The federal mileage reimbursement rate is 76 cents per mile for official travel on or after July 1, 2026, up from 72.5 cents set on January 1. That figure comes from the General Services Administration, and it applies to federal employees using a privately owned vehicle on government business. It is easy to confuse with the IRS standard mileage rate, which happens to be the same number this year but is a different rule for different people.
Sources: GSA, Privately Owned Vehicle (POV) Mileage Reimbursement Rates; IRS Internal Revenue Bulletin 2026-29 (mid-year standard mileage rate increase).
The 2026 GSA rates, in full
GSA publishes a separate rate for each vehicle type, and each one changed mid-year alongside the IRS increase.
- Automobile: 72.5 cents per mile from January 1, then 76 cents from July 1, 2026
- Automobile when a government vehicle was available but not used: 20.5 cents, then 23.5 cents from July 1
- Motorcycle: 70.5 cents, then 74 cents from July 1
- Privately owned airplane: $1.78 per mile, then $1.935 from July 1
The government-vehicle-available rate is the one people miss. If your agency had a vehicle it could have assigned you and you chose to drive your own anyway, you are reimbursed at 23.5 cents rather than 76. That is a 52.5 cent per mile difference, and on a 400-mile trip it is $210.
GSA rate or IRS rate: which one applies to you?
They are not interchangeable, even in a year when the headline number matches.
- The GSA rate is a reimbursement rule under the Federal Travel Regulation. It tells a federal agency what to pay an employee for official travel in a personal vehicle.
- The IRS standard mileage rate is a tax rule. It sets the maximum a private employer can reimburse tax-free, and it sets the per-mile figure a self-employed person can deduct.
GSA sets its automobile rate by reference to the IRS figure, which is why they track each other. But a private-sector employer is under no obligation to pay the GSA rate, and a federal employee cannot claim the IRS rate as a deduction on top of what the agency reimbursed.
A worked example across the rate change
The mid-year change means a single year of driving has two rates, and the split is by trip date, not by when you filed the voucher. Take a federal employee who drove 3,000 official miles in the first half of 2026 and 2,500 in the second half:
- 3,000 miles at 72.5 cents (January 1 to June 30): $2,175.00
- 2,500 miles at 76 cents (July 1 to December 31): $1,900.00
- Total reimbursement: $4,075.00
Apply the July rate to the whole 5,500 miles and you get $4,180, an overstatement of $105. Apply the January rate to everything and you understate by $87.50. Neither is a rounding error on a voucher, and the fix is simply having each trip stamped with its own date.
Is federal mileage reimbursement taxable?
No, provided it is paid at or below the applicable rate against a substantiated voucher. Reimbursement under those conditions meets the IRS accountable plan requirements, so it is not wages, it is not on your W-2, and no withholding applies. If an agency were to pay above the applicable rate, the excess would be taxable compensation.
The same logic applies in the private sector, which is why the accountable-plan structure matters more than the specific rate a company picks. A flat monthly car allowance with no log attached is taxable no matter how generous it looks.
What about state and local government employees?
State and local rules are set separately, and they vary. Many states simply adopt the IRS standard rate by statute or by administrative policy, which is why the numbers often match. Others set their own figure, and a few reimburse below the federal rate. If you work for a state agency, the controlling document is your state's travel regulation, not the GSA bulletin.
Private employees are in a different position again. Only California, Illinois, and Massachusetts impose a broad statutory duty on private employers to reimburse necessary business expenses, and even those statutes do not name a specific per-mile rate.
Does the GSA rate cover tolls and parking?
No. The per-mile rate is intended to cover the operating and ownership cost of the vehicle itself. Tolls and parking incurred on official travel are reimbursed separately as actual expenses, with receipts, and are not folded into the mileage figure.
Do commuting miles count?
Generally not. Travel between your home and your regular duty station is commuting, and commuting is not official travel. The line between business and commuting miles is the same distinction the IRS draws for deductions, and it trips up federal and private-sector drivers equally.
What records does a voucher need?
Date of travel, origin and destination, distance, and the official purpose. That is the same information the IRS wants for a substantiated mileage log, which is not a coincidence: both rules exist to prove the trip happened and was for business.
Rate changes mid-year are only a problem if your log does not know when you drove. TruMile date-stamps every trip automatically, so the right rate applies to the right miles. Try TruMile →
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