Pizza Hut drivers get 2026 IRS mileage rate for vehicle costs
Pizza Hut drivers now have a 72.5-cent benchmark for every business mile. The IRS rate helps them judge whether mileage pay, tips and delivery charges cover the true cost of using a personal car.
Pizza Hut drivers who put miles on their own cars now have a fresh benchmark: 72.5 cents a mile. That is the IRS optional standard mileage rate for business use in 2026, and it gives delivery workers a concrete way to measure whether a shift is really paying for gas, tires, oil, insurance and wear on the car.
The IRS set the 2026 business rate in Notice 2026-10, published Dec. 29, 2025, and made it effective Jan. 1, 2026. The figure rose 2.5 cents from 70 cents a mile in 2025, after sitting at 67 cents in 2024 and 65.5 cents in 2023. The agency says the rate comes from an annual study of fixed and variable vehicle costs performed by an independent contractor, which is why the number moves as driving costs change.
For Pizza Hut drivers, the practical issue is tracking every delivery mile instead of guessing at the end of the month. Short runs across a delivery-heavy shift can look small one by one, but they add up fast. The IRS rate is optional, and Topic 510 says taxpayers generally must own or lease the car and meet other conditions to use it. The cents-per-mile rule also cannot be used in 2026 if an automobile, truck or van had a value above $61,700 when it was first made available for personal use.
That matters inside Pizza Hut because mileage policies are not uniform across the chain. Pizza Hut says most U.S. restaurants are independently owned and operated by more than 100 franchise organizations, so reimbursement can vary by franchisee. Some Pizza Hut delivery job listings include hourly pay plus tips plus mileage reimbursement, and a delivery driver listing in Kennewick, Washington, also mentions mileage and cell phone data reimbursement. Pizza Hut says on its site, “THE DELIVERY CHARGE IS NOT A DRIVER TIP,” a reminder that a customer fee is not the same thing as money in a driver’s pocket.
The U.S. Department of Labor has said the IRS business standard mileage rate is not legally required under the Fair Labor Standards Act, but it is presumptively reasonable for reimbursement. That gives Pizza Hut managers and franchise owners a useful baseline when setting local policies, especially in a business with more than 16,000 restaurants worldwide and more than 350,000 team members in over 100 countries. For drivers, the number is simple. If the miles are not recorded, the cost of the job disappears into the car.
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