It is my understanding that driver's "enjoy" the benefit of being able to write off an extensive list of items every year. Food expense seems to be the biggest tax break.

Not being very tax savvy myself, how do these write-offs translate into real dollars?

Let me use a very rough example: I'm a new driver who earns 35k during the course of his first year, and without any deductions I would owe nothing to the IRS. Then, after going through my receipts, I find that I am able to claim $15,000 in itemized deductions for food, etc.

1) Am I taxed on the difference between 35k and the 15k worth of deductions? i.e.; is my taxable income is based upon $20,000?

2) If I claim 15k in deductions, how much of that can I expect to recoup from the IRS in real dollars?

3) In the real world, what do you veteran driver's claim on average for your itemized deductions? How much do you get back?

Thanks for any assistance you can offer.

Good questions
Wow thats almost $300.00 a week for food????

The 15k deduction was not just for food. It included other deductible items such as basic tools, cooler, laptop, satellite radio, laundry, etc, etc. etc.

It is my understanding that living in a major metro area may qualify me for a $52 dollar per day food per diem. However, the standard deduction, which is safer to claim without flagging an audit is, I believe $34 per day.

What I do not understand is how I can forecast the net benefits of the tax deductions versus the out of pocket costs of driving over the next year.

Yes $52.00 every day your on the road
You can deduct 75% of that total
Next year I think it goes to 85%

As a tax advisor I can help you with this, but remember this is hypothetical.

If the only income coming in is the 35k, then you would automatically subtract the amount for your standard deduction or your 15k in deductions. Then you subtract (for 2007) $3,400 times however many people are on the tax form. What's left is your taxable income. So this would mean $16,600 for a single person is taxable, or if it's you, a spouse & say 4 kids, you'd subtract $20,400 & have no tax liability.

As for how much you'd get back, alot of that depends on the dependents again. You could get earned income credit, or chid tax credit, & a couple other things.

Also, if you own a house or property, you can claim that.
Hope this helps, but ask away. If you have more questions, please let me know. I miss tax season already.

Thanks Jactress, I'm starting to get a handle on this.

You might miss tax season, but I have them all year calling me. Business and late filers.

Okay, I kinda understand the whole 'deduction' thing. Pretty much ANYTHING you can remotely use on the road or in your truck, you can claim as a 'business' expense....tools, work gloves, flashlights, etc. But how can you claim a laptop? I could see a TomTom or some GPS.

I have also read that if you dont have a 'home address' and actually live out of your truck, you cannot claim per diem. I dont plan to do this, I will have a mailing address, however I wont hardly ever be there, but maybe 1-2x a month. This fact or fiction?

Map quest use, weather checking on the internet. Software for log books. Email with company. Just to name a few.

Can you claim the entire price of the laptop?