The mileage rate moved in July

Most tax numbers are stable enough to learn once. The mileage rate is the one people set in January and forget, which is exactly why a mid-year change is a small trap. 2026 started at $0.725 a mile and moved to $0.76 on July 1. Only two other years split the rate like that, 2011 and 2022.

Expense never asks you to remember a number. Log a drive and the deduction follows the rate for the drive's date and type, so a January trip and an August trip price differently without you doing anything.

The table is public now too: every period since 2011, business, medical, moving, and charity, mid-year splits included. Charity has been fixed by statute at 14 cents for as long as anyone reading this has been filing, and the moving rate only applies to Armed Forces members moving under orders. Those are the kind of facts you want from a table rather than from an audit notice.

If you track mileage in a spreadsheet, this is the boring detail that makes the spreadsheet lie. The IRS publishes the numbers. The trick is applying the right one to the right date.