Per Diem question for a company driver

You do not need to itemize to use your per diem meal allowance. You put your per diem on a 2106, unreimbursed employee expenses. this will deduct from income. This is for company drivers only. Been doing taxes and bookkeeping for truckers for over 10 years.

 

Form 2106 is only for the purpose of calculating the deduction ... the deduction is filed on form 1040 Schedule A ,with any other itemized deductions and will be in lieu of the standard deduction, if you would not have otherwised itemized.

 

This is not per diem you're talking about, per diem is non taxable to start with. You have the per diem plan and the DOT standard deduction plan confused. Per diem is a portion of your CPM that is none taxable so you wouldn't have to itemize just for that. It is not listed as income on your W-2. Also, you are using the standard deduction $6,200 and then also subtracting the itemized amount. You can't subtract both, your itemized amount is only benificial to you only if it is over the standard deduction which is probably over the standard when you add other deductions . I've used Tax Act and Turbo tax on line to do my taxes.

 

Not the DOT standard deduction - The IRS Per Diem.

 

Actually, if you are audited, you will need to submit a Day by Day copy of your log book, infact the IRS will demand it, if you refuse to provide it, you will loose that deduction amount, even if you have receipts. I almost learned this the hard way, and the IRS got 365 pages mailed to them.

 

I didn't need to submit them with my original tax forms but a couple years later when I got audited I had to provide copies.

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Depending on the examiner/appeals examiner, they can interpret this however they want. The initial examiner for my audit wen this route, however, the appeals examiner went a different route. Using your example, she counted Monday and Tuesday as 80% and Weds. as 75%.

 

The recommendation is that you keep your logs for at least 3 to 5 years, I've got 18 yrs of logs in two different boxes. Correct, when you file your taxes you don't need to provide them, but when audited, you must submit them.

 

Different companies do per diem in different ways. Some companies actually give you a separate check for per diem which is non-taxable. That's the legitimate way of doing it. Other companies use it as a tax reducer which is kind of a scam in that it reduces the amount of Social Security you pay in to the system which reduces your Social Security benefits and it also reduces your unemployment benefits in case you happen to become unemployed and it prevents you from claiming the deduction yourself and it allows the company to claim your per diem as a company expense. Most of the larger companies use this as a mechanism to steal money from you and reduce their business expenses while at the same time making it look like they are doing you a favor by giving you a larger percentage of your gross pay.

 

During my appeal, the examiner looked at 6 months of logs and then doubled it. You will still need a statement or something from the employer (broker, leasing agent) showing proof that you did work for them during that time, otherwise they may not make the logical leap.

See above

Maybe, you will still need to show how long it took you to get there, when you left home and when you returned, where you stopped for meals or rest, etc. Trip sheets and BOL's are going to show that information.