The IRS will deny your tax deductions if your mileage logs are inconsistent or you lack insufficient evidence to support your mileage claims. For example, in 2016, a taxpayer was denied his deductions because his dates were questionable, and so was the reason for the trip.

Also, you could face fines and even jail time if you are found complacent when an employee fraudulently claims reimbursements for travel expenses. The bottom line is that you need to document all trips accurately and a good tool for doing that is a mileage reimbursement template.

Let’s look at how to properly record your mileage + a free printable mileage template to get you started.

What Is a Mileage Reimbursement Form?

A mileage reimbursement form helps you track the amount you would repay workers for logistics costs e.g. fuel, maintenance, and vehicle wear and tear. This is especially useful when your employees use their own vehicles for business purposes.

Who Needs a Mileage Reimbursement Template?

Here are the most common use cases for mileage tracker forms:

• Sales: If you have an on-site sales team, your sales representatives need to travel to meet clients, attend conferences and community events, and also visit customer sites. For all this, they are incurring travel costs that you will have to compensate them for.
• Medical Care: Whenever home medical assistance is required, doctors, nurses, and therapists need to commute either to the homes of patients or other healthcare facilities. They would do that in their personal vehicle for work purposes; thus, you need a medical mileage expense form that calculates the cost of their commute and covers it.
• Consulting: In consulting firms, your consultants are on the road for client meetings, research, or events in their industry. This translates to logistics costs that you will have to repay.
• Transportation: As a logistics company, your employees e.g. truck drivers, and delivery personnel, frequently travel for work. You have to document the total miles traveled to cover their trip cost.
• Construction: Construction workers travel to job sites carrying equipment, attend training sessions, and meet with suppliers. They need fuel and vehicle maintenance for these activities. Having a reimbursement form ensures you factor these costs when drafting your budget and accurately bill clients.

Standard Mileage Rate for Taxes

There is a guideline on how to compute mileage repayment, depending on the location and current economic conditions. Here are some guidelines to follow for mileage reimbursement in your organization: 

• IRS Mileage Rate: The IRS fixes a standard mileage rate for you to reimburse employees for work-related mileage. This rate is adjusted annually to keep up with fuel costs and inflation.
• Documentation Requirements: You should properly document your employees’ mileage by maintaining mileage logs or any other documentation that proves the mileage covered for business purposes.
• Tax Implications: Employees do not pay taxes on mileage reimbursement. So that this is not used as a way of evading taxes, you must report the total mileage reimbursement.
• State and Local Regulations: In addition to federal regulations, some states, along with a few local jurisdictions, could make minor legislation or regulations on mileage reimbursement.

Why is a Mileage Reimbursement Form Important?

• Financial Accuracy: documenting mileage traveled and the reimbursement rate allows you to correctly total the reimbursement. This boosts employee morale and satisfaction since they know that when they pay out of pocket to pursue opportunities and profits for the organization, they will be compensated.
• Tax Compliance: Mileage reimbursement is nontaxable. So your mileage logs serve as a record to substantiate and support possible tax deductions for fuel or maintenance.
• Record Keeping: The form creates a record of expenses, you can easily refer to it for financial reporting, audits, or any other legal purposes.
• Transparency: A mileage reimbursement form gives a direct and common approach to making mileage claims and ensures fairness. This transparency helps build trust between you and your employees, preventing disputes or misunderstandings.

Key Components of a Mileage Reimbursement Form

• Personal Information: this includes the employee’s name, contact information, and  ID
• Date and time of Travel: This documents the specific dates when the employees used their personal resources e.g. vehicle, fuel, and covered repairs for work-related purposes.
• Destination: This records the starting and end locations of the trips. It also documents the purpose of the trip.
• Mileage: The actual miles traveled for each trip, including odometer readings.
• Reimbursement Rate: This is the rate per mile based on the company’s policy or government standards.
• Total Reimbursement Amount: The result of multiplying the mileage by the reimbursement rate. You will pay this exact amount to compensate workers for using their resources for the company’s growth.
• Purpose of the Trip: This explains why the travel was necessary (e.g., meeting, site visit).
• Signatures: This collects employee and manager signatures to verify accuracy and approval.

Common Uses for a Mileage Reimbursement Template

• Employee Travel: This includes traveling to meet clients, attend events, or visit work sites. For example flight tickets, fuel costs, event tickets, etc.
  
• Field Work: This covers the costs for commuting to the work field, e.g., transporting equipment and workers to a construction site.
  
• Delivery Services: This includes delivery-related mileage e.g. document or product courier.
  
• Consultants and Freelancers: These are mileage expenses for independent contractors. For example, hiring an electrician to fix power issues and paying for the commute to and from the location.

How to Create a Mileage Reimbursement Form With Formplus

Here’s a step-by-step guide for designing your mileage reimbursement form in minutes:

• Go to the Mileage reimbursement template
• Click Use template
• Sign in or create your account
• The form is customizable; you can include any additional field to document other mileage-related information that is not on the form. e.g. an upload field for trip receipts.
• Customize the form by changing the color palette, and font.
• Go to settings and add a reminder for the deadline. This will ensure everyone fills out the form and the finance team has enough time to budget the organization’s expenses.
• Share the form with employees via email, direct form link, or QR code. You can also embed the form code on your website or print the form as a PDF.
• Collect responses and forward them to the finance team. You can export the data as a spreadsheet or download it as a PDF.

Calculating Your Employee Mileage Payment With Formplus

The Formplus mileage reimbursement template has a calculation field, so you don’t have to manually figure out the amount to reimburse. Here’s a breakdown:

• Click Add Calculation at the bottom left of the panel.

• Select the fields you need for your calculations – Total Mileage and Rate Per Mile.
• Choose the type of calculation you want by clicking on either the addition, minus, division or multiplication sign.
• Select the field where the results will be displayed, in this instance- Mileage Reimbursement Amount.

Tips for Filling Out a Mileage Reimbursement Form

• Track Mileage Using Apps or Logs: Record the odometer readings before and after each trip. This ensures you can calculate mileage for each trip accurately. You can also use apps specifically designed for mileage tracking.
• Document the Purpose of Each Trip: Clearly state the reason for each trip e.g. client meeting, delivery, etc. You can also attach supporting documents like meeting agendas, invoices, or event registrations to substantiate the business purpose of the trip.
• Be Punctual:  Submit your mileage reimbursement request within the specified deadline to avoid delays in processing and payment.

Conclusion

A mileage reimbursement form is a document used to record the total distance driven by employees for business purposes. It ensures you compensate employees fairly for using their resources for work trips and helps you comply with tax regulations.

The Formplus mileage reimbursement form enables you to document every trip employees use their vehicle for work-related purposes. You also don’t have to manually calculate the total miles driven or the reimbursement amount with the form builder- simply use the calculator feature and you have the amount.

We hope this guide makes tracking and reimbursing mileage easier, here’s a free and printable mileage reimbursement form to get you started.