Per Diem & Travel Pay Calculator

How It Works

1. Choose a Source Row

   Select one cached FY2026 GSA CONUS M&IE row or enter a manual union, employer, or custom M&IE rate. Then verify current locality and fiscal year in the GSA lookup.

2. Enter Travel and Lodging Inputs

   Enter travel days and the lodging amount you want to calculator. Lodging is manual because GSA lodging varies by locality, month, and policy.

3. Check Meal Deductions

   Enter furnished breakfast, lunch, and dinner counts. The app uses cached GSA CONUS meal rows or proportional manual-rate rows and leaves policy exceptions visible.

4. Apply First/Last Day Prompt

   The calculator applies the 75% first/last travel-day M&IE prompt for the local arithmetic row. Employer, CBA, agency, or tax treatment can differ.

5. Add Mileage and Mob/Demob Rows

   Enter miles, trips, IRS mileage year, and any mob/demob amount. Verify logs, business purpose, commuting exclusions, and contract language separately.

6. Review Source Gaps and Export

   Use the summary, warnings, and export as a review worksheet for payroll, AP, tax, union, CBA, or management review.

Built For

• Traveling pipefitters and boilermakers screening travel-pay assumptions before discussing a turnaround package
• Payroll or AP teams separating arithmetic rows from employer policy, CBA, and tax-review questions
• Project managers estimating travel-cost assumptions before current locality and contract review
• Accounts payable clerks preparing a planning worksheet before approving reimbursement claims
• Self-employed contractors organizing M&IE, lodging, mileage, and recordkeeping prompts for tax review
• Union hall dispatchers explaining which travel-pay questions need CBA or employer-policy confirmation
• Government-contract teams flagging GSA lookup, certified-payroll, and contract source gaps before review

Features & Capabilities

Cached GSA M&IE Rows

Screens the five FY2026 CONUS M&IE rows, meal breakdowns, and first/last day values while directing users to current GSA locality lookup.

75% First/Last Day Prompt

Applies the GSA first/last travel-day prompt to the local arithmetic row without deciding employer, CBA, agency, or tax treatment.

Meal Deduction Calculator

Shows breakfast, lunch, and dinner deductions using cached GSA rows or proportional manual-rate rows, with policy caveats visible.

Manual Policy Inputs

Allows union, employer, or custom M&IE rows and flags when the standard-tier tax review prompt should be checked against the actual locality.

IRS Mileage Prompt

Screens entered miles and trips against selected IRS business mileage rates while leaving logs, commuting, deductibility, and reimbursement treatment for review.

Source-Gap Export

Exports a worksheet with source warnings, assumptions, recommendations, and GSA/IRS source pointers for payroll or tax review.

Assumptions

• Cached FY2026 GSA CONUS M&IE rows are used as local arithmetic prompts, not a current locality lookup.
• First and last travel-day M&IE is screened at 75% of the selected row unless policy review says otherwise.
• Meal deductions use cached GSA meal rows or proportional manual-rate rows and do not decide employer policy exceptions.
• IRS standard mileage rate is applied only to entered miles and trips and does not decide reimbursement or deductibility.
• Taxable treatment, accountable-plan status, and amount owed are unresolved source gaps.

Limitations

• GSA M&IE and lodging rates change by fiscal year and locality and must be verified in the current GSA lookup.
• Does not automatically look up GSA rates by city, ZIP, county, work location, month, or fiscal year.
• Non-CONUS (OCONUS) per diem rates (Hawaii, Alaska, US territories, and foreign travel) use different rate schedules not included in this calculator.
• Does not evaluate whether the employer's plan meets IRS accountable plan requirements (business connection, substantiation, return of excess).
• Manual rate rows create review prompts only and do not decide taxable excess, W-2 reporting, or payroll setup.

References

• GSA-FY2026-CONUS-MIE-BREAKDOWN - FY2026 CONUS M&IE tiers, meal breakdowns, and first/last travel-day rows.
• GSA-FY2026-CONUS-PER-DIEM-LOOKUP - current locality lookup for lodging and M&IE by city, state, ZIP, and fiscal year.
• IRS-2026-STANDARD-MILEAGE-RATE - 2026 optional business standard mileage rate source pointer.
• IRS-PUB-463-TRAVEL-EXPENSES-SOURCE - travel, car expenses, accountable-plan, substantiation, and tax source pointer.
• NIST-SP811-B8 - unit and rounding source pointer for deterministic fixtures.

Frequently Asked Questions