The District sets a cap in its Code and defines the rate by reference to the federal travel bulletin, so the figure moves with the General Services Administration rather than with a local notice.
The District of Columbia pays 76 cents a mile for a privately owned vehicle on official travel on or after July 1, 2026, and 72.5 cents before it, because it publishes no figure of its own: the travel chapter of the District of Columbia Department of Human Resources adopts the federal travel rate. A section of the District of Columbia Code lets the Mayor set the rates by regulation and caps them at the federal travel maximum, and the travel chapter defines the rate as the one in the most recent Federal Travel Regulation bulletin or on the General Services Administration's site. The District moves when that federal figure moves. The chapter binds District government employees; no District law requires a private employer to reimburse mileage, so the written policy decides, and a policy built on the federal tax rate reads 72.5 cents per mile until July 1 and 76 cents per mile after it.
The District handles this differently from a state that publishes a table. Section 1-509 of the D.C. Code gives the Mayor power to establish rates and reimburse employees for privately owned automobiles and motorcycles used in the performance of official duties, and then limits the exercise of that power: the rates may not exceed the maximum prevailing rates in the federal travel regulations.
The cap is not the rate. The regulation supplies it. The District's travel chapter says the mileage rate is the rate published in the most recent Federal Travel Regulation bulletin, or the rate on the General Services Administration's site, which is why the District changed its figure on July 1, 2026 without publishing a notice of its own.
The same chapter settles a question that comes up in every reimbursement dispute. Parking fees, and bridge, road, ferry and tunnel charges, are reimbursable in addition to mileage. Repairs, depreciation, replacements, grease, oil, antifreeze, towing, fuel, insurance and state and local taxes are listed as not reimbursable when a personal vehicle is the authorized method of travel.
That list is the practical dividing line: the per-mile figure pays for the use of the car, and the costs of owning it stay with the owner. Anything the District charges a traveler to park or to cross is a separate line.
The chapter governs travel beyond fifty miles from the John A. Wilson Building, with the local travel sections covering the shorter journeys, and a question the chapter does not answer is decided by the federal travel regulations as a fallback. For a District employee the consequence is a single rule across agencies rather than an agency rate.
The District's rules are personnel rules for its own government. Nothing in section 1-509 or the travel chapter requires a private employer to reimburse mileage, so the written 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 District of Columbia Department of Human Resources publishes these figures. Employees under the Mayor's personnel authority who use a privately owned vehicle on official travel. The chapter is a personnel rule for the District government.
The District adopts the federal travel rate instead of printing one, so the figure in force is the one the most recent federal bulletin carries.
Travel within fifty miles of the Wilson Building is handled by the chapter's local travel sections, which is why the rate a District employee is paid depends on the trip as well as the date.
| Applies to | Amount |
|---|---|
| Travel from Jan 1, 2026 | 72.5 cents per mile |
| Travel from Jul 1, 2026 | 76 cents per mile |
Source: District of Columbia electronic personnel manual, chapter 40.
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 | The District's figure for this period was the federal travel rate, adopted through its travel regulation rather than set by the District. |
| July 1 – December 31, 2026 | 76 cents per mile | The federal travel rate moved on July 1, 2026, and the District's regulation follows that bulletin without a further notice. |
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 Mayor's power to set rates by regulation, the federal travel maximum as a cap, and the Council's 45-day review.
The definition of the mileage rate by reference to the federal bulletin, the fifty-mile scope, and the list of reimbursable and excluded costs.
The federal figure the District's regulation points at, 76 cents a mile for travel on or after July 1, 2026.
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 official travel in a privately owned vehicle on or after July 1, 2026, and 72.5 cents for travel from January 1 to June 30, which is the federal travel rate the District's travel chapter adopts.
It sets a ceiling rather than a figure. Section 1-509 of the D.C. Code caps the rates the Mayor may establish at the federal travel maximum, and the travel chapter then defines the rate as the one in the most recent federal bulletin.
Parking fees and bridge, road, ferry and tunnel charges sit on top of the mileage figure in the District's travel chapter, which lists repairs, depreciation, fuel, insurance and towing as not reimbursable.
No statute in the District imposes that duty. The travel chapter governs District government employees, so 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.