Massachusetts Mileage Reimbursement Law: Rates, Records, Remedies

Under Massachusetts mileage reimbursement law, if your employer directs you to travel between work locations during the workday, the company must pay for that travel time and reimburse the transportation expense. The rule sits in the state’s minimum wage regulations at 454 CMR 27.04(4) and is enforced through the Wage Act, which means an employer who ignores it faces treble damages, plus your attorney’s fees, in court.¹²

Which Miles Your Employer Has to Pay For

The regulation splits work travel into two situations. Subsection (b) covers employees who normally work at a fixed location but get sent somewhere else on occasion. Those workers must be compensated for travel time beyond their normal commute and reimbursed for the associated transportation expenses. Subsection (d) is broader: any employee directed to travel from one place to another after the workday has started and before it ends must be compensated for all travel time and reimbursed for all transportation expenses.¹

The commute itself is not covered. Driving from home to your regular workplace is a personal expense no matter how far you live from the office. Reimbursable travel begins once you reach your first work location or start your first work duty, and it ends when you leave your last work location for the day. Anything in between — driving to a client site, a branch office, or a business errand — is on the employer. If you’re sent to start the day somewhere other than your regular work site, you must be reimbursed for any transportation costs exceeding what your normal commute would have been.¹

Remote and Hybrid Workers

Remote work complicates the commute question. Under IRS Revenue Ruling 99-7, if your home office qualifies as your principal place of business, driving from home to another work location in the same trade or business is business travel, not commuting.³ For Massachusetts reimbursement purposes, that means a remote employee called into a company office or a client site may be entitled to reimbursement for the trip.

If your home office doesn’t meet the IRS requirements for a principal place of business, travel between your home and a regular company office is still treated as a personal commute. The test turns on whether you use a dedicated part of your home exclusively and regularly for work and whether the employer treats it as your primary work location. Hybrid workers should nail this down in writing with their employer, because the reimbursement obligation can shift depending on which location counts as primary on a given day.

A separate rule helps workers on short assignments. Travel from your home to a temporary work location is reimbursable if you also have a regular work location away from home. The IRS defines “temporary” as an assignment realistically expected to last one year or less.³

How Much You Should Be Paid Per Mile

Massachusetts does not set a cents-per-mile rate. The regulation requires reimbursement for “all transportation expenses,” which means the amount must cover the actual cost of operating a vehicle for business purposes. Most employers use the IRS standard mileage rate because it’s the cleanest defensible number available.

For 2026, the IRS business standard mileage rate is 72.5 cents per mile, up from 70 cents in 2025.⁴ The IRS builds the rate from an annual study of the fixed and variable costs of operating a vehicle: depreciation, insurance, repairs, tires, maintenance, gas, and oil.⁵ It applies equally to gasoline, diesel, hybrid, and electric vehicles.

An employer can pay a different amount, but a rate significantly below the IRS number is risky. If unreimbursed vehicle costs effectively drop your pay below the Massachusetts minimum wage of $15.00 per hour, the employer has a Wage Act violation. Paying at or above the IRS rate keeps the employer out of that trap.

Is a Mileage Reimbursement Taxable

Whether a reimbursement lands on your W-2 as taxable income depends on how the employer structures the program. Under an IRS “accountable plan,” reimbursements are tax-free to the employee and fully deductible for the employer. To qualify, the plan must satisfy three conditions: the expense must have a business connection, the employee must substantiate it with adequate records, and the employee must return any payment exceeding the substantiated amount.⁶

If the plan fails any of those requirements, or if the employer pays a flat car allowance without requiring mileage documentation, the IRS treats it as a non-accountable plan. Every dollar of reimbursement then becomes taxable wages subject to income tax and payroll withholding.

One boundary worth knowing: you generally cannot deduct unreimbursed mileage on your personal federal return. The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act eliminated the miscellaneous itemized deduction for unreimbursed employee expenses, and that change was made permanent. Narrow exceptions remain for Armed Forces reservists, fee-basis state or local government officials, certain performing artists, and eligible educators.⁵ For most employees, getting reimbursed by the employer is the only route to recovering the cost.

Records to Keep

Good documentation is what turns a reimbursement request into a routine paycheck line item. For each business trip, record the date, the starting point and destination for every leg, a short note on the business purpose, and the total business miles.

The IRS expects logs to be created at or near the time of the travel, not reconstructed at the end of the month. A contemporaneous log carries far more weight if the reimbursement is ever questioned. You don’t need odometer readings for every trip, but the IRS does require odometer readings at the beginning and end of each tax year and whenever you start or stop using a vehicle for business.

Timing matters on submission too. Under IRS guidelines for accountable plans, expenses should be substantiated within 60 days of being incurred. Waiting longer doesn’t automatically disqualify a reimbursement, but it weakens the record and may cause the employer to treat the payment as taxable. Once a request is approved, the Wage Act requires payment on the next regular payday.

What Happens If Your Employer Refuses to Pay

This is where Massachusetts law bites. An employee who sues for unpaid mileage reimbursement under the Wage Act and wins is entitled to treble damages: three times the amount of lost wages and benefits. The employer must also pay court costs and attorney’s fees.⁷ The trebling is mandatory. A judge cannot lower it even if the underpayment was an honest mistake.

You have three years from the date of the violation to file. The process starts with a wage complaint filed online through the Attorney General’s Fair Labor Division on mass.gov. Include supporting documents: pay stubs, your mileage logs, and any written reimbursement policy. If the AG doesn’t act within 90 days, or grants earlier permission, you can bring a private lawsuit. Filing the complaint tolls the three-year clock, so you don’t lose time while the AG’s office reviews. If you plan to sue on your own, request a “private right of action” letter in the comment section of the complaint form.⁷⁸

Protection From Retaliation

Massachusetts law prohibits employers from retaliating against workers who raise wage complaints, and that includes complaints about missing mileage reimbursement. Under M.G.L. c. 149, § 148A and M.G.L. c. 151, §§ 19(1) and (5), you are protected if you file with the Attorney General, raise the issue internally, take part in an investigation, or testify in a proceeding.⁹

Retaliation covers a lot more than being fired. Cutting your hours, shifting you to undesirable assignments, threats, false negative references, and reports to immigration authorities are all prohibited. Federal law adds a separate layer under Section 15(a)(3) of the Fair Labor Standards Act for employees who file complaints or cooperate in wage and hour investigations.¹⁰ Retaliation claims run through the same enforcement channels as the underlying wage claim, and the treble damages provision under § 150 applies here too.

1
Cornell Law Institute. 454 CMR 27.04 – Hours Worked
2
General Court of Massachusetts. Massachusetts Code Chapter 149 – Payment of Wages
3
Internal Revenue Service. Rev. Rul. 99-7
4
Internal Revenue Service. IRS Sets 2026 Business Standard Mileage Rate at 72.5 Cents per Mile, Up 2.5 Cents
5
Internal Revenue Service. 2026 Standard Mileage Rates, Notice 2026-10
6
Internal Revenue Service. Rev. Rul. 2005-52 – Accountable Plan Requirements Under Section 62
7
General Court of Massachusetts. Massachusetts Code Chapter 149 Section 150 – Complaints; Investigations; Civil Actions
8
Mass.gov. File a Minimum Wage Complaint
9
Mass.gov. Anti-Retaliation Protections Under the Massachusetts Wage and Hour Laws
10
U.S. Department of Labor. Fact Sheet 77A: Prohibiting Retaliation Under the Fair Labor Standards Act