Kansas Mileage Reimbursement 2026: The Lowest of Three Figures

Kansas does not adopt the federal rate, and it does not set a rate freely either. The statute gives the state a ceiling and identifies three candidates: the rate the Internal Revenue Service allows, the rate used in preparing the governor's budget report, and any revision of that rate the legislature directs in an appropriation act. The lowest of the three is the most the state may pay.

The 2026 rate shows how that works in practice. The IRS raised its figure to 72.5 cents on January 1, 2026, but the budget for the fiscal year had been built on 70 cents. The Department of Administration's informational circular of December 30, 2025 says so in one paragraph: to comply with the statute, the state rates are limited to the cost indices in the governor's budget for the fiscal year.

One circular carries every vehicle class for the year. It took effect on January 1, 2026, and it reads as a schedule rather than a single number.

• The airplane figure is measured in air miles rather than highway miles, so a claim is priced on the distance flown.
• The moving rate is a separate line rather than a discount on the automobile figure.
• The circular superseded an earlier one for the same fiscal year, which is how the state corrects a rate without waiting for a new budget.

A cap tied to a budget does not move when the IRS moves. The federal rate went to 76 cents on July 1, 2026, and the statute's first candidate rose with it, but the second candidate — the figure in the governor's budget — stayed where the fiscal year had put it, and no appropriation act directed a higher figure.

The circular ends by saying the Department of Administration and the Division of Budget will monitor inflation, fuel prices and IRS announcements to consider whether further adjustments are available under the statute. That sentence is the honest description of a rate that can lag by design: the authority to look is there, and the ceiling is not.

Nothing in Kansas Statutes Annotated 75-3203a reaches a private payroll. The statute governs what the state may pay its own travelers, and the circular states the rates for state claims. A private employer owes what its written policy says, and where that policy follows the federal figure the year splits: 72.5 cents per mile for miles driven through June 30, 2026, and 76 cents per mile from July 1.

• Do not read the state's 70 cents as a Kansas benchmark: it is a budget figure under a statutory ceiling, not a market rate.
• Keep the travel date, because the federal rate moved in July and the state figure did not.
• Treat the 70 cents as a budget figure rather than a benchmark: a Kansas policy may pay more, and nothing in the statute stops it.

The Kansas Department of Administration publishes these figures. State agencies and the travelers they reimburse. The circular states rates for state claims and says nothing about a private payroll.

The automobile figure is lower than the federal rate for the same months, and the statute is why: the rate may not exceed the lowest of three figures, one of which is fixed when the budget is prepared.

The airplane figure is per air mile, so it is not comparable with a road figure even when the aircraft is the same.

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.