New Jersey Mileage Reimbursement 2026: 47 Cents a Mile

New Jersey does not put its travel rate in a regulation and leave it alone. The number lives in the general provisions of the annual Appropriations Act, in a clause that stands outside the 1943 statute governing mileage allowances: the rate of reimbursement for mileage allowed for employees traveling by personal automobile on official business is 47 cents per mile.

The Office of Management and Budget then restates that figure in a circular for the agencies that pay claims, and the circular is explicit that it acts on the act's authority rather than setting a rate of its own. It has read 47 cents, effective July 1, 2022, until further notice.

The two instruments have therefore held still through several federal changes, including the mid-year increase that took the federal business figure to 76 cents per mile on July 1, 2026.

The federal figure is the deduction the IRS allows and the benchmark most employer policies name. The New Jersey figure is what the state pays a civil servant who drives to a site, and a budget office sets it rather than a tax code.

A New Jersey employee claiming from a private employer should not price the claim at the state figure. A policy that names the federal rate pays the federal rate, and a policy that names another figure pays that one.

• The state figure binds state travel; it is not a floor under a private claim.
• A policy that tracks the federal rate splits 2026 at July 1, because the federal figure moved then.
• An approved personal-vehicle trip is the condition the state attaches to its own allowance, and an employer may attach its own.

Nothing in the New Jersey instruments points at the IRS rate, so 2027 does not arrive with the federal announcement in December. The 47 cents stands until an Appropriations Act or a circular changes it, and a state traveler's 2027 rate is whatever that instrument says when it is issued.

That is the visible difference between this state and one that adopts the federal figure by reference. The number is stable because it is legislated, and it lags on purpose rather than by oversight.

No New Jersey statute obliges a private employer to cover business mileage. The Wage Payment Law governs what an employer may withhold from wages and lists the exceptions, none of which is an expense; the travel circular governs state travelers. A private claim therefore follows the employer's written policy, including the rate it names, the window it sets and the records it asks for.

A policy that is silent on mileage is the case worth settling before a trip rather than after one, because nothing in the state's law will supply the missing term.

• Keep the travel date: a policy that follows the federal figure prices a June mile differently from a July one.
• Keep the approval and the trip log; a state-style prior approval is a sound habit even where no rule requires it.

The New Jersey Department of the Treasury, Office of Management and Budget publishes these figures. State employees traveling by personal vehicle on official business, once the department head has approved that mode of travel.

The figure is a legislative one. It comes from the general provisions of each year's Appropriations Act, and the circular restates it, which is how it can sit still while the federal rate moves.

The travel regulation requires the department head's prior approval before a personal vehicle is used, so the allowance is paid against a decision rather than automatically.

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.