Connecticut's state rate follows the federal travel bulletin and lands through a bargaining-unit notice, so the effective date is late January and late July rather than the first of each half-year.
Connecticut pays 76 cents a mile for travel in a personally owned vehicle on or after July 29, 2026, up from 72.5 cents for travel on or after January 29, 2026, under a rate set by the Connecticut Office of Policy and Management. The figure is not the IRS rate: it is the federally published automobile rate the General Services Administration sets for its own travelers, and it reaches Connecticut employees through a General Notice from the Office of Policy and Management, because many state collective bargaining agreements tie the mileage rate to a revision of that federal figure within 30 days. Travel between January 1 and January 28, 2026 is still paid at the older rate. No Connecticut statute obliges a private employer to reimburse mileage, so a private claim follows the written policy, and a policy that follows the tax rate reads 72.5 cents per mile for the first half of 2026 and 76 cents per mile for the second.
Two federal numbers are published each year and they are easy to confuse. The IRS sets the standard mileage rate a taxpayer may deduct or an employer may pay tax-free. The General Services Administration sets the mileage rate for federal travel, in a bulletin of its own, on a slightly different schedule.
Connecticut's Office of the State Comptroller ties the state figure to the second one. Its memoranda quote the bulletin by number: one revision took the federal figure from 70 cents to 72.5 cents, and a later one took it from 72.5 cents to 76 cents. The state rate then follows the bulletin rather than the tax notice.
The rate does not change on January 1 or July 1. Many state collective bargaining agreements make the mileage rate adjustable within 30 days of a revision to the federal travel rate, and the Office of Policy and Management's Office of Labor Relations issues the resulting General Notice. The date on the notice is the date travel starts being paid the new figure.
That leaves a gap at the front of each half-year. Travel from January 1 to January 28, 2026 is paid 70 cents a mile, the figure in force before the notice, even though the federal rate had already moved to 72.5; travel from July 1 to July 28, 2026 is paid 72.5 cents rather than 76. A claim that straddles a notice date is split at the notice, not at the federal effective date.
| Travel date | State rate | What set it |
|---|---|---|
| On or after January 29, 2026 | 72.5 cents per mile | General Notice 2026-01, following the federal travel bulletin |
| On or after July 29, 2026 | 76 cents per mile | General Notice 2026-19, following the later federal bulletin |
Office of the State Comptroller memoranda 2026-03 and 2026-29, with the Office of Policy and Management notices they cite.
The memoranda name the employees the new rate applies to: non-represented staff, and a list of bargaining units that runs from NP-2 through NP-8 and P-1 through P-8. The list matters because a unit outside it keeps whatever its own agreement says, and the agreement, not the notice, is the instrument that binds it.
For an employee, the question is therefore not only what the state rate is but which instrument sets the rate for the unit they are in. The notice is the answer for the units it names; for anyone else the contract is.
Connecticut regulates how wages are paid and when, and it sets no mileage figure for private employment. The employer's policy decides, and where that policy follows the federal tax rate the trip prices at 72.5 cents per mile through June 30, 2026 and 76 cents per mile from July 1.
The Connecticut Office of Policy and Management publishes these figures. Non-represented state employees and the bargaining units the notices name. The notices state a rate for official state business and nothing about a private payroll.
The dates are notice dates. Travel in the first four weeks of either half-year is paid the previous figure, which is the effect of the 30-day adjustment clause the agreements carry.
The notice tracks the federal travel rate, while a private policy usually tracks the federal tax rate. In 2026 both landed on the same two figures, 72.5 cents per mile and 76 cents per mile, with different calendars.
| Applies to | Amount |
|---|---|
| Travel on or after Jan 29, 2026 | 72.5 cents per mile |
| Travel on or after Jul 29, 2026 | 76 cents per mile |
Source: Connecticut Office of the State Comptroller: travel reimbursement.
The IRS moved the business standard mileage rate mid-year, so a 2026 trip prices by its date. This is the benchmark an employer's rate method usually follows.
| Period | Federal business rate | What it means for a claim here |
|---|---|---|
| January 1 – June 30, 2026 | 72.5 cents per mile | Connecticut's state figure for this period was this number, taken from the federal travel bulletin rather than from a state schedule. |
| July 1 – December 31, 2026 | 76 cents per mile | The state figure reached this rate on July 29, 2026, four weeks after the federal figure itself moved. |
Both 2026 federal periods, and how each one reaches this state.
The IRS has not published a standard mileage rate for 2027. Until it does, two things decide what a trip pays: the year you drove it and the date within that year. A 2026 trip pays 72.5 cents per mile through June 30 and 76 cents per mile from July 1. Miles driven from January 1, 2027 will use whatever figure the IRS publishes next.
The next year's rate has arrived in December in each of the last nine years, between December 14 and December 31. An announcement is not always the last word. The IRS raised the 2026 figure on July 1, halfway through the year, so a 2027 claim may need two rate periods.
A state that publishes a rate for its own travelers follows its own calendar, so it can publish the next period before the IRS does. A private employer's rate changes when its own policy changes, or when the benchmark that policy follows moves. It does not change because the calendar year turns.
The January 2026 notice: the federal bulletin, the 70 to 72.5 cent move, and the January 29 effective date.
The July 2026 notice: 72.5 to 76 cents, the bargaining units it covers, and the July 29 effective date.
The travel program the mileage rate sits inside.
The announcement that set the federal business rate for that period.
The announcement that set the federal business rate for that period.
76 cents a mile for travel in a personally owned vehicle on or after July 29, 2026, and 72.5 cents for travel on or after January 29, 2026. Travel in the first four weeks of either half-year is paid the figure the previous notice set: 70 cents in January, 72.5 cents in July.
It is the federal rate, but the travel one: the Office of the State Comptroller's memorandum quotes the General Services Administration's bulletin for privately owned automobiles, and the notice that changes the state figure follows that bulletin rather than the tax notice.
Because the change runs through the bargaining agreements, which adjust the rate within 30 days of a federal revision, and through the General Notice the Office of Labor Relations issues afterwards. The date on the notice is when travel starts being paid the new figure.
Connecticut sets no private-employer mileage rate, and the state notices name state employees and their bargaining units. A private claim follows the employer's written policy.
Only if the rate you are paid follows the federal figure: trips through June 30, 2026 price at 72.5 cents per mile and trips from July 1 at 76 cents per mile. A rate the employer sets on its own applies to the whole year, and a statutory duty is owed either way.
Explore official tax authority rate tables, compliance guides, and printable mileage log templates.