The decode
The Internal Revenue Service raised the standard mileage rate for business driving to 76 cents a mile. The number is in Announcement 2026-11, carried in Internal Revenue Bulletin 2026-29, which is the weekly file where the agency publishes official guidance, dated July 13, 2026. The rate applies to expenses "paid or incurred for business, medical, or moving expense purposes on or after July 1, 2026."
It was 72.5 cents for the first half of your year, under the same agency's Notice 2026-10 (2026-4 I.R.B. 378). The change is 3.5 cents a mile, so for every thousand miles you drive after July 1 that is 35 dollars more you can deduct. Not 35 dollars back in your pocket. A deduction lowers the income you get taxed on, so what it is worth to you depends on your own rate. The announcement gives one reason: "This modification results from recent increases in the price of fuel."
Here is the part the video could not hold. Notice 2026-10 says the business standard mileage rate "cannot be used to claim an itemized deduction for unreimbursed employee travel expenses." If you are paid on a payroll, that is you, and it has been you since the 2017 law made that disallowance permanent. But the notice then names four kinds of employee who can still use the rate: military reservists, state or local government officials paid in whole or in part on a fee basis, certain performing artists, and eligible educators. Those four take it as an adjustment to total income on Schedule 1, not as an itemized deduction, which is why the disallowance never reaches them. If you are one of the four, you have been leaving this on the table.
Second thing the video does not carry. Notice 2026-10 also sets how much of the rate counts as depreciation: 35 cents per mile for 2026, against 33 cents for 2025. That is not a deduction you claim. It comes off your car's basis every year you use the standard rate and decides how much gain you report when you sell. If you drive a lot it will cost you more than 3.5 cents pays you.
Check the other two rates against your own year. Medical driving is 23.5 cents, up 3 cents from 20.5. Moving is the same 23.5 cents, but the moving deduction is gone for almost everyone, and probably for you: it survives only for active duty service members moving under military orders for a permanent change of station, and for certain intelligence community members who move after December 31, 2025. Charity driving did not move, at 14 cents, because it is fixed by statute at section 170(i) rather than reset each year.
The standard rate is also an option, not a requirement: you can instead deduct what the car actually cost you, but never both.
Also filed
You can now deduct up to $1,000 in cash giving without itemizing ($2,000 filing jointly), beginning with tax year 2026. Anything of $250 or more needs a written acknowledgment in your hands before you claim it. irs.gov
If you paid Trend Deploy, an online business program, a refund check is already in your mail. The Federal Trade Commission sent more than $672,000 across 9,419 checks on July 22, and you have to cash yours within 90 days. ftc.gov
Medicare Part D, which is the drug coverage you buy on top of Medicare, starts 2027 at a base of $41.33 a month, up 6% from $38.99. Your own premium seldom equals that number, but every plan is priced off it, so shop yours October 15 to December 7. cms.gov
New state by state wage floors for farm work took effect August 3, 2026. If you are paid for agricultural work, your state's new floor is in the rule and the wage table it points at. federalregister.gov
One thing to do this week
Open your mileage log and draw a line at July 1. Total each side as its own number, because one year now holds two rates and a single total gives back the difference. If an app counts your miles, open it and confirm it switched on the right day.
Educational only. Not financial advice.