0.725 to get your reimbursement. A fillable PDF or linked spreadsheet may do this for you; on a printed form, do the math yourself. As an example, 150 business miles times $0.725 is $108.75.
List parking, tolls, and other non-mileage expenses in the designated section, with the receipt amount for each. Add those to your mileage total for the grand total you’re requesting. Sign and date at the bottom.
Submitting the Form
Submit the completed form through the FMS Engine portal if your program accepts digital uploads, or email it as a PDF to your program administrator. If a physical copy is required, sign the original and deliver it to the administrative office. Attach every supporting receipt for tolls, parking, or other non-mileage expenses.
Administrators review submissions by checking that each trip has a valid business purpose, verifying the math, and confirming that receipts back up any additional expenses. If something is missing or the numbers don’t add up, expect a request for clarification before payment moves forward. Approved reimbursements are typically paid through the next regular payment cycle or as a separate disbursement, depending on your program’s procedures.
Claims most often get sent back for missing business purpose descriptions, mileage that looks like commuting, math errors, or receipts that don’t match the claimed expenses. Double-check those four things before you submit.
Deadlines That Protect Your Tax-Free Payment
Submit promptly. Under IRS safe-harbor rules, expense reports filed within 60 days of the trip meet the “reasonable period” requirement for an accountable plan. Waiting longer than 60 days risks turning the payment into taxable income. Many programs set shorter internal deadlines, with 30 days after a trip being common, so check your program’s specific policy.
Why the Paperwork Decides Whether It’s Taxable
Whether your reimbursement is taxable depends on whether the program qualifies as an “accountable plan” under IRS rules. Most structured programs like Fello’s do, but the distinction matters.
An accountable plan has to meet three conditions: the expenses must have a genuine business connection, you must provide adequate documentation within a reasonable time, and you must return any overpayment. When all three are met, the reimbursement stays off your W-2 entirely, with no income tax and no Social Security or Medicare withholding.
If the plan doesn’t meet those conditions, say a flat car allowance with no documentation required, the IRS treats the whole payment as taxable wages. The employer reports it on your W-2 and withholds income and payroll taxes. That is why careful record-keeping and timely submission aren’t just administrative hygiene. A sloppy log can convert a tax-free payment into taxable income.
Reimbursements above the 72.5-cent 2026 rate get split treatment. The portion up to the standard rate stays tax-free under an accountable plan; anything above it is taxable.
How Long to Keep Your Records
Hold on to your mileage logs, receipts, and copies of submitted forms for at least three years from the date you file the tax return for that year. The IRS can audit within that window, and your records are the proof the reimbursement was legitimate. If you’re self-employed and claiming vehicle deductions, keep records for the entire depreciation recovery period of the vehicle as well.
Digital copies are acceptable, but back them up somewhere you can still reach years later. A photo of a toll receipt in a cloud folder works. A crumpled receipt in your glove compartment that fades to blank in six months does not.