Delaware Mileage Reimbursement 2026: 50 Cents Fixed by Statute

Chapter 71 of title 29 is called Transportation of State Employees, and §7102 is one sentence long: the authorized mileage rate for employees of the state, its agencies and departments is 50 cents per mile effective July 1, 2023.

That is a different mechanism from a rate the state copies from the IRS each year. A figure in the Code changes when the General Assembly amends it. Until then the figure stands, whatever the federal rate has done, which is why the two numbers diverged so far during 2026.

Section 7104(b) forbids a claim for miles traveled between the employee's place of residence or abode and the employee's principal place of employment. The exclusion is written into the section rather than left to an agency's judgment, so the first and last miles of an ordinary working day are not claimable miles in Delaware.

Section 7104(a) says what a claim has to contain: an itemized statement showing the number of miles traveled in the period, and that total must be the miles actually traveled in and about the business of the state. A round number without a record is not the measure the section names.

Section 7106 puts a penalty behind the rate. Whoever pays mileage above the rates prescribed in the chapter, on behalf of an agency, or files a claim or receives mileage above them, is subject to a fine of not less than $10 and not more than $100, and to imprisonment for up to 30 days on failure to pay the fine.

That is why an agency cannot quietly pay the federal figure instead. The chapter's rate is the ceiling the agency is held to, and a traveler who asks for the IRS rate is asking for something the section does not authorize.

Chapter 71 governs state employment. It creates no duty for a private employer and sets no rate one has to follow, so the policy the employer wrote decides the amount. Where that policy tracks the federal figure, a business mile prices at 72.5 cents per mile through June 30, 2026 and 76 cents per mile from July 1.

• Get the policy in writing before the trip, since the state figure binds state agencies only.
• Leave the home to work drive out of the claim, which is the habit the state rule also refuses.
• Keep the miles itemized, because a total with no record is the failure both a policy and a statute aim at.

The Delaware Office of Management and Budget publishes these figures. Employees of the State of Delaware, its agencies and departments, under chapter 71 of title 29 of the Delaware Code. The chapter governs state employment rather than a private payroll.

The date is the effective date the Code itself gives the figure, so a later travel date is still priced at 50 cents until an amendment changes the section.

A private claim is decided by the employer's policy, and where that policy follows the federal rate the trip prices at 72.5 cents per mile through June 30, 2026 and 76 cents per mile from July 1.

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.

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.