Per diem rate bumped to $59 per day

how does this per diem system work??

 

I believe this year we are at 80%, or was that last year lol, in which case we are at 85%.
That is for tax purposes.
For every night you are away from your Tax home for driving a truck you claim 80% of 52.00 a day.
So if you are out on the road 300 nights that is 300x 52 x .8= 12,480 perdiem you can claim on your taxes. With it at 59 it will be 300x 59x .8 = 14,160
I am pretty sure we are at 85% for this year though. It has been going up 5% a year since the last highway bill, was supposed to raise 5% a year till it got to 100%. This could be changed with the increase though. No matter what it is a large writeoff on your taxes to cover food and road expenses without having to save receipts. Just need to be able to show your logs in case of audit to show nights away from tax home.
This is what the trucking company's that pay perdiem are ripping you off on. You will get this money at the end of the year on taxes, it is your money.
The company's that pay you perdiem are stealing from you most of the time, since they lower your rate to pay you money that was already yours.

 

It is still 80%. And the $59/day only applies to the days you were out from Oct. 1 to Dec 31, 2009. If any accountant tries to tell you that you can't claim the 59 rate till next year (lose a little money) OR tells you to to use the 59 rate for all of this year (get in big doodoo with the IRS), then you need a new accountant that isn't so lazy.

 

Is there a mininum amount of days you need to be out? I drive mostly local but I do spend nites out once in a while. I also escort superload and can spend days at time away from home can I claim these days too? I do run a log book even when escorting but its on duty not drivng time.

 

so is it better to go to a company without the per diem program??

 

The 59 a day per-diem is for workers subject to DOT hours of service rules.
So if you legally have to run a log book, then you can claim it for nights away from your tax home. There is no minimum number of days.
There are also tax rules for perdium from other types of jobs, but the amount of money per day is allot lower than ours.

Yes.
It is better to go with a company that does not have forced per-diem, unless they have a very good base rate they are putting it on top of. Do not look at the per-diem as income, because it is not.
Some company's will blow smoke up your %$# saying they pay 30 cpm to start, but 8 cpm of that is per-diem. Which means the company is really only paying you 22 cpm, and giving you help for an early tax return. Since you would have gotten that other 8 cpm when you file anyway. So if you are driving for them a year and drive 120,000 miles (very possible) you just lost 9,600 dollars in tax write offs at the end of the year. Also this money is not counted as income for loans, unemployment, social security etc.
Also they are writing it off 100% at your company. So they are not "loosing" this money, like they feel they do on payroll. Since they do not have to pay there portion of SSI or Unemployment compensation etc on it.
You will get a little boost on your pay checks, since this is money is not taxed. But the company is the real winner.

 

thanks chrome im still a little confused but what im gettting is basically they pay you more but u don't get it back on your taxes