Key Findings
  • The 2026 IRS business standard mileage rate is 72.5 cents per mile, more than double the 32.5 cents rate in 2000.
  • The charitable mileage rate has been fixed by statute at 14 cents per mile since 1998, unchanged for 28 straight years, even as the business rate has moved almost every year.
  • The IRS has made a mid-year rate change only three times since 2000 (2005, 2011, 2022), and in each case cited "recent increases in the price of fuel" as the reason.
  • The business rate covers all costs of operating a vehicle: fuel, insurance, depreciation, tires, and maintenance, not just fuel, which is why it runs far higher than a pure fuel-cost-per-mile figure.
Source: Congressional Research Service, "Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Standard Mileage Rates," IN12320, updated February 17, 2026, using official IRS Revenue Procedures and Notices.
Contents
  1. Introduction
  2. Who Uses the Standard Mileage Rate
  3. Full Rate History, 2000–2026
  4. How the Rate Is Set
  5. How Much of the Rate Is Actually Fuel?
  6. Why the Rate Changes Mid-Year
  7. Data Sources

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.

Congressional Research Service, "Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Standard Mileage Rates," IN12320, updated February 17, 2026

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:

Congressional Research Service, IN12320 (Feb. 17, 2026)
  • 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. Starting in 2018 the moving-expense deduction and the itemized unreimbursed employee travel deduction that relied on these rates are no longer available; CRS notes that certain taxpayers, notably members of the Armed Forces, may use the standard mileage rates in other situations.
  • 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.
Congressional Research Service, IN12320 (Feb. 17, 2026), citing Tax Cuts and Jobs Act changes effective 2018
Not everyone can use it. Since 2018, only taxpayers with business income can claim a mileage deduction this way. The old itemized "unreimbursed employee expense" and general moving-expense deductions that used to rely on this rate are gone. The rate also does not apply to the President, Members of Congress, or VA travel reimbursements to veterans and caregivers, which use separate rules.

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.

Congressional Research Service, IN12320 (Feb. 17, 2026), Table 1, sourced from official IRS Revenue Procedures, Notices, and Announcements
Fig. 1 IRS business standard mileage rate, 2000–2026 (year-end rate shown for years with a mid-year change). Hover a point for that year's exact rate. Congressional Research Service, IN12320 (Feb. 17, 2026), Table 1
YearBusinessCharityMedical/MovingIRS Reference
202672.5¢14¢20.5¢Notice 2026-10
202570¢14¢21¢Notice 2025-05
202467¢14¢21¢Notice 2024-08
202365.5¢14¢22¢Notice 2023-03
2022 (Jul 1–Dec 31)62.5¢14¢22¢Announcement 2022-13
2022 (Jan 1–Jun 30)58.5¢14¢18¢Notice 2022-03
202156¢14¢16¢Notice 2021-02
202057.5¢14¢17¢Notice 2020-05
201958¢14¢20¢Notice 2019-02
201854.5¢14¢18¢Notice 2018-03
201753.5¢14¢17¢Notice 2016-79
201654¢14¢19¢Notice 2016-01
201557.5¢14¢23¢Notice 2014-79
201456¢14¢23.5¢Notice 2013-80
201356.5¢14¢24¢Notice 2012-72
201255.5¢14¢23¢Notice 2012-01
2011 (Jul 1–Dec 31)55.5¢14¢23.5¢Announcement 2011-40
2011 (Jan 1–Jun 30)51¢14¢19¢Notice 2010-88
201050¢14¢16.5¢Rev. Proc. 2009-54
200955¢14¢24¢Rev. Proc. 2008-72
200850.5¢14¢19¢Rev. Proc. 2007-70
200748.5¢14¢20¢Rev. Proc. 2006-49
200644.5¢14¢*18¢Rev. Proc. 2005-78
2005 (Sep 1–Dec 31)48.5¢14¢*22¢Announcement 2005-71
2005 (Jan 1–Aug 31)40.5¢14¢*15¢Rev. Proc. 2004-64
200437.5¢14¢14¢Rev. Proc. 2003-76
200336¢14¢12¢Rev. Proc. 2002-61
200236.5¢14¢13¢Rev. Proc. 2001-54
200134.5¢14¢12¢Rev. Proc. 2000-48
200032.5¢14¢10¢Rev. Proc. 1999-38
Congressional Research Service, IN12320 (Feb. 17, 2026), Table 1. *The Katrina Emergency Tax Relief Act of 2005 (P.L. 109-73) provided a separate, temporarily higher charitable mileage rate specifically for Hurricane Katrina relief travel during this period; the 14-cent statutory rate shown continued to apply to charitable driving generally.

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.

Calculated: (72.5 − 32.5) / 32.5 = 123%. Congressional Research Service, IN12320 (Feb. 17, 2026)

Estimate your vehicle's driving cost using official EPA fuel economy data.

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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.

Congressional Research Service, IN12320 (Feb. 17, 2026)
  • 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.
Congressional Research Service, IN12320 (Feb. 17, 2026), citing Internal Revenue Code §170(i) and Taxpayer Relief Act of 1997 (P.L. 105-34)

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

Congressional Research Service, IN12320 (Feb. 17, 2026)

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 (13.1¢ per mile: the 2025 average regular gasoline price of $3.10 at the 23.7 MPG on-road light-duty fleet average), the fuel-only share works out to about 18% of the business rate. The remaining 82%, 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.

Calculated: $0.725 (2026 business rate, CRS IN12320) − $0.131 (fuel-only cost per mile: $3.097 EIA 2025 average regular gasoline ÷ 23.7 MPG on-road fleet average, DOE/ORNL Transportation Energy Data Book Table 4.3) = $0.594 non-fuel; $0.594 / $0.725 = 82.0%, rounded to 82%
A methodological note, disclosed rather than hidden. The IRS business rate comes from its own independent cost study using its own data and assumptions; this site's fuel-only figure comes from a 2025 gasoline price and a 2020 fleet fuel economy figure. The two aren't computed on an identical basis, so treat 82% as an order-of-magnitude estimate of the non-fuel share, not a precise decomposition of the IRS's own methodology.

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.

Congressional Research Service, IN12320 (Feb. 17, 2026)

The 2022 mid-year change raised the business rate from 58.5¢ to 62.5¢, a 4-cent increase. In 2022 the national annual average price of regular gasoline was $3.95, the highest annual average in the EIA series (see gas prices by year). The IRS also changed the rate mid-year in 2005 and 2011.

Congressional Research Service, IN12320 (Feb. 17, 2026); cross-referenced with EIA annual gasoline price data

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.
Disclaimer. This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute tax advice. Standard mileage rates and their eligibility rules change periodically; consult the IRS or a tax professional for guidance on your specific situation. All rates shown are as documented by the Congressional Research Service from official IRS guidance.
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