Mileage Deduction Rate 2026: How Much You Can Deduct Per Mile

The Short Answer

For 2026, the IRS set the business standard mileage rate at 72.5 cents per mile effective January 1 (Notice 2026-10, published Dec. 29, 2025), then raised it mid-year to 76 cents per mile for travel on or after July 1, 2026 (Announcement 2026-11, Internal Revenue Bulletin 2026-29). The medical and military moving rate is 20.5 cents per mile from January 1 through June 30 and 23.5 cents per mile from July 1 through December 31, and the charitable rate is fixed by law at 14 cents per mile, according to IRS.gov. For 2025, the business rate was 70 cents per mile and the medical and active-duty moving rate was 21 cents per mile. Before you file, check IRS.gov to confirm which rate applies to your travel dates — this article explains exactly how the rate works, how it’s calculated, and how to apply it.

Why the Rate Changes Every Year

The standard mileage rate isn’t a random round number. The IRS calculates it based on an annual study of the fixed and variable costs of operating a vehicle — things like gas, maintenance, insurance, depreciation, and repairs. Motus (an independent vehicle cost-data firm, formerly Runzheimer) conducts this cost analysis for the IRS, and the agency uses the data to set a rate that approximates the real cost per mile of using your car for business, medical, or moving purposes.

That’s why the rate moves with fuel prices and vehicle costs rather than inflation alone. When gas prices spike, as they did in 2022, the IRS sometimes issues a rare mid-year adjustment (it raised the business rate from 58.5 cents to 62.5 cents on July 1, 2022, for exactly this reason, and it did so again in 2026, raising the business rate from 72.5 cents to 76 cents effective July 1, 2026 under Announcement 2026-11). Most years, though, there’s a single rate announced once in December that applies for the entire following calendar year.

The charitable mileage rate is different. Congress sets that rate by statute, not the IRS, which is why it has stayed at 14 cents per mile for over two decades even as the business rate has climbed.

How the Rate Has Moved in Recent Years

Source: IRS Notices covering each respective year, available at IRS.gov. Bookmark the IRS “Standard Mileage Rates” page and check it each December, and again mid-year if fuel prices spike — that’s when rates for the coming calendar year are normally posted.

Note that the “moving” rate applies only to active-duty members of the Armed Forces relocating under military orders and, beginning in 2026, to certain members of the intelligence community. The One Big Beautiful Bill Act permanently repealed the moving expense deduction for everyone else for tax years beginning after Dec. 31, 2025, so the TCJA suspension did not simply expire after 2025 — another reason to confirm the 2026 rules directly on IRS.gov rather than assuming last year’s categories carry over unchanged.

Standard Mileage vs. Actual Expenses

The mileage rate exists to give taxpayers a simpler alternative to tracking every individual car expense. You generally have two options for deducting vehicle costs tied to business use:

The Standard Mileage Method

You multiply your business miles driven by the IRS rate for that year. This single number is meant to cover gas, oil, repairs, tires, insurance, registration fees, and depreciation. You can’t also deduct these items separately if you use this method — the rate already bakes them in. You can still separately deduct business-related parking fees and tolls.

The Actual Expense Method

You track every real cost of operating the vehicle — fuel, repairs, insurance, lease payments or depreciation, registration — and then deduct the business-use percentage of those costs. This method often makes sense for newer, more expensive vehicles or those with high fixed costs, but it requires far more recordkeeping.

One important catch: if you want to use the standard mileage rate, you generally must choose it in the first year the vehicle is available for business use. If you start with actual expenses, you may be locked into that method for the life of the vehicle, according to IRS Publication 463. Self-employed people using the standard mileage rate also have more flexibility to switch between methods in later years than those who lease.

