North Carolina Mileage Reimbursement 2026: The IRS Rate, by Statute

The statute does not name a figure that someone revises each year. It adopts the business standard mileage rate the Internal Revenue Service sets, adds the tolls the traveler actually paid, and leaves the amount to change whenever the federal rate changes.

The design answers the question directly. North Carolina's travel rate is the federal rate on the date of the trip, so no state publication has to be amended when the Internal Revenue Service moves the figure.

The statute covers state departments, institutions and agencies that pay travel from funds deposited with the State Treasurer, so it sets nothing for a private payroll. A private claim follows the employer's written policy, and most policies take the federal business rate, which is 72.5 cents per mile through June 30, 2026 and 76 cents per mile from July 1.

The 25-cent line is worth reading before you quote a state figure in a private dispute. It exists to stop an old statute from inheriting a modern rate, and it shows that a rate written by reference is not a number the state stands behind on its own.

• Quote G.S. 138-6 rather than a state rate card, because the statute is what the employer would have to answer.
• Write down the day the travel period ended, since the 30-day clock runs from that date and not from the first mile.
• List tolls as their own item, because the statute pays them beside the mileage rather than inside it.

The Office of State Budget and Management publishes these figures. It binds state departments, institutions and agencies that pay travel from funds deposited with the State Treasurer. The rate does not reach a private employer.

The figure is the federal business rate by reference, so the July increase reached state travel without a new statute, a rule or a review.

A private claim sits outside the statute. Its figure comes from the employer's policy, usually the same federal rate the state pays its own travelers.

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.