In recognition of recent gasoline price increases, the Internal Revenue Service announced an increase in the optional standard mileage rate for the final 6 months of 2022. The IRS provided legal guidance on the new rates in IRS Announcement 2022-13 – Optional Standard Mileage Rates, issued today. (For travel from Jan. 1 through June 30, 2022, owner/agents will use the rates set forth in Notice 2022-03 2022 Standard Mileage Rates.)
For business expenses from January through June 2022, the standard mileage rate for transportation or travel expenses is 58.5 cents per mile. Starting July 1, 2022, the standard mileage rate for business travel will be 62.5 cents per mile, up 4 cents from the rate effective at the start of the year.
For those of you working with residents who are self-employed or who earn gig income from organizations such as Uber, Door Dash, Care.com, TaskRabbit, etc., this new mileage amount will be used when calculating net income from a business. Remember, residents may use actual automobile expenses or mileage, but not both.
For additional information about how to handle gig income, see our free FASTFacts – Ride-Hailing and Other Gig Income available on our Resources page. We also discuss gig income in the RBD OnDemand Training Annual Income & Verification of Income Basics and Advanced Income & Assets. Both of these classes include a comprehensive training workbook to be used as a reference tool, Frequently Asked Questions and an optional Knowledge Challenge to gauge interpretation of the training material.
For medical mileage from January through June 2022, the standard mileage rate is 18 cents per mile for use of an automobile for medical care. The new rate for deductible medical expenses (mileage to and from medical treatment for residents and mileage to and from treatment for assistance animals) will be 22 cents for the remainder of 2022, up 4 cents from the rate effective at the start of 2022. This means that the expense increases $4.00 for every 100 miles driven.
The 14 cents per mile rate for charitable organizations remains unchanged as it is set by statute.
The IRS normally updates the mileage rates once a year in the fall for the next calendar year. Midyear increases in the optional mileage rates are rare, the last time the IRS made such an increase was in 2011.
