How this instrument works
The arithmetic behind mileage reimbursement is deliberately simple: deduction equals miles driven multiplied by a rate per mile. There's no schedule, no compounding, no adjustment for the specific vehicle involved — this per-mile figure is a single national average meant to approximate the full cost of putting a mile on a car for business use, blending fuel, depreciation, insurance, tires, and routine maintenance into one number, rather than pricing fuel alone.
Rate per mile (USD) — verify current IRS rate at irs.gov defaults to $0.76, the confirmed IRS business-use standard mileage figure for miles driven from 2026-07-01 through 2026-12-31. That default is deliberately editable rather than hardcoded, because the IRS reviews this figure at least once a year and has, as this exact case shows, occasionally changed it mid-year too — $0.76 followed an earlier $0.725 that applied to the first half of 2026. Whatever number this page shows by default, check irs.gov/tax-professionals/standard-mileage-rates before relying on it for an actual tax return or reimbursement claim, since it can move without this page being updated the same day.
This instrument covers business-use mileage only — the figure self-employed people deduct on Schedule C, or that employers use to reimburse employees tax-free up to the standard amount. The IRS publishes separate, lower figures for medical and moving mileage, and a charitable-driving rate fixed by statute at 14 cents a mile that Congress, not the IRS, controls. None of those three other figures are what the default here represents; use the correct one for whichever category you're computing instead.
- Enter your business mileage into Miles driven — trips between job sites, client visits, and supply runs, not the daily commute to a regular workplace.
- Set Rate per mile (USD) — verify current IRS rate at irs.gov to your rate; it defaults to the confirmed $0.76 IRS business rate for the second half of 2026 — check irs.gov first.
- Read Mileage deduction (USD) — miles times rate, computed exactly, rounded to the cent.
- Re-run the same mileage at a different rate to compare an employer's policy rate against the full IRS-allowed figure, or to model the medical, moving, or charitable rates separately.
- Confirm which rate category applies before filing anything — this calculator's default is business-use mileage only, not medical, moving, or charitable mileage, which the IRS prices differently.
Worked example — 1,000 miles at the confirmed 2026H2 rate
Set Miles driven to 1,000 and leave Rate per mile (USD) — verify current IRS rate at irs.gov at its default, $0.76 — the confirmed IRS business-use standard mileage figure for transportation expenses paid or incurred from 2026-07-01 through 2026-12-31. The calculator returns Mileage deduction (USD) of exactly $760.00, with nothing rounded off along the way.
That $760 stands in for everything those 1,000 business miles cost to drive, not fuel alone — depreciation, insurance, tires, and routine maintenance are all folded into the single per-mile figure. A self-employed driver would carry that $760 onto Schedule C as a deduction; an employee reimbursed at or below the same standard rate receives it tax-free, with a mileage log as the only required record. Drive a full year of roughly 12,000 business miles at the same figure instead, and the same formula returns $9,120.00.
Questions
What is the current IRS standard mileage rate?
As of this writing, $0.76 per mile for business use, covering transportation expenses paid or incurred from 2026-07-01 through 2026-12-31 — a mid-year increase from the $0.725 rate that applied to the first half of 2026. Rates change at least annually and occasionally mid-year when fuel costs move sharply, so verify the current figure at irs.gov/tax-professionals/standard-mileage-rates before relying on the default shown here, rather than treating $0.76 as a permanent fact.
Does this rate apply to medical, moving, or charitable driving too?
No. This calculator's default figure is the business-use standard mileage rate only. The IRS publishes a separate, lower figure for medical and moving mileage (23.5 cents per mile as of the second half of 2026), and the charitable-driving rate is fixed by statute at 14 cents a mile — set by Congress, not the IRS, and unchanged for years. Swap in the correct number for whichever category actually applies before using the result.
What miles actually count as business mileage?
Miles driven for business purposes: client visits, deliveries, trips between job sites, supply runs. The commute between home and a regular workplace never counts as business mileage, even for someone self-employed who works from a home office some days — that drive is treated as personal, not business, regardless of who's driving or why.
Is mileage reimbursement taxed as income?
Not if an employer reimburses at or below the current IRS standard rate and the employee keeps a mileage log — that portion is tax-free to the employee. Anything paid above that figure becomes taxable wages instead. Self-employed people aren't reimbursed in this sense; they deduct standard-rate business miles directly against income on Schedule C.
Why is the standard rate higher than what gas alone would cost?
Because it was never meant to price gas alone. The IRS rate blends average per-mile costs across fuel, depreciation, insurance, tires, and maintenance into a single figure, so it approximates the full cost of putting business miles on a vehicle — which is why it looks generous next to a rough gas-only estimate, and why it applies the same way to gasoline, diesel, hybrid, and electric vehicles alike.
Why is the rate here editable instead of a fixed number?
Because the IRS standard mileage rate genuinely changes — usually once a year, but sometimes mid-year, as the jump from $0.725 to $0.76 partway through 2026 illustrates. Hardcoding a single figure into this calculator would go stale the next time the IRS updates it. The editable Rate per mile (USD) — verify current IRS rate at irs.gov field lets the default track the most recently confirmed number while still letting you swap in your employer's own policy figure, a prior year's number, or any hypothetical value you want to test.
References
Read this first: This instrument shows arithmetic, not advice. Real offers add fees, taxes and terms that vary by lender and place — verify the figures against your actual paperwork before deciding anything.