Mileage Reimbursement: 2026 IRS Rate and Apps That Log It

If your expense policy says "we reimburse at the IRS rate," your policy changed on July 1, 2026, whether or not anyone updated the system. The IRS set the 2026 business rate in December 2025, then raised it from July 1 because of fuel price increases, which means a single 2026 claim can need two rates. This page reads the IRS texts and the vendors' mileage documentation, all on October 27, 2026. We have not tested the apps.

For whom: a US employer or finance lead reimbursing employees who drive their own cars for work. Not for: a self-employed person deducting their own car costs; the rates are the same, but the accountable-plan rules below are about employers.

The 2026 rates

The split follows the date of the driving and of the allowance: the new rates apply to expenses incurred on or after July 1, 2026 and to allowances paid on or after that date for those expenses; the old rates still apply to driving before July 1, even if you reimburse it later.

Worked example. An employee drives 1,000 business miles in June and 1,000 in July and submits both in August. June's miles are reimbursed at 72.5 cents ($725); July's at 76 cents ($760). One rate for the whole claim is wrong in one direction or the other.

What an accountable plan needs

Under IRS Publication 463, a reimbursement stays out of the employee's wages when the plan has a business connection, the employee adequately accounts for the expense within a reasonable period, and any excess is returned. Accounting within 60 days and returning excess within 120 days are treated as reasonable. For car expenses, the record should show:

A tool that captures trips by GPS covers the miles, date and route; someone still has to enter the purpose.

What the apps do

So yes, Expensify tracks mileage, by GPS on mobile among four methods.

Our pick

Ramp, for a company that wants the July change handled without anyone remembering it: its page says government rates are applied automatically, and mileage sits in the same app as cards and reimbursements.

• Pick Expensify instead if you already run expenses there; on a Control workspace, turn on the auto-update of the government rate, or add the July 1 rate as a dated rate so June miles keep 72.5 cents.
• Pick Zoho Expense instead for teams that drive many short trips and forget to press Start: its automatic tracking logs rides in the background once the organization enables it.
• Whatever the tool, check one claim that spans June 30 and July 1 before trusting the rate table.

For the policy side, see accountable plan workflow.