Mileage reimbursement is not required by law in Georgia for private-sector employees. No state statute forces a private employer to pay you back for driving your personal car on company business, and whether you get reimbursed depends on your employer’s policy or your employment contract. The one narrow exception is workers’ compensation: an injured employee traveling to a medical appointment tied to a workplace injury is entitled to mileage reimbursement. Georgia state employees have their own statutory right to reimbursement, and federal wage law creates an indirect floor that can force some private employers to pay up.
Why the Georgia Wage Payment Act Doesn’t Help
The Georgia Wage Payment Act, O.C.G.A. § 34-7-2, comes up often in mileage disputes, but it doesn’t reach the issue. The statute governs how and when employers must pay wages and salaries. It addresses payment methods and pay frequency, not expense reimbursement.1Justia. Georgia Code 34-7-2 – Payment of Wages by Certain Employers
If your employer promised reimbursement in an employment contract or a written policy and then refused to pay, your remedy is contract-based, not a wage claim. That distinction matters for how you’d pursue the money and what damages might be available. It also means that without a written promise, you generally have no legal claim at all against a Georgia private employer who declines to reimburse.
The Federal Minimum Wage Floor
Even without a Georgia mandate, federal law imposes a limit on how far an employer can push unreimbursed vehicle costs onto an employee. Under the Fair Labor Standards Act, employers must pay at least the federal minimum wage “free and clear.” If unreimbursed vehicle expenses effectively push an employee’s take-home pay below minimum wage in any workweek, the employer has violated the FLSA.2U.S. Department of Labor. Wage and Hour Division Opinion Letter FLSA2020-12
This comes up most with delivery drivers and field employees who log heavy miles on their own cars. The Department of Labor has confirmed that reimbursement at the IRS standard mileage rate is “per se reasonable” for FLSA purposes.3eCFR. 29 CFR 778.217 – Reimbursement for Expenses Employers paying that rate are safe from a minimum-wage challenge over vehicle costs. Employers paying nothing, or a small fraction of the IRS rate, need to run the math for their lowest-paid drivers every pay period.
Separately, reimbursements that meet 29 CFR § 778.217 are excluded from the “regular rate” used to calculate overtime. An employer who folds mileage into regular pay rather than treating it as a separate reimbursement can end up inflating overtime obligations without meaning to.3eCFR. 29 CFR 778.217 – Reimbursement for Expenses
What Private Employers Actually Pay
Because reimbursement is a matter of policy in Georgia, terms vary widely. Some employers match the IRS business standard mileage rate, which is 72.5 cents per mile for 2026, up 2.5 cents from 2025.4Internal Revenue Service. IRS Sets 2026 Business Standard Mileage Rate at 72.5 Cents per Mile, Up 2.5 Cents Others pay a flat monthly car allowance. Some pay nothing.
The IRS rate is a benchmark, not a legal minimum for private-sector Georgia employers. Paying below it violates no Georgia law. It reflects an annual study of both fixed costs (depreciation, insurance, registration) and variable costs (fuel, maintenance, tires),4Internal Revenue Service. IRS Sets 2026 Business Standard Mileage Rate at 72.5 Cents per Mile, Up 2.5 Cents which is why paying it out keeps employers on the right side of the FLSA and the IRS at once.
Before accepting a job that involves significant driving, get the reimbursement policy in writing. If it isn’t in your offer letter or handbook, ask. A verbal assurance from a hiring manager is not something you can enforce easily later.
If You Work for the State of Georgia
State employees have a statutory right that private-sector employees don’t. Under O.C.G.A. § 50-19-7, officers, officials, and employees of the executive, legislative, and judicial branches receive mileage reimbursement at the GSA rate when they drive a personal vehicle on state business, along with tolls and parking fees.5Justia. Georgia Code 50-19-7 – Mileage and Actual Travel Expenses for State Officials and Employees
The State Accounting Office administers the details through the Statewide Travel Policy. For travel on or after January 1, 2026, the policy uses two tiers. Tier 1 pays 72.5 cents per mile when a personal vehicle is the most practical option or no government vehicle is available. Tier 2 pays 20.5 cents per mile when a government vehicle was available and would have been more cost-effective, but the employee chose to drive a personal car anyway.6State Accounting Office. Statewide Accounting Policy and Procedure – Mileage Reimbursement Rate
Checking fleet availability before a trip is worth the two minutes it takes. The Tier 2 rate is roughly a quarter of Tier 1.
How Reimbursement Is Taxed
If your employer does reimburse you, whether the payment shows up on your W-2 depends on whether the arrangement is an “accountable plan” under 26 U.S.C. § 62(c). An accountable plan requires three things: a business connection for the expense, adequate substantiation submitted within a reasonable time, and return of any amount that exceeds substantiated expenses.7Internal Revenue Service. Nonresident Aliens and the Accountable Plan Rules8Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 62 – Adjusted Gross Income Defined
When all three conditions are met and reimbursement stays at or below the IRS standard rate, the money is tax-free. It doesn’t hit your W-2, and neither side owes payroll taxes on it. If any condition fails, the IRS treats the whole arrangement as a nonaccountable plan. Reimbursements are then added to W-2 wages and subject to income tax and FICA withholding.7Internal Revenue Service. Nonresident Aliens and the Accountable Plan Rules Amounts paid above the IRS rate get the same treatment for the excess portion, even under an otherwise valid plan.
To keep an accountable plan clean, you generally need to log the date, destination, business purpose, and mileage for each trip, made at or near the time of the trip.9Internal Revenue Service. Publication 463 (2025), Travel, Gift, and Car Expenses A GPS tracking app or a simple spreadsheet works. Commuting between home and your regular workplace is not reimbursable business mileage. Driving between work sites, or from your regular office to a client, is.
If Your Employer Doesn’t Reimburse, There’s No Deduction Backstop
There used to be a fallback. Employees who paid out of pocket for work driving could deduct those costs on their federal return as unreimbursed employee expenses. The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 suspended that deduction beginning in 2018, and the One Big Beautiful Bill of 2025 made the elimination permanent. W-2 employees can no longer deduct mileage on their federal return, no matter how much they drive for work.
Georgia conforms broadly to federal income tax rules, so no state-level deduction fills the gap. If your Georgia employer doesn’t reimburse, you absorb the full cost of the fuel, wear, and depreciation. That’s the practical stakes behind the answer to whether reimbursement is required: it isn’t, and the tax code no longer softens the blow.