Mississippi Mileage Reimbursement 2026: A Rate That Points Elsewhere

Section 25-3-41(1) does not print a figure. It says that an officer or employee required to travel on official business receives, for each mile actually and necessarily traveled in a privately owned automobile or other privately owned motor vehicle, the mileage reimbursement rate allowable to federal employees for the use of a privately owned vehicle while on official travel.

That construction has a consequence a schedule does not: the state figure cannot go stale in the way a statute figure can, and it also cannot be changed by an agency circular. When the federal rate moved twice in 2026, the Mississippi rate moved with it, on the federal dates.

The federal rate has two tiers, and Mississippi inherits both: a full figure where a privately owned vehicle was authorized or no government vehicle was available, and a much lower figure where a state vehicle was available and the traveler used a personal car anyway. The state's own travel guidance lists both columns.

For travel from January 1, 2026 the full figure was 72.5 cents a mile and the reduced figure 20.5 cents per mile; from July 1, 2026 they became 76 cents per mile and 23.5 cents.

Subsection (2) sets a different figure for local government: an officer or employee of a county or municipality receives 20 cents a mile for travel in a privately owned motor vehicle. The governing body may authorize an increase, but not above the state rate in subsection (1), which is the only place the two tracks meet.

Subsection (3) answers a question that comes up on every group trip. Where two or more officers or employees travel in one privately owned vehicle, one allowance at the authorized rate is paid for that trip, not one per passenger.

• State employee: the federal employee rate, both tiers.
• County or municipal employee: 20 cents a mile, unless the governing body raises it as far as the state figure.
• Shared vehicle: one allowance per mile for the trip.

The statutory rate covers public employment. Mississippi sets no private-employer figure, so a private claim follows the written policy, and a policy built on the federal rate reads 72.5 cents per mile for miles driven through June 30, 2026 and 76 cents per mile from July 1.

• The criminal penalty in §25-3-45 applies to public travel claims, not to a private employer's policy.
• Mileage between a regular work site and home is not reimbursed under the state guidance, and a private policy usually draws the same line.
• If a state vehicle was available, the reduced tier is the figure the state pays, so a comparison with the full rate overstates the claim.

The Mississippi Department of Finance and Administration publishes these figures. State officers and employees traveling on official business, and the agencies that reimburse them. County and municipal employees are on a separate track in the same section.

The figure is the federal employee rate by statute, so it changes when the federal rate changes and not when an agency decides to change it.

The reduced tier applies where a state vehicle was available, which is the same condition the federal schedule uses.

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.