If you’re a pastor, you probably spend a lot of time on the road — visiting members, attending meetings, running errands, or heading to conferences.
Can pastors get reimbursed for mileage?
The short answer is yes — and doing it the right way can save you (and your church) a lot of tax headaches.
Why Mileage Reimbursement Matters
Under current IRS rules, pastors who are employees can’t deduct mileage on their personal tax returns. The 2017 tax law changes removed most employee business expense deductions — including mileage — through at least 2025.
But there’s good news:
Your church can still reimburse you tax-free for ministry mileage through something called an accountable reimbursement plan.
**We’ve covered these in previous blog posts! **
That means:
- The church pays you back for ministry miles at the IRS standard rate (67¢ per mile in 2025).
- The reimbursement doesn’t count as income, and
- You don’t owe taxes on it.
Everybody wins.
How It Works
To stay compliant with IRS rules, the church needs a simple written policy that says:
The travel must be for ministry purposes — things like hospital visits, pastoral calls, conferences, or district meetings.
The pastor must document each trip with:
- Date
- Destination
- Purpose
- Miles driven
The reimbursement request should be turned in within 60 days of the trip.
And if you ever get an advance or an overpayment, any extra needs to be returned within 120 days.
That’s it! Pretty straightforward.
What Doesn’t Count
Not all miles are created equal in the eyes of the IRS. The biggest misunderstanding is commuting — the drive from your home to the church and back.
We’ve run across this many times! You can’t claim those! The drive to and from church doesn’t count!
But once you leave the church office for ministry work (hospital, home visit, event, etc.), those miles do count.
Example Mileage Log
| Date | From | To | Purpose | Miles |
| 2/10/25 | Church | Hospital | Visit member in hospital | 8 |
| 2/12/25 | Church | District Office | Pastor meeting | 22 |
| 2/14/25 | Home | Church | Sunday service (commute – not reimbursable) | — |
Keeping a simple log like this — even on your phone — will make life easier when it’s time to turn in your reimbursement.
There are several great apps that will track this for you! We use Bill.com “Spend and Expense.”
Make It Official
If your church doesn’t already have a mileage policy in place, now’s a great time to set one up.
It’s easy, it protects both you and the church, and it keeps everything above board with the IRS.
Why not just keep it easy with a car allowance?
Giving your pastor a flat “car allowance” sounds simple, right? Just add $300 a month to their paycheck and call it good.
But here’s the catch — the IRS doesn’t see that as reimbursement. It sees it as income.
That means the allowance is taxable, shows up on the pastor’s W-2, and he gets hit with both income and self-employment tax. So that $300 might only put about $210 in their pocket.
And since pastors can’t deduct mileage as employees anymore, they can’t write off the actual driving costs either.
Double loss.
Bottom line:
Auto allowances feel easy but cost more in the long run.
Reimbursing actual mileage keeps things clean — and makes ministry easier.
At Your Church Admin, we help churches build simple systems like this so you can focus on what matters most — ministry.
If you’d like a sample mileage reimbursement policy you can use, just let us know — we’d be happy to send it your way.