IRS Mileage Rate 2026 & Deduction Calculator

There are TWO sets of 2026 rates. Trips driven January 1 – June 30, 2026: 72.5¢/mile business, 20.5¢/mile medical or active-duty military moving, 14¢/mile charity (IR-2025-128, implementing IRS Notice 2026-10). Trips driven July 1 – December 31, 2026: 76¢/mile business, 23.5¢/mile medical/moving, 14¢/mile charity (Announcement 2026-11, cited as IR-2026-29 on the IRS rates table). The business rate stepped up from 70¢ in 2025 and 67¢ in 2024.

Yes. Announcement 2026-11 (Internal Revenue Bulletin 2026-29) modified Notice 2026-10 and raised the business rate from 72.5¢ to 76¢/mile and the medical/military-moving rate from 20.5¢ to 23.5¢/mile, effective for expenses paid or incurred on or after July 1, 2026. The IRS attributed the change to recent increases in fuel prices. Mid-year changes are rare — the only precedents are 2011 and 2022, both also driven by gas-price spikes. The charity rate did not move: it is fixed at 14¢/mile by statute (IRC §170(i)).

The date the miles were DRIVEN governs, not the date you were reimbursed or paid. Per Announcement 2026-11, the 76¢ rate applies to transportation expenses paid or incurred on or after July 1, 2026; the Notice 2026-10 rates (72.5¢ business) continue to apply to expenses before July 1. So a June 28 client trip reimbursed on July 10 is a 72.5¢ trip. For employer mileage allowances, the new rate applies to allowances paid on or after July 1 for travel on or after July 1.

Split your mileage log at June 30 / July 1 and run two multiplications: first-half miles × 72.5¢ plus second-half miles × 76¢. Example: 7,000 business miles January–June ($5,075) plus 8,000 miles July–December ($6,080) = $11,155 — a blended effective rate of about 74.4¢/mile across 15,000 miles. The calculator above takes miles per period and does the split for you. Do NOT apply one rate to the whole year.

Not if it is paid under an accountable plan (IRS Pub 463) at or below the IRS standard rate in force on the trip date — that reimbursement is tax-free and never hits your W-2. Any amount ABOVE the applicable IRS rate is taxable wages. A flat car allowance with no mileage substantiation (a non-accountable plan) is fully taxable. Note the employer side of the 2026 mid-year change: reimbursing at 76¢ is only tax-free for trips driven on or after July 1 — paying 76¢ for a March trip makes the excess over 72.5¢ taxable. Employers are not required to use the IRS rate at all, but employees can no longer deduct any shortfall (see the W-2 employee question).

Closely linked but not the same thing. GSA sets the privately-owned-vehicle (POV) reimbursement rate for federal employees on official travel; by statute it cannot exceed the IRS business standard mileage rate, and GSA has historically matched the IRS figure, issuing its own bulletin after each IRS change. The rates on this page are the IRS rates (for deductions and tax-free reimbursement substantiation); federal travelers should confirm the current POV figure at gsa.gov since GSA adopts changes on its own schedule.

A single rate all year: 70¢/mile business, 21¢/mile medical or active-duty military moving, 14¢/mile charity (IR-2024-312, IRS Notice 2025-05). Use these for the 2025 return you file in 2026 — the mid-year split only affects tax year 2026. For 2024 the rates were 67¢ business, 21¢ medical, 14¢ charity (IR-2023-239).

Standard: deduct miles × the IRS rate in force on the trip date (for 2026, 72.5¢ then 76¢) — paperwork-light, no receipts needed beyond a mileage log. Actual: deduct the business-use % of total vehicle costs (gas, insurance, maintenance, depreciation, lease payments, registration, tires). Actual usually wins for expensive vehicles, high-cost leases, low-mileage drivers, or first-year heavy-use depreciation. Standard usually wins for fuel-efficient cars, older paid-off vehicles, and high-mileage drivers (10,000+ business miles per year). Per IRS Pub 463, you must CHOOSE standard in the FIRST year a vehicle is placed in service for business — switching to actual later is possible (straight-line depreciation only), but choosing actual first means you CANNOT switch back to standard for that vehicle.

