US Government Mileage Rate: IRS Business and GSA Federal Rates

The federal government mileage rate for 2026 is 72.5 cents per mile for business driving, up 2.5 cents from the 2025 rate of 70 cents.¹ Lower rates apply to medical trips, military moves, and volunteer driving for charity. The same 72.5-cent figure also sets the General Services Administration’s reimbursement rate for federal employees who use a personal car on government business.²

The Four 2026 Rates

Under IRS Notice 2026-10, the per-mile rates effective January 1, 2026, are:

The 14-cent charitable rate is set by statute rather than by the IRS, so it changes only when Congress acts.³ The other three are adjusted annually based on fuel prices and the fixed and variable costs of operating a vehicle. All four rates apply the same way whether you drive gasoline, diesel, hybrid, or fully electric.¹

Who Can Actually Claim the Business Rate

The 72.5-cent business rate is not a general-purpose deduction for anyone who drives for work. It’s mainly a tool for the self-employed.

Self-Employed Drivers

If you’re an independent contractor, sole proprietor, or gig worker, you multiply your qualifying business miles by 72.5 cents and deduct the total on Schedule C.⁴ A rideshare driver who logs 15,000 business miles in 2026 would claim $10,875.

W-2 Employees

Regular employees cannot deduct unreimbursed mileage on their federal return. The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act suspended the miscellaneous itemized deduction for unreimbursed employee expenses starting in 2018, and the One Big Beautiful Bill Act of 2025 made that suspension permanent for tax years beginning after December 31, 2025.⁵ A narrow set of workers keep access: eligible educators, certain performing artists, reservists, and fee-basis state or local government officials.¹

For everyone else on a W-2, the rate matters indirectly. It’s the ceiling an employer can reimburse tax-free under an accountable plan: reimbursements at or below 72.5 cents per mile, with substantiation of time, place, and business purpose, stay out of Box 1 of the W-2 and off the payroll tax base for both sides.⁶ Anything above the standard rate is taxable wages.

GSA Rates for Federal Employees

Federal employees don’t claim a tax deduction for work driving. They file a travel voucher and get reimbursed directly at a GSA rate. For 2026:

72.5 cents per mile when no government vehicle is available²
20.5 cents per mile when a government vehicle was available but the employee chose to use a personal car²

Federal law ties the GSA’s primary rate to whatever the IRS sets as the business standard mileage rate, which is why the two figures move together each year.⁷ The lower 20.5-cent figure is meant to cover only the marginal cost of choosing your own car over one the agency already had available.

Which Miles Count as Business

The rate is worth nothing on miles the IRS classifies as commuting. The daily trip between your home and your regular workplace is personal, and no amount of distance changes that.⁶

Miles that do qualify include trips from your workplace to a client’s location, travel between two separate work locations, and trips to temporary job sites expected to last less than one year.⁸ Once an assignment is expected to run longer than a year, that location becomes your tax home and the driving reverts to a nondeductible commute.

A qualifying home office changes the geometry. If your home office is your principal place of business, driving from home to another work location in the same trade or business is a deductible trip, not commuting.⁶

When You Can’t Use the Standard Rate

You must own or lease the vehicle, and you have to choose the standard mileage rate in the first year the car is available for business use. After that first year, you can switch between the standard rate and actual expenses year to year.⁹

Several situations shut the door on the standard rate:

You operate five or more vehicles at the same time (fleet use).⁹
You’ve claimed a Section 179 deduction, the special depreciation allowance, or any depreciation method other than straight-line on the vehicle.⁶
You use the car as a taxi or similar for-hire vehicle.⁶
You claimed actual expenses on a leased car after 1997.⁶

Once accelerated depreciation or Section 179 has been claimed on a vehicle, it’s locked into the actual expense method for the rest of its business life.

Standard Rate or Actual Expenses

The standard rate rolls fuel, insurance, depreciation, maintenance, and repairs into a single per-mile number. The actual expense method treats each cost separately: gas, oil, repairs, tires, insurance, registration, depreciation or lease payments, and garage rent, each multiplied by your business-use percentage (business miles divided by total miles).⁶

Newer, fuel-efficient vehicles with modest operating costs tend to do better under the standard rate. Older cars with heavy repair bills, or larger trucks and SUVs with poor fuel economy, often produce a bigger deduction under actual expenses. You commit to a method for the whole tax year, but if you elected the standard rate in year one you can reassess each subsequent year.

Mileage Log Requirements

Substantiation is where mileage claims usually fail. The tax code requires you to document the amount, the time and place, the business purpose, and (when applicable) the business relationship of anyone involved.¹⁰ For a mileage log, that means the date, starting and ending odometer readings, destination, and a short note on why the trip was for business.

The IRS does not accept estimates or reconstructions built from memory at year-end.⁶ Entries made at the time of the trip carry the most weight. Paper and electronic logs are held to the same standard, and using a tracking app doesn’t shift the recordkeeping duty away from you. Keep the log, and any receipts if you’re using actual expenses, for at least three years from the filing date.¹¹

Where the Deduction Goes on Your Return

The calculation is simple multiplication. A self-employed consultant with 12,000 business miles in 2026 deducts 12,000 × $0.725 = $8,700, reported on Schedule C.⁴

Medical mileage at 20.5 cents per mile is added to your other out-of-pocket medical expenses on Schedule A, but only the portion of total medical costs exceeding 7.5% of your adjusted gross income is deductible, and only if you itemize.

Charitable mileage at 14 cents per mile also goes on Schedule A alongside other charitable contributions. Parking and tolls paid during volunteer driving are deductible on top of the per-mile amount.

Federal employees skip the tax return entirely for work driving and submit a travel voucher to their agency. The mileage log still does the same job: it’s the record that justifies the reimbursement.

1
Internal Revenue Service. IRS Sets 2026 Business Standard Mileage Rate at 72.5 Cents Per Mile
2
General Services Administration. Privately Owned Vehicle (POV) Mileage Reimbursement Rates
3
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 170 – Charitable, Etc., Contributions and Gifts
4
Internal Revenue Service. Instructions for Schedule C (Form 1040) – Profit or Loss From Business
5
Congress.gov. Tax Provisions in H.R. 1, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act
6
Internal Revenue Service. Publication 463 (2025), Travel, Gift, and Car Expenses
7
U.S. General Services Administration. GSA Bulletin FTR 26-02 – Calendar Year (CY) 2026 Privately Owned Vehicle (POV) Mileage Reimbursement Rates
8
Internal Revenue Service. Business Travel Expenses
9
Internal Revenue Service. Topic No. 510, Business Use of Car
10
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 274 – Disallowance of Certain Entertainment, Etc., Expenses
11
Internal Revenue Service. IRS Audits