IRS Increases Mileage Rate

I don’t know if you’ve heard (or noticed), but inflation is currently at a decades-high rate, reaching a level beyond what many of us can remember. I don’t know if you’ve heard (or noticed), but part of this are gas prices that have reached a level never before seen by anybody.

I am not going to pretend to be an economist here and give any sort of prediction of where things are going – and in fact, anything that claims to do so I read with a little bit of skepticism, because so many outcomes still feel plausible. What we can talk about, though, is the fact that things have progressed so far that the IRS has increased the mileage rate four cents to 62.5 cents per mile effective July 1, 2022 through the end of the year.

(Slight extra note, the rate for deductible medical or moving expenses also went up four cents, from 18 to 22.)

The IRS normally sets a mileage rate that stands for a complete calendar year. The fact that they have made another one in the middle of the year speaks to how unique the situation is. And sure, we all already knew that, but this shows how it can be beneficial to keep an eye out for things that are changing that could be advantageous to you in a time when those things feel few.

And I don’t know if there’s necessarily anything specific that is about to happen that will help ease some of the pain we are feeling. I wouldn’t even feel comfortable giving a general area where things could happen. What this did say to me, though, was that it was worth not just being tuned out.

Because at some point, after stories happen when gas prices hit $4 a gallon … and then $5 a gallon, it all starts to become noise. When you have months of checking out at the grocery store thinking, “Well, that was more than it used to cost,” you start to just accept. When you feel like there is nothing you can do, you feel like it is not worth paying that much attention to anything.

So maybe this little bit of news is still peeking through (not that I am any sort of news outlet, though) and maybe it can make things feel like it might not be that awful to pay attention. And maybe at some point there will even be other helpful and hopeful news.

​Warmly,

Josh Bousquet
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