Werner Per Diem fraud

They benefit financially for it because they pay you less and pay less taxes on your income. It's a win-win for them.

 

Who you going to sue?

Yourself for making the decision to do it?

 

Sorry, you are wrong. You have made the decision. You are over 21.

Just because they tell you the sky is red and green, does not make one believe it. A company policy is not going to be proof of deception.

Good luck on trying to make that stick or even find an attorney to think about it.

 

I read anything I sign. If I do not understand it, it is not signed.

If I do not agree with it, it is not signed.

I dealt with legal issues and documents for many years.

 

Because it's legal in the federal tax code...

Companies look at the average number of miles driven by their drivers each year, figure how much they can put into the "per-diem" pot on a daily basis figured in cents-per-mile, and not exceed the IRS-mandated maximum daily allowance for per-diem. So that number is going to vary from company-to-company depending on their individual situation.

On your side: You're allowed to claim $59 per day (that's up from pre-October) for meals while on the road away from your tax home - and a fraction of that on the day you depart and arrive at your tax home. Its one of the reasonable things in the tax code... you don't have to keep all of your meal receipts, and they don't have to deal with that mess if you're audited. You claim the difference between that number and what your company pays you in "per diem" as a deduction against your gross income on your taxes. That per diem allowance is money that is not taxed by either the feds or the state. Upside is you pay less in taxes. Downside is it decreases the AGI reported on your 1040... so it appears that you are making less money to a mortgage lender who doesn't understand taxes and the trucking industry.

On the corporate side: Wages paid to an employee are fully deductable from corporate taxes. When they decrease the wages paid to you directly by providing a portion of your income as "per diem" that money cannot be claimed as a corporate tax deduction. Hence, when a corporation does you a favor by shielding some of your income from taxation, they take it in the shorts in terms of higher corporate taxes.

Companies do this to recover that "lost" tax advantage they get by paying you 100% wages, and no per diem. For comparison, I read in another thread here that Marten is doing the same thing but is charging 2.5-cpm (I believe that's correct) for the "privilege."

Listening to Ken Rutherford on Roaddog... He claims he did a number of tax returns for an "average" driver to look at the effect of this little charge-back scheme...

First, if your company isn't doing this, be happy! You're getting some tax-free money!

Rutherford indicated on his program last Saturday afternoon that the break-even point is somewhere a little over 1-cpm - so at Werner, you're getting a little advantage, but not much. Over that, you're loosing money... and the company is in the win-win. Rutherford's take on the situation is that if you can get per diem paid to you without the charge back, by all means take it unless the higher AGI on your tax return will do something good for you. Otherwise, you should opt out and keep all of your meal reciepts for your CPA.

It's legal. And a lousy thing to do to us.

 

It should show on your paycheck the per diem that is paid or taken out. Business tax statements are quarterly so the forced per diem for the year doesn't make sense.

To me this system is not a true per diem so I opted out. -doesn't make any sense to me and seems more like a (complicated) scam + I have deductions that I take off my taxes.

 

It can make sense because of the rules that the IRS may have.

Most of the tax plans for a business have an election when you enter the plan and the plan goes for a tax year such as the calendar year.

You see this with cafeteria plans and pensions and etc.