Per Diem Rates for 2026

It depends on the date of travel, because federal per diem runs on the October-to-September fiscal year. Travel from January 1 through September 30, 2026 uses the FY2026 standard rate: $110 a night for lodging plus $68 a day for meals and incidental expenses, $178 in total. Travel from October 1, 2026 uses the FY2027 rate: $113 lodging plus $68 M&IE, $181 in total. The standard rate applies anywhere in the continental US that GSA has not listed as a non-standard area.

Not until October. GSA froze FY2026: the standard lodging rate stayed at $110 and every existing locality kept its prior-year lodging maximum. For FY2027, which starts October 1, 2026, GSA raised standard lodging by $3 to $113. The M&IE tiers did not move in either year and still run from $68 to $92.

Look the destination up on GSA's per diem tool by city, state or ZIP code. Listed localities (non-standard areas) have their own lodging maximum, which can change by month in seasonal markets, and are assigned to one of the M&IE tiers. Any CONUS location not on the list takes the standard rate shown on this page.

The high-low method replaces every locality rate with just two. Under IRS Notice 2025-54 (through September 30, 2026) they are $319 a day for a high-cost locality and $225 for anywhere else in CONUS. Under Notice 2026-60, from October 1, 2026, they rise to $329 and $230. A locality counts as high-cost when its federal per diem rate is at or above the threshold the notice names ($280 for FY2027).

Not when they are paid under an accountable plan and stay within the federal rate for the place and dates of travel. The employee must substantiate the time, place and business purpose of the trip (the per diem stands in for proof of the amount), and any advance above what the trip justifies must be returned. Amounts above the federal rate that are not returned are reported as wages. Per IRS Publication 463, a reimbursement under a nonaccountable plan is taxable in full.

Partly. A self-employed person can use the M&IE rate instead of keeping meal receipts, but cannot use a per diem for lodging; lodging is deducted at actual cost. The meals portion is still subject to the business-meal deduction limit described in IRS Publication 463, and the rate used must be the one for the locality and date of travel.

$80 a day for travel inside the continental US and $86 outside it, unchanged across FY2026 and FY2027. Workers whose job is moving people or goods, such as long-haul truck drivers, may use this flat rate everywhere instead of the locality M&IE rates. Under Rev. Proc. 2019-48 the choice runs by calendar year: someone who used the locality M&IE rates from January to September cannot switch to the transportation rate until January 1, and the reverse also holds.