2026 Small-Business Rates Reference

IRS standard mileage rates

2026 is a split-rate year — the IRS raised the business rate mid-year, effective July 1. A reimbursement claim that spans both halves of the year must be split by period; blending either rate across the whole year mispays every cross-period mile. The medical rate moved twice as much, which matters for HSA-adjacent reimbursements.

USPS dimensional-weight divisors

USPS cut its DIM divisor from 166 to 139 on July 12, 2026 (Postal Bulletin PB-22705), and added a rule that fractional inches round up before the volume is computed. For a large, light box the change lifts billable weight about 19% — every calculator still dividing by 166 is underquoting today. Packages at or under one cubic foot (1,728 in³) remain exempt from DIM pricing entirely.

The other divisors in the table are unchanged but easy to mix up: UPS and FedEx US domestic parcel rates divide by 139, retail-shipped UPS commonly still shows 166 in older guides, and international express plus IATA air freight use metric divisors of 5,000 and 6,000.

NMFC density classes

Since July 19, 2025 (NMFTA Docket 2025-1), density determines the class for roughly 2,000 commodities by default through a 13-band scale. Five classes exited the density path entirely — 77.5, 110, 150, 200 and 500 — which means any chart still showing the old 18-band table assigns the wrong class at several densities. At 14 pcf the old chart says 77.5; the current scale says 85. Quoting the old figure invites a re-class fee from the carrier.

Commodity-specific provisions still override density for many items, so treat the scale as the default path rather than the whole answer.

FLSA wage and overtime constants

The federal figures behind every tipped-payroll and overtime dispute have not moved, but the arithmetic errors around them have not stopped either. Overtime for a tipped employee is computed on the full minimum wage with the tip credit subtracted afterwards — $10.88 minus $5.12, not $2.13 times 1.5. Non-discretionary bonuses must be folded into the regular rate before the multiplier is applied.

Google Ads budget mechanics

Google's billing rules surprise new advertisers twice a month: the monthly cap is not 30 × the daily budget but 30.4 × (365 days ÷ 12), and Google may overdeliver up to twice the daily budget on high-demand days, recouping the difference on quiet ones. Smart Bidding has a data floor too — judging it with fewer conversions than the table below is how accounts end up blaming the algorithm for noise.

How to use this page

Every table here is a quoting tool, not just a reference: it is the set of numbers to put in a reimbursement policy, a shipping quote, a payroll check or a media plan. When you cite one, cite the primary source next to it — the IRS notice, the postal bulletin, the docket — because the primary source is the authority and this page is the organized view of it.

The page's update promise is structural: the tables are generated from the constants the calculators run on, and unit tests pin those constants to the primary sources listed. If any figure here is stale, the calculators are stale with it, and the build breaks before the page misquotes.