Missouri Mileage Reimbursement 2026: 70 Cents a Mile

Section 33.095 dates from 1969, when 10 cents a mile was a realistic allowance. The section still says a mileage allowance is computed at 10 cents a mile unless a higher rate is authorized by statute or by an order of the commissioner of administration.

That second clause is what makes 70 cents lawful. The order raises the figure and the statute supplies both the floor and the authority to lift it.

Under 1 CSR 10-11.010 the Office of Administration computes the state allowance at a rate that may not exceed the federal business rate. A state figure below that ceiling complies, which is how 70 cents stays in force while the ceiling reaches 76.

Missouri sets its rate for a fiscal year and revisits it at the start of the next one. The regulation adds that a change to the maximum takes effect on July 1 of the year the federal rate changes, so the state figure moves in July rather than in January. The federal increase on July 1, 2026 fell inside the current window, so the state column stayed at 70 while the federal column moved to 76.

A state travel claim that quotes the federal rate for the second half of 2026 is 6 cents a mile too high.

Section 33.095 binds state and county payrolls. It says nothing about a private employer, and Missouri publishes no private mileage rate, so the employer's policy decides.

The 10-cent base is worth knowing because it shows how far a statutory figure can sit from the rate a state actually pays. It is not a private-employer minimum.

• Ask the payroll office which figure it uses, since a policy that quotes only the statute could pay 10 cents.
• Keep each claim inside one fiscal year, so a July increase is not applied to miles driven in the spring.
• Compare the rate the policy names with the 70 cents the state pays its own travelers, and ask why they differ.

The Missouri Office of Administration publishes these figures. It covers state officers and employees, and the counties outside first-class charter counties that set a rate under it. A private employer is outside the order.

The 70-cent figure is held for two fiscal years, so the federal increase of July 1, 2026 did not change what a state traveler is paid.

The fleet rate caps a traveler who declined an available state vehicle. It is the state's average operating cost for a mid-size sedan, not a second mileage figure for ordinary travel.

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.