IRS Standard Mileage Rate by Year, 2000–2026

01 Introduction

The 2026 IRS business standard mileage rate is 72.5 cents per mile, more than double the 32.5-cent rate in 2000. Every year, the IRS sets a standard mileage rate that taxpayers can use as an optional shortcut for calculating the cost of operating a vehicle, instead of tracking every individual expense. It's one of the most direct, government-published answers to "what does a mile of driving actually cost," updated annually since well before most of the data on this site existed. This article covers the complete rate history back to 2000, how the rate is set, and why it has changed mid-year on only three occasions in that span.

For the fuel-only cost of driving by vehicle class, see fuel cost per mile by vehicle class, a useful contrast, since the IRS business rate below bundles in far more than just fuel.

02 Who Uses the Standard Mileage Rate

Standard mileage rates apply to several distinct situations, each with its own rules:

• Business use: business owners and independent contractors with business income may deduct business mileage using the business rate. Employers may also use it to reimburse employee business mileage tax-free, up to the IRS rate, without requiring the employee to document individual expenses.
• Charitable use: taxpayers who itemize deductions may use the charity rate as part of the charitable-giving deduction, similar to an in-kind donation.
• Medical and moving use: prior to 2018, taxpayers could use this rate for medical travel and unreimbursed moving expenses. The moving-expense deduction was eliminated starting in 2018 (it remains available only to certain Armed Forces members relocating under military orders); the medical-travel use continues.
• Government travel: the U.S. General Services Administration's privately-owned-automobile reimbursement rate for federal employee travel is statutorily required to track the IRS business rate.

03 Full Rate History, 2000–2026

The table below shows every rate change since 2000, in cents per mile. Three years (2005, 2011, and 2022) had a rate change partway through the year, shown as two rows.

Over the full 26-year span, the business rate rose from 32.5 to 72.5 cents per mile, a 123% increase. The charity rate, fixed in statute since the Taxpayer Relief Act of 1997, has not moved at all in that time.

04 How the Rate Is Set

The business and medical/moving rates are not set arbitrarily. Each year, the IRS commissions an independent contractor to study the fixed and variable costs of operating an automobile, and the rate is based on that study's results.

• Business rate: includes both fixed costs (insurance, depreciation) and variable costs (fuel, tires, brakes, and other components) of operating a vehicle: a full cost-per-mile figure, not just fuel.
• Medical/moving rate: includes only variable costs, which is why it runs well below the business rate every year in the table above.
• Charity rate: set directly by statute (Internal Revenue Code §170(i)), not by the annual cost study, which is exactly why it hasn't moved since 1998 while the other two rates change almost every year.

None of the standard mileage rates include tolls or parking costs, which taxpayers may deduct separately in addition to the mileage rate.

05 How Much of the Rate Is Actually Fuel?

The 2026 business rate is 72.5¢ per mile. But how much of that is actually fuel, versus the insurance, depreciation, and maintenance the IRS's cost study also folds in? Using this site's own fuel-only cost per mile figure (13.9¢ per mile at the 23.7 MPG on-road light-duty fleet average), the fuel-only share works out to only about 19% of the business rate. The remaining 81%, or roughly 59¢ per mile, is non-fuel cost: insurance, depreciation, tires, brakes, and other fixed and variable expenses of owning and running a vehicle.

06 Why the Rate Changes Mid-Year

Since 2000, the IRS has adjusted the business and medical/moving rates mid-year on exactly three occasions: the last four months of 2005, the second half of 2011, and the second half of 2022. In announcing all three changes, the IRS specifically cited "recent increases in the price of fuel" as the reason.

The 2022 mid-year jump (58.5¢ to 62.5¢, a 4-cent increase) lines up with the same historic gas-price run-up documented in gas prices by year: 2022 was the highest annual average gasoline price on record. The IRS's own cost study responded to that spike by raising the rate mid-cycle rather than waiting for the next annual update, exactly as it had in 2005 (following Hurricane Katrina-era price spikes) and 2011 (a run-up in crude oil prices).

07 Data Sources

Every figure in this article comes from a U.S. government or congressional source. No proprietary, estimated, or third-party data was used.

1. Congressional Research Service. "Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Standard Mileage Rates," IN12320, updated February 17, 2026. Authors: Anthony A. Cilluffo, Brendan McDermott, Analysts in Public Finance. crsreports.congress.gov
2. Internal Revenue Service. Annual Revenue Procedures, Notices, and Announcements setting standard mileage rates, 1999–2026 (cited individually in the rate history table above).
3. Internal Revenue Code §170(i). Statutory charitable mileage rate.
4. Taxpayer Relief Act of 1997 (P.L. 105-34). Set the current 14-cent charitable rate, effective 1998.
5. Katrina Emergency Tax Relief Act of 2005 (P.L. 109-73). Temporary relief-specific mileage rate provision.