From: C.D. Crepps To: Department Contacts Cc: Finance Office Subject: mileage reimbursement rate for 2019 Sent: MON,DEC17@9:40 AM 2019 Standard Mileage Rates Announced by IRS On Friday, December 14, 2018, the U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS) issued the 2019 optional standard mileage rates used to calculate the deductible costs of operating an automobile for business purposes. The County uses this rate to reimburse employees for use of their personal vehicle while traveling on County business. However, use of a County vehicle is encouraged for all out-of-County travel. Beginning on January 1, 2019, the standard mileage rates for the use of a car (also vans, pickups, or panel trucks) will be 58 cents per mile for business miles driven, up from 54.5 cents for 2018, which is an increase of 3.5 cents per mile. Though fuel prices have slumped recently, the standard mileage rate for business is based on an entire year’s study of the fixed and variable costs of purchasing, maintaining, and operating an automobile. - For travel on or after January 1, 2019, requests from employees for mileage reimbursements should be made on the new rate of 58 cents per mile. - For travel up to and including December 31, 2018, requests from employees for mileage reimbursements should be made on the current rate of 54.5 cents per mile. Also, please use attached form to claim travel and related reimbursements for travel on or after January 1, 2019. Each receipt should be listed separately on the form. This form should be completed on your computing device and attached to a requisition within a couple weeks of returning from a special event. A copy signed by the traveler’s supervisor (unless the traveler is a department head) should also be submitted. When planning to use your personal vehicle for travel on County business, please seek advance approval from your department head. From the County policy on travel (found in the Personnel Manual), the following is excerpted: “Employees are to utilize county owned vehicles when available, unless the pickup and delivery of such a vehicle is a considerable hardship to the employee or an additional expense to the county. For example, an employee who lives twenty miles from their duty station has an 8:00 a.m. meeting in another county. The meeting is 10 miles from their home and 30 miles from their work station. Traveling to their work station to retrieve a county vehicle would result in additional expense to the county (both in use of the vehicle and employee overtime) as opposed to paying the employee the IRS reimbursement rate for the 20 miles traveled on county business. Otherwise, employees who voluntarily choose to drive their own vehicle when a county vehicle is available will be reimbursed at a rate of 0.31 cent per mile. Each employee who drives a private vehicle on County business must have liability insurance on said vehicle. … If an employee for his or her own convenience travels by an indirect route or interrupts the most economical route, the employee shall bear any extra expense involved. Reimbursement for such travel shall be for only that part of the expense as would have been necessary in order to travel.” MERRY CHRISTMAS, HAPPY HOLIDAYS, AND WISHES FOR A JOYOUS AND PROSPEROUS 2019 !! Please feel free to contact me if you should need more information or have any related comments, concerns, issues, questions, suggestions or thoughts to share. Thank you! Best regards, CD Crepps, chris.crepps@montgomerycountync.com OFC: 910-576-4221, ext 1303 // FAX: 910-576-4566 ADMINISTRATION DEPT-FINANCE MONTGOMERY COUNTY GOVERNMENT 102 E SPRING ST, TROY NC 27371-3056 PO BOX 425, TROY NC 27371-0425 P.S. Below is a copy of the official public announcement, copied from the IRS webpage at: https://www.irs.gov/newsroom/irs-issues-standard-mileage-rates-for-2019 IR-2018-251, December 14, 2018 WASHINGTON — The Internal Revenue Service today issued the 2019 optional standard mileage rates used to calculate the deductible costs of operating an automobile for business, charitable, medical or moving purposes. Beginning on Jan. 1, 2019, the standard mileage rates for the use of a car (also vans, pickups or panel trucks) will be: 58 cents per mile driven for business use, up 3.5 cents from the rate for 2018, 20 cents per mile driven for medical or moving purposes, up 2 cents from the rate for 2018, and 14 cents per mile driven in service of charitable organizations. The business mileage rate increased 3.5 cents for business travel driven and 2 cents for medical and certain moving expense from the rates for 2018. The charitable rate is set by statute and remains unchanged. It is important to note that under the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, taxpayers cannot claim a miscellaneous itemized deduction for unreimbursed employee travel expenses. Taxpayers also cannot claim a deduction for moving expenses, except members of the Armed Forces on active duty moving under orders to a permanent change of station. For more details see Notice-2019-02. The standard mileage rate for business use is based on an annual study of the fixed and variable costs of operating an automobile. The rate for medical and moving purposes is based on the variable costs. Taxpayers always have the option of calculating the actual costs of using their vehicle rather than using the standard mileage rates. A taxpayer may not use the business standard mileage rate for a vehicle after using any depreciation method under the Modified Accelerated Cost Recovery System (MACRS) or after claiming a Section 179 deduction for that vehicle. In addition, the business standard mileage rate cannot be used for more than four vehicles used simultaneously. These and other limitations are described in section 4.05 of Rev. Proc. 2010-51. Notice 2019-02, posted today on IRS.gov, contains the standard mileage rates, the amount a taxpayer must use in calculating reductions to basis for depreciation taken under the business standard mileage rate, and the maximum standard automobile cost that a taxpayer may use in computing the allowance under a fixed and variable rate plan.