Werner Per Diem fraud

I wouldn't count on a CPA either.

My tax guy is an O/O for Landstar. He has been there since 2004. He specializes in truckers.

Anyone need a good tax man PM me.

 

Do you not read what you sign? The form they give you for per diem CLEARLY SAYS what the charge per mile was. CLEARLY.

I signed it. I read it. I knew.

I don't particularly recall if the orientation guy said much about the charge per mile, I think he did, but regardless if you sign something without reading it fully because Doofus you never met before said it was good, you deserve every single repercussion you get.

In fact, I have this here paper. No no don't read it just sign here. If you sign here I'll give you a lolli.

 

Why have them hold the taxes up front? It would be better to make the $0.01 per mile extra and just file the long form yourself and claim the $59 per day.

 

That's not the way it works...

Per-diem payments are shielded from taxation... so it reduces your reported income (and withholding,) and you don't get hit with a large tax payment at filing time. In fact, a Certified Public Accountant who is worth his salt doing trucking taxes will claim the difference between paid per-diem and the $59-per-day allowance.

Personally, as busy as I am, I'm glad to pay someone to do my taxes... less likely to screw it up, and I'd just not get it done. BTW - Turbo-Tax, etc., aren't set up to do trucking taxes. The tax code is so completely different for what we do, I'd hesitate to try it myself.

 

Yeah the "per diem" crapola that these companies are doing will screw you up! Per diem is a DAILY thing and these bottom feeders are figuring it on a mileage scale? WTF is that? So what are you going to do when you file taxes? You have to give your CPA your w-2 and then give them the ACTUAL days you were out and they will have to figure out what is left over as you are getting shorted badly on the daily rate because you might only run 500 miles one day and then nothing another 250 the next! I bet the CPA will wind up charging you MORE that what you usually pay them for the added frustration of getting the tax figured out correctly and pray he does and the IRS doesn't audit you!

No, these per diem pay rates are just that, a scam out of YOUR pocket and you can NOT justify the small amount you bring in as worth the tax break you get at the end of the year! UNLESS Warner and the rest pay you on a DAILY rate for each day you are out which this year is 58% of 79 dollars on a pro rate starting I think in August. (it's a confusing rule! Glad I have a great CPA!) I bet Warner and the rest of the bottom feeders would DROP the per diem like a hot potato if they had to pay it that way!

This hopefully opens your eyes to the fact that you are getting boned big time by these companies as they know they are getting away with not paying you what the actual per diem is worth! And charging for the priveledge too? What a laugh!

 

I know the $59 per day lowers your taxable income, but what I mean is at the end of the year add up the $59's and deduct it. Then you get the full mile pay, and you are able to deduct it from your taxes. Basically you will end up with a larger return since you over paid on your taxes.

 

Not when you need to go get a loan (home car whatever) unemployment, disability or social security! You have taken away from your self just for a few dollars now! QUIT thinking of whats in your wallet at the end of the day but at the end of your working life! There is a BIG difference! Quit thinking LITTLE!

 

Rollover I think we are on the same page....don't take the per diem, and file for it at the end of the year....if you file at the end of the year you have full income on your W2, and you have put in full contribution to SS (not that it will be around by the time I am old enough to collect)

 

Many of us get paid in cents-per-mile. What it does is provides an easy way for the company to figure how much of your income to divert into the "per-diem bucket." They set the rate based on the average driver and miles to produce a multiplier that converts the cpm into an average daily dollar amount that is set low enough to not exceed the IRS maximum. Its not a big deal.

Wrong...

First, that's why you need a CPA who understands the trucking industry... figuring a daily per-diem amount in this manner is a common practice. You have to supply the CPA with the number of days you can claim full per-diem, and the number of partial days. He then takes the dollar amount diverted from taxible income, and compares it to what the maximum allowed allowance is. If you take it to HR Block or "Joe's General Purpose (with no experience in trucking) CPA and Tax Service, then yeah, you're probably going to have a problem. But then again, you will anyway because they certainly don't understand the kinds of deductions that are available to the trucking industry that aren't commonly found in other fields of employment.

Wrong again. Its just a convenient way of dealing with per-diem, that puts more money in your pocket during the course of the year without resorting to guessing what your income will be via a W4.

Now I will agree that any company that "charges for the privilege" of per diem sucks big time. I'd opt out in a hurry.