Mileage Reimbursement Calculator

There are two 2026 rate periods. For January 1 through June 30, Notice 2026-10 sets business mileage at 72.5¢/mile and medical or qualifying moving mileage at 20.5¢. For July 1 through December 31, Announcement 2026-11 raises those rates to 76¢ and 23.5¢. Charitable mileage remains 14¢ all year. The 35¢ business-rate depreciation component and $61,700 FAVR vehicle-cost cap remain unchanged.

No. The applicable rate follows when the transportation expense was incurred. A reimbursement paid in 2026 for miles driven in 2025 uses the 2025 rate of 70¢/mile. The same principle matters within 2026: mileage incurred before July 1 uses 72.5¢, while mileage incurred on or after July 1 uses 76¢. The calculator surfaces the travel period to make this explicit.

No federal law requires employers to reimburse mileage at any rate. The IRS rate is a safe-harbor tax treatment, not a reimbursement requirement. 29 CFR §531.35 (the FLSA "free and clear" rule) is the only federal protection — unreimbursed expenses cannot drop wages below the $7.25/hr federal minimum. Six states impose a broad reimbursement duty: California (Labor Code §2802), Illinois (820 ILCS 115/9.5), Montana (MCA §39-2-701), New Hampshire (RSA 275:57), North Dakota (NDCC §34-02-01), and South Dakota (SDCL §60-2-1). Massachusetts has a narrower transportation-only duty under 454 CMR 27.04(4). Everywhere else, the duty arises only from contract.

California Labor Code §2802 requires employers to indemnify employees for "all necessary expenditures or losses." Per Gattuso v. Harte-Hanks Shoppers, 42 Cal.4th 554 (Cal. 2007), the IRS rate is one of three permissible methods of reimbursement and is "presumptively reasonable" — but an employee can challenge adequacy by proving actual costs exceeded the reimbursement. The calculator surfaces the AAA "Your Driving Costs" weighted-average per-mile figure ($11,577 annual / 15,000 miles = 77.18¢/mile for 2025) as the default actual-cost benchmark. For July–December 2026, that estimate is 1.18¢ above the 76¢ IRS rate; the calculator shows the resulting possible §2802 gap.

Reimbursement at or below the IRS rate under an accountable plan (26 CFR §1.62-2) is excluded from W-2 wages and not subject to payroll tax. Three elements: business connection, substantiation (amount, time, place, business purpose per 26 CFR §1.274-5), and return of excess within a reasonable time. Reimbursement above the IRS rate is taxable W-2 income for the excess unless the employee substantiates the higher actual costs separately. As of January 1, 2026, W-2 employees cannot deduct unreimbursed business expenses on their federal return — IRC §67(g) was made permanent by the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (2025).

No. Per IRC §262 and Commissioner v. Flowers, 326 U.S. 465 (1946), commuting between an employee's home and a regular workplace is personal expense, not business expense — and is neither deductible nor reimbursable under an accountable plan. Travel between two work locations on the same day IS deductible business mileage. Travel from home to a temporary work location outside the metro area is also deductible per Rev. Rul. 99-7 (defining "temporary" as employment at a location realistically expected to last one year or less). The calculator assumes you've already filtered your mileage log to business miles only — it cannot detect commuting from input alone.

Per 26 CFR §1.274-5(c), each business-mileage entry needs four elements: amount (miles driven), date, place (destination), and business purpose. A contemporaneous log made at or near the time of the trip has "a high degree of credibility." Reconstructed logs are permitted but receive less weight. Mileage-tracking apps can maintain the mileage log automatically. Clockspot can support the time-record side: clock events, job/location context, and GPS context when enabled, but it is not a mileage-log system.