H & R Block and food allowance

We have the H & R Block program for taxes and are trying to figure out the food allowance.

"To use the standard meal allowance, youll need to do the following:
1. Determine the cities you traveled to. and the number of days you incurred meal and incidental expenses while there
2. multiply the number of days meal expenses weere incurred by the IRS's M & IE rate for that city. To find M & IE rates for us cities go to www.irs.gove and ge IRS Publication 1542. For locations outside of the US go to http: aoprals.state.gove/web920/
3. Add the expenses incurred in each city.
4. enter the total expenses incurred here"

Seriously....we were in several states in a day....How do you do this?

 

just take the $48 per day....

 

Yeah you don't

http://www.ooida.com/EducationTools/Resources/per-diem-rate.asp

 

The standard has been $52 a day but it there are more allowed it can go all the way between $135-160 depending on how much out of pocket expenses u have. Then u loose a little % depending on how much or if u use per-diem. I will be using a CPA here on out he found me a extra $1000 on top of what I already got from its. Because h&r block the young lady didn't give me all to what I was entitled to. With my deductions I was allowed @15, 000 just cuz I was an otr driver. Then some states vary on what's allowed. Obviously I could have gotten more if I paid for hotels, scales, etc.

 

What does Hotels and Scales have to do with meal allowance?

 

I answered the question the lowest deduction is $52 a day if u are 100miles from home a day it includes EVERYTHING not only exclusive just for food only the allowance is for out of pocket expenses u incurred away from home.

 

Scales?

Food, entertainment and housing are covered, scales and other truck related stuff isn't.

Be careful how you take your per diem, you'll get flagged for an audit if it is out of formula. There is a dot formula for this, my accountant said that she can not take the scheduled per diem because of the fact that this has been in court and settled a while ago, hence the reason for the dot per diem formula - 80% of a fixed rate.

 

The CPA I'm choosing to deal with showed me a list of common things that a otr driver can claim in deductions not just exclusive to just food. If a driver is not reimbursed from company for SCALES yes it can be included in deductions. If I didn't get reimbursed I was told I could have used it. The list is pretty large can't remember exactly everything on it but scales was there. And I was also told I will loose a small percentage because I work for company with forced per-diem. But I still qualified and he got me more money back that h&r missed.

 

those are deductions you can take, but those aren't per deim. per diem is food allowance. scales, tolls, tools, etc are listed separately.
und

 

OK that's called an non-reimbursed expense. but not part of the per diem.

I have to buy a lot of junk for my work, not one thing is reimbursed so things I change every year gets put in the list of things, I don't go out of state outside of a couple times a year so ... I write off things like straps, chains, binders, first aid kit, safety gear, goggles, specific safety glasses that are required for the foundry customers I am assigned to, oil and grease I carry in case the customer doesn't have them. Other than oil and grease, everything has a one year life for the work I do so it all gets replaced.