Mileage Reimbursement Calculator
Calculate exactly what your business, medical, moving, or charity miles are worth using the official 2026 IRS standard mileage rates. Enter your miles, see your reimbursement instantly, and break it down by trip, week, month, or year.
Updated for 2026 · Rates verified against IRS Notice 2026-10
Enter Your Miles
*Moving applies only to active-duty Armed Forces and certain intelligence-community members. Rates set by IRS Notice 2026-10.
Type any number above, or drag the slider. Only count qualifying business miles — daily commuting between home and a regular workplace is not reimbursable.
We’ll project your reimbursement across every time period automatically.
Your Reimbursement
Reimbursement by period
Coverage Score
Annual Projection by Rate Year
2024 Rate
$067¢ / mile2026 Rate
$072.5¢ / mile2025 Rate
$070¢ / mileHow the Mileage Reimbursement Calculator Works
Mileage reimbursement is refreshingly simple math: multiply your qualifying miles by the applicable IRS standard mileage rate. For 2026, the IRS set the business rate at 72.5 cents per mile — the highest it has ever been, up 2.5 cents from 70 cents in 2025. Drive 1,000 business miles and you’re owed $725. This calculator does that instantly, then projects the figure across every time period so you can see the weekly, monthly, and annual picture at once.
The standard mileage rate is a bundled figure. It’s designed to cover the full cost of operating your vehicle — fuel, depreciation, maintenance, insurance, tires, and registration — so you don’t have to track each expense separately. You simply keep a log of your business miles and apply the rate.
The official 2026 IRS mileage rates
| Purpose | 2026 Rate | 2025 Rate | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Business | 72.5¢ / mi | 70¢ / mi | ▲ up 2.5¢ |
| Medical | 20.5¢ / mi | 21¢ / mi | ▼ down 0.5¢ |
| Moving (military only) | 20.5¢ / mi | 21¢ / mi | ▼ down 0.5¢ |
| Charitable | 14¢ / mi | 14¢ / mi | — unchanged |
The charitable rate is fixed by statute and has stayed at 14 cents since 1998. The business rate, by contrast, is recalculated each year from a study of fixed and variable vehicle operating costs, which is why it climbed in 2026 as insurance and maintenance costs rose.
What counts as reimbursable business mileage
Not every mile qualifies. Your regular commute between home and a fixed workplace is never reimbursable — that rule dates back to the Supreme Court’s decision in Commissioner v. Flowers. Qualifying trips include driving between worksites, visiting clients or customers, running business errands, traveling to temporary work locations, and airport runs for business travel. To claim any of it, the IRS requires a contemporaneous log recording the date, destination, business purpose, and miles for each trip. Reconstructed or estimated logs don’t survive an audit.
A note for employees: the 2026 deduction change
If you’re a W-2 employee, there’s a critical rule to understand. The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act suspended the deduction for unreimbursed employee business expenses, and the One Big Beautiful Bill Act made that suspension permanent starting in 2025. In plain terms, most employees can no longer deduct unreimbursed business mileage on their personal tax return. The practical path is to be reimbursed by your employer through an accountable plan — reimbursements at or below the IRS rate are tax-free to you and deductible for the business. Self-employed drivers and independent contractors are unaffected and can still deduct business mileage directly.
Which states require mileage reimbursement?
There is no federal law forcing private employers to reimburse mileage. However, three states — California, Illinois, and Massachusetts — legally require employers to cover the necessary costs of using a personal vehicle for work, and several others (Montana, New Hampshire, North Dakota, and South Dakota) have broad expense-indemnification statutes. California is the state to watch: under Labor Code Section 2802, a sales rep driving 18,000 business miles a year is owed roughly $13,000 at the 2026 rate, and unpaid reimbursement claims carry interest and attorney’s fees. Toggle the employer-rate comparison in the calculator above to see whether your reimbursement falls short of full IRS-rate value.
Frequently Asked Questions
The 2026 IRS standard mileage rate is 72.5 cents per mile for business use, up 2.5 cents from the 2025 rate of 70 cents. The medical and military-moving rate is 20.5 cents per mile, and the charitable rate is 14 cents per mile. These rates, set by IRS Notice 2026-10, apply to all miles driven on or after January 1, 2026.
Multiply your qualifying business miles by the IRS standard mileage rate. For example, 1,200 business miles × 72.5¢ = $870 for 2026. That’s it — the standard rate already bundles fuel, depreciation, maintenance, insurance, and registration, so you don’t itemize individual costs. Enter your miles in the calculator above and it computes the figure instantly, plus weekly, monthly, and annual projections.
No — as long as it’s paid through an accountable plan at or below the IRS standard rate and backed by a compliant mileage log, reimbursement is tax-free and not reported as wages. If your employer reimburses you above 72.5¢ per mile in 2026, the excess amount generally becomes taxable W-2 income unless you separately substantiate higher actual costs.
Generally no. The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act suspended the deduction for unreimbursed employee business expenses, and the One Big Beautiful Bill Act made that suspension permanent from 2025 onward. W-2 employees should seek reimbursement through their employer’s accountable plan instead. Self-employed workers and independent contractors are not affected and can still deduct business mileage on Schedule C.
Federal law doesn’t require it, except when unreimbursed vehicle costs would push a worker’s pay below the federal minimum wage. But California, Illinois, and Massachusetts legally require employers to reimburse necessary business vehicle expenses, and states like Montana, New Hampshire, North Dakota, and South Dakota have broad indemnification statutes. Most employers use the IRS rate because it’s a recognized safe harbor.
The IRS requires a contemporaneous log — created at or near the time of each trip — recording four fields: the date, the destination, the business purpose, and the miles driven. Estimates and reconstructed logs are not accepted in an audit. A same-day entry using a mileage-tracking app is the gold standard; weekly logging is realistic; monthly is acceptable but risks fading memory.
Methodology, assumptions & data sources
This calculator was built and reviewed in July 2026 using the following logic:
- Core formula: reimbursement = qualifying miles × applicable IRS standard mileage rate.
- 2026 rates (Notice 2026-10): business 72.5¢, medical 20.5¢, military moving 20.5¢, charitable 14¢ per mile.
- Prior-year rates: 2025 business 70¢ / medical 21¢; 2024 business 67¢ / medical 21¢; charitable fixed at 14¢ throughout.
- Period projections: weekly = your monthly-equivalent ÷ 4.33; quarterly = monthly × 3; yearly = monthly × 12, derived from whichever period you enter.
- Coverage Score: when employer-rate comparison is on, it shows your employer’s rate as a percentage of the full IRS rate. At or above the IRS rate scores 100.
This tool computes the reimbursement amount only. It does not calculate tax liability, FAVR (fixed-and-variable-rate) plans, or commuting carve-outs. It assumes you have already filtered your log to qualifying business miles. Estimates are for planning purposes and are not tax or legal advice; consult a tax professional for your specific situation.
References
- Internal Revenue Service. IRS sets 2026 business standard mileage rate at 72.5 cents per mile (IR-2025-128). irs.gov
- Internal Revenue Service. Notice 2026-10 — 2026 Standard Mileage Rates (PDF). irs.gov/pub/irs-drop/n-26-10
- U.S. General Services Administration. Privately Owned Vehicle (POV) Mileage Reimbursement Rates. gsa.gov
- California Department of Industrial Relations. Labor Code Section 2802 — Expense Reimbursement. dir.ca.gov/dlse
- Internal Revenue Service. Publication 463 — Travel, Gift, and Car Expenses. irs.gov/publications/p463