Tennessee Mileage Reimbursement 2026: The Federal Figure

Tennessee's travel regulations do not name a cents-per-mile figure of their own. They hand the federal business rate to state travelers, and the rate program published beside the policy keeps a running record: 47 cents a mile from August 2011 to January 2022, then 62.5, 65.5, 67 and 70 cents as the federal figure moved, and the current federal figure since July 2026.

The first decade is the exception. The state held 47 cents while the federal business figure moved around it, so the adoption dates from 2022 rather than from the policy's origin, and the years since are the ones that match the federal calendar step for step.

The Commissioner of Finance and Administration establishes and maintains the maximum rates, so the figure sits in policy rather than in a statute. That is the arrangement most state travel rules use, and it is also why a traveler should check the date on any Tennessee figure rather than assume it moved with the calendar year.

The published rate program is the clearest evidence of what kind of rule this is. From 2022 onward it matches the federal business figure at every change, including the split in the middle of that year, which no state fiscal calendar would produce. It also steps straight from the 47 cents that ran to January 2022 to the second half of 2022, so the program does not record what applied to a trip in the first six months of that year.

Because the policy adopts the federal figure, 2027 needs no new Tennessee instrument. When the IRS publishes the next business rate, that is the Tennessee rate, exactly as the state rate became 76 cents on July 1, 2026 in the middle of a year.

A traveler planning a January 2027 trip can therefore treat the federal announcement as the Tennessee answer. The risk to plan around is a second mid-year change, which would split 2027 into two rates rather than delay one.

The travel policy governs state travelers, and nothing in it reaches a private payroll. Tennessee's statute book contains no general duty to reimburse an employee's business mileage, so a private claim follows the employer's written policy.

The state rate is still the most useful benchmark a Tennessee employer has, because a policy that adopts the federal figure and a policy that copies the state rate pay the same amount on the same day.

• Read the policy for the date it changes, then check the federal split for that year.
• Keep the log: a year with a mid-year change needs the date of every trip to be priced correctly.

The Tennessee Department of Finance and Administration publishes these figures. State employees traveling on official state business, whose maximum rates the Commissioner of Finance and Administration sets.

The amounts are the federal business rate because the policy adopts that figure; the rate program shows the same number moving at each federal change, including the mid-year one.

A workers' compensation notice from the Department of Labor and Workforce Development states the adoption in terms, which is where the year-by-year rate program comes from.

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.