72.5 cents a mile for business miles driven January 1 through June 30, and 76 cents for miles driven July 1 through December 31. Which one applies depends on the day you drove, not on the year you file.
Read from the IRS on 2026-10-13. This page states the rates and what they mean arithmetically. It is not tax advice.
| Miles driven | Business | Medical or military moving | Charitable |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jan 1 – Jun 30, 2026 | 72.5¢ | 20.5¢ | 14¢ |
| Jul 1 – Dec 31, 2026 | 76¢ | 23.5¢ | 14¢ |
| Change on July 1 | +3.5¢ | +3¢ | no change |
Source: Internal Revenue Service, Standard mileage rates, read 2026-10-13. The first-half figures were announced in IR-2025-128 and set out in Notice 2026-10; the second-half figures in IR-2026-29. The charitable rate is fixed by statute rather than set annually by the IRS, which is why it did not move.
The rate attaches to the date of the trip. A 100-mile working day on June 29 is worth $72.50 and the identical day on July 1 is worth $76.00. There is no blended annual rate, no weighting by filing date, and no choosing the better of the two.
So the practical consequence for anyone who drove in both halves of 2026 is a single extra number: the business mileage as at the end of June 30. Without it the split is a guess. With it, the arithmetic is two multiplications and an addition.
Most mileage calculators, spreadsheets and bookkeeping templates assume one rate per tax year, because until 2026 that was nearly always true. Run all of 2026 at one rate and the error is 3.5 cents on every mile that belongs to the other half.
| Miles, Jan–Jun | Miles, Jul–Dec | Correct | All at 72.5¢ | All at 76¢ |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5,000 | 5,000 | $7,425.00 | $7,250.00 | $7,600.00 |
| 2,000 | 10,000 | $9,050.00 | $8,700.00 | $9,120.00 |
| 10,000 | 2,000 | $8,770.00 | $8,700.00 | $9,120.00 |
| 0 | 12,000 | $9,120.00 | $8,700.00 | $9,120.00 |
Each row is miles multiplied by the rate for its own period. The two right-hand columns are what a tool that asked only for a year and a total would have produced. On 10,000 miles in the wrong half, the gap is $350.
The deduction calculator on this site does the per-period version and shows both single-rate answers next to the correct one, so you can see which direction a tool is wrong in.
Mid-year changes are rare: the IRS normally sets the rate once, in the autumn, for the whole following year, and that is what Notice 2026-10 did. The rate was then revised upward with effect from July 1, published as IR-2026-29. The IRS page carries both sets of figures with their effective dates, which is the only authority worth relying on here.
What matters for your arithmetic is only the boundary and the two numbers. Why the number moved does not change which mile gets which rate.
The standard mileage rate exists as an alternative to adding up your actual vehicle operating costs, so it stands in for fuel, maintenance, tires, insurance and depreciation on the business share of your driving. Claiming the per-mile rate and also deducting those same costs for the same miles is counting the car twice.
Which method you are eligible to use, and which leaves you better off, depends on facts about you and your vehicle that no web page knows. That is a question for a tax professional, and nothing on this page answers it.
What the per-mile rate stands in for is a separate question from what the car actually costs you in cash, which is usually a different number. What a mile really costs works through that side.
Both, for the miles each one covers. The filing date has no effect on the rate. What matters is the date each mile was driven.
June 30 is the last day of the first period, so a June 30 mile is a 72.5 cent mile. July 1 is the first day of the second period at 76 cents.
Then that week has miles in both periods and they price differently. Split the week at the end of June 30 and treat each part on its own.
No. It stayed at 14 cents for both halves of 2026. The charitable figure is set in statute rather than adjusted by the IRS each year, so it does not move with fuel prices the way the business rate does.
No, but it is unusual. The IRS has revised a rate mid-year before, which is why the published rate table carries effective dates rather than one figure per year. Treat the dates as part of the rate rather than a footnote.
No. It reports the published rates with their source and shows what the arithmetic does. It does not tell you what you may claim, whether you qualify, or what you owe, and it is not endorsed by or affiliated with the IRS.
MileTruth stores each trip with its own date and prices it at the rate in force that day, so the June 30 boundary is applied as you go rather than reconstructed at tax time, and the report shows the periods broken out. It is not released yet and there is no store listing yet and nothing to buy. The calculators here are free either way.
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