Ohio Mileage Reimbursement 2026: 58 Cents, With a 45-Cent Floor

The rule does not name an amount. It gives the budget director a range, no lower than 45 cents a mile and no higher than the IRS business standard rate, and requires a review at least once a year. Whatever the director publishes inside that range is what state agencies pay.

Because the federal figure is only a ceiling, Ohio can publish 58 cents and still comply with its own rule.

Ohio paid 58 cents a mile at every point in 2026. The October 1, 2025 review kept that figure, and the July 1, 2026 review kept it again. Against the federal 72.5 cents in the first half and 76 in the second, the state rate ran 14.5 and 18 cents lower.

Ohio's rule also calculates a commute, and that calculation matters as much as the rate. The state does not reimburse mileage between home and the assigned work location, and it pays a trip to a different location only for the distance from home to that location minus the normal commute.

• Home to the assigned work location: not reimbursable.
• Home to an alternate work location: the distance from home to that location, less the normal commute.
• One claimant per vehicle, even when several state agents travel together.
• Ohio tells agencies to use a fleet vehicle for official travel whenever possible.
• DAS restrictions on mileage reimbursement under ORC 125.832 still apply.

Ohio Administrative Code 126-1-02 defines a state agency and a state agent, and a private employer is neither. Ohio sets no mileage rate for private employment, so a private claim pays what the employer's written policy says, and the figure most policies adopt is the federal business rate. That rate is 72.5 cents per mile through June 30, 2026 and 76 cents per mile from July 1.

Ohio's 58 cents also shows what the state decided a business mile is worth for its own travelers. A private policy that pays less than that chooses to.

• Keep the policy and the rate it names, because Ohio supplies neither for a private claim.
• Date each trip, since a policy that follows the federal figure changed its amount on July 1.
• Leave out the home-to-work commute; a trip to another site is the part that belongs in the claim.

The Ohio Office of Budget and Management publishes these figures. State agencies reimbursing a state agent who drives a privately owned vehicle on official state business. It does not reach a private employer.

The rule took effect on November 13, 2025 and still sets a range rather than an amount. The published figure is the operative one, and the office dates a memo at each review.

Nothing in the rule requires the figure to follow the federal rate, so the gap between 58 cents and the federal amount is a policy choice rather than a missed update. A private employer is outside the rule entirely.

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.