Self-employed (Schedule C), small business owners (Schedule F for farmers, K-1 partnerships, S-corp employee-owners), gig workers, and statutory employees can deduct business mileage. W-2 employees CANNOT — TCJA §11045 (2018) suspended unreimbursed employee expense deductions, and OBBBA §70110 made the termination of miscellaneous itemized deductions permanent. The exception: Armed Forces reservists traveling 100+ miles to drill, qualified performing artists, fee-basis state/local officials, and disabled employees with impairment-related expenses can deduct on Form 2106.

IRC §162 + Treas. Reg. §1.162-2 deductible business mileage: client visits, between-job-site travel, business banking/post-office trips, off-site meetings, temporary-work-site travel (within 1 year), travel between home and a remote work location IF home is your primary place of business. NOT deductible: ordinary commute home ↔ regular workplace, personal errands during the business day, lunch break (unless meeting with a client). The commute rule means the FIRST trip of the day (home → work) and LAST (work → home) are personal — only the middle trips between work sites count.

IRS regs (Treas. Reg. §1.274-5T) require a contemporaneous log with: date, miles driven, destination, and business purpose. In a split-rate year like 2026 the DATE column does double duty — it also proves which rate each trip earns. Apps like MileIQ, Stride, or Everlance auto-log via GPS — much stronger than a year-end retrospective reconstruction. Without contemporaneous records, the IRS can disallow the entire deduction under Cohan and §274(d). Also keep: odometer readings at the start and end of the year (proves business-use %), and proof of business purpose (client emails, calendar entries).

OBBBA §70202 created a temporary above-the-line deduction for interest paid on a loan for a NEW VEHICLE made between 2025-01-20 and 2028-12-31 — up to $10,000 of interest per year. Eligible: new (not used) passenger vehicle, motorcycle, motor home, sport utility, pickup truck, or van, assembled in the US. Phase-out starts above $100k AGI single / $200k MFJ. This is SEPARATE from the mileage deduction — you can take both: standard mileage on Schedule C AND the loan-interest deduction. Reported on Schedule 1.

Yes — at the medical rate in force on the trip date (20.5¢/mile January–June 2026, 23.5¢/mile from July 1; 21¢/mile on 2025 returns) — but only as an itemized deduction on Schedule A, subject to the 7.5% AGI floor under IRC §213. With $100k AGI, the first $7,500 of total medical expenses is not deductible. Many filers take the standard deduction ($15,750 single for 2025) and don't itemize, in which case medical mileage doesn't help. Log date, destination, purpose, and miles. Includes trips to doctors, hospitals, and pharmacies per IRS Pub 502.

Yes — at 14¢/mile, claimed on Schedule A as part of itemized charitable contributions. Unlike the business and medical rates, the charity rate is set by statute (IRC §170(i)) rather than by the IRS, which is why it stayed 14¢ through the 2026 mid-year change and has not moved since the 1997 Taxpayer Relief Act. Examples: driving to volunteer at a soup kitchen, transporting people for a §501(c)(3) charity. For amounts over $250, get a contemporaneous written acknowledgment from the charity.

If your vehicle serves both personal and business use, you must allocate. For standard mileage: simply log business miles vs total miles — only business miles earn the standard rate. For actual expenses: calculate (business miles ÷ total miles) and apply that % to gas, insurance, maintenance, lease, and depreciation. Personal miles include commuting (not deductible) AND personal trips. The /commute-vs-tax-deduction-calculator/ models the personal-vs-business split.

No — they're mutually exclusive. If you take §179 expensing (or bonus depreciation under §168(k)) on a vehicle in the year placed in service, you MUST use the actual expense method for that vehicle from then on. The standard mileage rate already INCLUDES a built-in depreciation component (about 33¢ of the 70¢ 2025 rate, per the depreciation-component table published with IRS Pub 463). The /macrs-depreciation-calculator/ and /section-179-calculator/ handle the actual-expense path.

Gig drivers deduct business miles at the rate in force on the trip date — for 2026 that means splitting the log at July 1 (72.5¢ before, 76¢ after). Only actively-earning miles count under most app interpretations — miles with a passenger or "in pursuit of a fare" qualify, but commuting between home and your "shift start" does not. Watch the platform's annual tax summary: it typically undercounts deductible mileage (passenger-in-car miles only, not pursuit miles), and in 2026 you must also check that it split the year correctly. The /1099-tax-calculator/ plus this calculator together model gig-economy tax.