Rhode Island Mileage Reimbursement 2026: A Rate by Memorandum

Rhode Island does not publish a rate schedule with a year on it. Each federal change produces a short memorandum from the Office of Accounts and Control, signed by the Associate Controller for Operations, which states the old figure, the new one and the date the new one starts.

2026 needed two. The January memorandum moved the rate from 70 cents to 72.5 cents, and the July memorandum moved it to 76 cents after the IRS raised its figure mid-year. Both say the same thing about why. The state rate is adjusted according to the rate the IRS sets.

Both memoranda add a sentence that most state rate notices leave out. The figure that pays an employee also pays a volunteer who drives on state business, at the same cents per mile and from the same date.

That matters to an organization that runs on unpaid help. The rate it owes a volunteer is published by the state's accounting office rather than negotiated, and it moves on the federal calendar.

Because the memorandum ties the figure to the IRS rate, a 2027 question can be answered as a rule now. The next federal change produces the next Rhode Island figure, and the date in the memorandum is the date a trip has to fall after to be paid at it.

What an employee cannot get from Rhode Island is a figure in advance. The state republishes rather than forecasts, so the number appears when the memorandum does.

The memoranda bind state employees. Rhode Island's wage statutes address what must be paid as wages, and no provision there requires a private employer to reimburse a driving expense.

A private claim follows the employer's written policy. The state memorandum is the benchmark a Rhode Island policy usually names, and copying it means the policy moves when the IRS moves.

• Read the memorandum date, because two rates applied in 2026.
• If the driver is a volunteer, check the same sentence before assuming a lower rate applies.

The Office of Accounts and Control publishes these figures. State employees and volunteers who use a personally owned vehicle on state business.

Each figure arrives in its own memorandum, and every memorandum repeats that the state rate is adjusted according to the IRS rate.

The same sentence covers volunteers driving on state business, so an unpaid driver is paid at the state figure.

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.