Miles to Go

Publication Date
9/27/2017

If you use your car when traveling on MIT business—to attend a conference, meeting, or other related activity—you can be reimbursed for using your personal automobile based on miles traveled.
 

looking through car mirror on the road

VPF uses the Standard Mileage rates—which are set each calendar year by the IRS—for all mileage reimbursements. Follow these steps as outlined on the VPF website page Report Travel Expenses (Step #5) to file for this reimbursement.
 
If you are taking a trip that includes expenses in addition to mileage (e.g., hotels and meals), you should file for mileage reimbursement as part of your Travel Expense Report. In Concur, choose expense type: “Mileage.” Enter the addresses of your route. Concur will show the miles traveled and calculate the expense based on IRS rates. You can choose “Round Trip” and the entire trip will be mapped and calculated. And if your trip has more than one destination (e.g., Cambridge-Providence-Worcester-Cambridge) just enter the addresses of your journey, and Concur will calculate the entire trip.
 
If you have no other travel expenses other than mileage, you can also use the eRFP Reimbursements option on Atlas. See Request a Reimbursement on the VPF website.
 
The IRS rate changes every January and is based on an annual study of the fixed and variable costs to operate an automobile. In most cases the rate is set for an entire year; however, when there are significant fluctuations in gasoline prices, the IRS may make a mid-year adjustment. In the last ten years, the rate has ranged from a low of 48.5 cents per mile to a high of 58.5 cents per mile.
 
VPF posts the new IRS rates on the VPF website and updates them in Concur as soon as they are released.
 
VPF will only reimburse you when you use your personal car based on miles traveled, and will not accept a receipt for gasoline purchased for reimbursement.
 
(Note: If you rent a car while on MIT business, the opposite is true. You should keep gasoline receipts and include gas in your travel expense report.)