So today I got into a rather heated argument with a good friend of mine. He pulls a refeer for the same company I used to, he pays cash for all lumpers and refeer fuel, he gets reimbursed for these, and says that he can write them off at tax time because they are considered income. I am telling him that they are not income, they are reimbursements, and cannot be writen off. He says everyone he knows is doing it, and his tax guy says its perfectly ok to do so, and me and my tax guy need to get a clue. So, who is wrong? And is there an IRS code that I can go to to show him the proof?
writing off reimbusements
Discussion in 'Trucker Taxes and Truck Financing' started by Oscar the KW, Jan 28, 2013.
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The person who ultimately pays the expense gets to claim the deduction. If his carrier is reimbursing him the money for the expense, then the carrier is in fact paying the expense (and will deduct the expense on THEIR taxes)...NOT him. In the event of an audit, he will have to pay the tax owed on the money wrongfully deducted...plus interest...plus penalties.
The only way he would be entitled to the deduction is if he was NOT being reimbursed for the expense.Lady K Thanks this. -
he is wrong, period. UNREIMBURSED employee expenses are deductible. if he is not claiming the reimbursements as income, he cant claim the expenses that are ultimately not coming out of his pocket. well...check that. he cant LEGALLY claim them. anyone can claim any expenses they want to, and claim they have 27 kids as dependents too. until they get caught, all will be good.
as far as the specific code goes, im not sure. but the words "unreimbursed employee expenses" are right there where him or his "tax advisor" is putting a claim for those expenses. gotta be pretty stupid to not understand its not legal when it spells it out right there where you are lying about it. -
it's not income. as he's already earned the money. and basically just borrowed it only to be paid back.
and you say he uses THAT INCOME AS A TAX WRITEOFF.
does that mean we all get to deduct our income for tax write offs now. cuz it's always been my understanding that WE PAY for income. been that way since some a-hole came out with the whole tax idea. -
My wife is an accountant and does my taxes. You don't even have to list anything the company reimburses. If you do, you also have to put that amount in the employer reimbursed section and that evens itself out. It is not income, it is a company reimbursed expense. We don't even list it.
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The only thing you're wrong about is the claiming kids, you can claim up to 10 dependents on your payroll forms to get as much back on your paychecks as you can. What you can't do is on your taxes at the end of the year, is claim them if you don't have them. So you can legally mark 10 on your W4, but when you file you have to claim proper, so you will end up owing if you don't have 10 dependents. In my opinion it's stupid but my wife had clients that would rather get it every week, then owe at the end of the year, I don't get that at all.
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I absolutely understand wanting to owe at the end of the year. When you get a refund, it means you gave the government an interest-free loan. If I put that money into a savings account every week, even at the pathetic interest rates banks are paying right now, I'd still have more by tax time than what I'd get from the government if I had overpaid all year. If you get back more than a couple hundred bucks, you should add a deduction onto your W4 so that less is withheld. If you owe more than a C-note, though, you might want to remove a deduction from the W4.
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That's true, but most people aren't good with money enough to save enough of it. If you're good you can come up with the right deduction per pay to where you pretty much break even at the end of the year. My wife use to work with a couple of nerds that had that calculation down to a T!
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im not wrong. i think you misunderstood me though. i worked for block for a few seasons, and believe me, people claim dependents to which they are not entitled...all the time
what i said was you CAN claim 27 kids as dependents, and the appropriate tax deductions. 27 was exaggeration for effect, but you can claim immigrant deductions on every single tax return, and it will work...until you get caught. you say you CANT, but you certainly can. just as his buddy CAN claim those lumper payments as deductions. its not legal, but its not difficult. its easy, til they audit you.
as far as on payroll forms, i worked as a debt collector for a couple years, and made considerable commissions. glad i never got in trouble for putting 99 deductions on my w4 when i felt id paid my tax liability for the year, assuming you are correct. what i never got is why people wanted to get a large refund. large refunds tick me off. it means ive loaned those financially incompetents in washington money at a 0% interest rate. UGH. -
Yeah, we are making different points. You can only claim what really exists at the end of the year, of course. But I was just saying that you are legally allowed to claim up to 10 on your W4's all year as long as you file correctly. An no one wants to get audited! That's for sure.
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