Who Actually Uses This Deduction

Three main groups:

• Self-employed people and small business owners — including rideshare and delivery drivers, real estate agents, and consultants — who deduct business mileage on Schedule C.
• Farmers and businesses filing other schedules that involve vehicle use for income-producing activity.
• Individuals claiming medical or charitable mileage as part of itemized deductions on Schedule A, subject to the usual rules (medical expenses above 7.5% of adjusted gross income, for example).

W-2 employees generally cannot deduct unreimbursed mileage on their federal return under current law — that deduction was suspended for most employees by the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, and the One Big Beautiful Bill Act made the suspension of miscellaneous itemized deductions permanent, so it did not expire after 2025. If you’re reimbursed by an employer at or below the IRS rate, those reimbursements are typically tax-free to you.

A Worked Example (Using the 2025 Confirmed Rate)

Say you’re a freelance photographer who drove 8,400 miles in 2025 specifically for client shoots, scouting locations, and picking up equipment — all documented in a mileage log.

• Business miles driven: 8,400
• 2025 business rate: 70 cents per mile
• Deduction: 8,400 × $0.70 = $5,880

That $5,880 is deducted from your business income on Schedule C, reducing both your income tax and self-employment tax exposure. If you also drove 300 miles to medical appointments that year, you could separately add 300 × $0.21 = $63 to your itemized medical expense total (subject to the 7.5%-of-AGI floor).

For 2026 miles, split your total between miles driven January 1–June 30 (72.5 cents) and miles driven July 1–December 31 (76 cents). Then you’d redo this same multiplication with your 2026 mileage total and the new per-mile figure. The math never changes — only the rate does.

Recordkeeping the IRS Expects

Whichever method you use, the IRS requires contemporaneous records, not estimates reconstructed at tax time. According to IRS Publication 463, a compliant mileage log should include:

• Date of each trip
• Starting point and destination
• Business purpose
• Miles driven

Apps that log GPS trip data automatically can satisfy this requirement, as can a simple paper logbook kept in the car. What doesn’t hold up well under an audit is a single lump-sum estimate of “about 10,000 miles” written at the end of the year with no supporting detail.

Where the 2026 Numbers Came From

The 2026 rates come from Notice 2026-10, published on IRS.gov on Dec. 29, 2025, as modified by Announcement 2026-11 (Internal Revenue Bulletin 2026-29), which raised the business and medical/moving rates effective July 1, 2026. The IRS newsroom and the dedicated “Standard Mileage Rates” page are the fastest official sources once it’s released. Tax software providers and payroll platforms also update automatically once the Notice is final, but the Notice itself is the authoritative source if you want to verify a figure before filing.

FAQ

What is the IRS mileage rate for 2026?

The 2026 business rate is 72.5 cents per mile for miles driven January 1 through June 30, 2026, and 76 cents per mile for miles driven July 1 through December 31, 2026. The medical and military moving rate is 20.5 cents for the first half of the year and 23.5 cents for the second half, and the charitable rate is 14 cents all year. Check IRS.gov’s “Standard Mileage Rates” page directly for the confirmed 2026 number before calculating your deduction.

Can I deduct mileage if I’m a W-2 employee?

Generally no, under current law. The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act suspended unreimbursed employee business expense deductions, including mileage, and the One Big Beautiful Bill Act made that suspension permanent, so the deduction remains unavailable to most W-2 employees in 2026.

Do commuting miles count toward the deduction?

No. Miles driven from your home to a regular place of business are considered personal commuting miles and are never deductible, regardless of the year’s rate. Only mileage driven between business locations, to client meetings, for supply runs, or similar business purposes counts — and only if you keep a contemporaneous log showing the business purpose of each trip.

Sources

• IRS.gov — Standard Mileage Rates: https://www.irs.gov/tax-professionals/standard-mileage-rates
• IRS.gov — Newsroom: https://www.irs.gov/newsroom
• IRS Publication 463, Travel, Gift, and Car Expenses: https://www.irs.gov/publications/p463
• IRS.gov — Forms & Instructions (Schedule C): https://www.irs.gov/forms-pubs

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