Tax time

I never thought of it from that angle, I guess I'll have to check. Before I started driving, we always used Turbo Tax, it always seemed to do OK with just the house and stuff. II thought that with the per diem and expenses for driving I should use a service. We've always gotten a refund so I never really thought about it. That part is covered under their "warranty" as well, if they've missed anything they'll fix that also.

 

In this day of elogs, make sure that you get copies. Must have them to back up your claims for per diem.

Receipts. They are nice to have and keep but, if the expense is under $75 (I think) a ledger will work as well. Note what you bought, when and where you got it, and how much.

You really ought to find on line somewhere, exactly what truckers can deduct. We're odd balls in the system, andhave things we can ddeduct that other people can't. As just two examples, we can deduct showers if we pay for them and, we can deduct laundry expenses incurred on the road.

 

You can also deduct a portion of your cell phone/data since it is used in the day-to-day function of your job such as monitoring weather and traffic and getting satellite views of new addresses you have not been to. Also, hotels when you decide to escape the sardine can for a night and sleep in a real room can be itemized and deducted.

I realize you don't want to pay out for things just to take the deduction, but if you are going to for whatever reason or motivation, you should take the deduction for as long as they allow it. One day soon, it may go away.

 

As someone who more or less just finished an with an IRS audit today, some feedback.

1. To deduct cellphone use, you must have the itemized monthly breakdown cellphone bill from your carrier, showing all call made/received. You must also keep a record, separate from, of all numbers called for BUSINESS related purposes (brokers, dispatch, customers, road service, etc.). Each month, you need to tally up the total minutes used for business calls, and subtract that as PERCENTAGE of your total monthly bill, for your line only. Example: Your monthly cell bill is $80, you have unlimited calling, you make 300 minutes of BUSINESS related calls for the month. But, for the month, you make a total of 800 minutes of calls (business and personal). Those 300 minutes, is equal to 37% of all calls for the month, therefore, for that month you can deduct 37% of $80 or $29.60. The actual recommendation of the IRS Appeals agent I worked with, is that you keep a separate line for business related use only. Now, to throw a wrench into this calculation, it is possible to actually deduct upto 50% of your total annual cellphone as a business related deduction (as a company driver), but this is at the discretion of the IRS examiner.

2. If you do not get a per diem from your employer, you need to get a letter from the employer to prove this, otherwise the IRS may not believe you, as I found out.

3. There are two ways to calculate you meal deduction, the common way, as normally discussed, is that on the day you leave and the day you return, you can only claim 75%. However, if you read Pub 463, it shows that there are two ways to calculate, one is the above, the other is that the day you leave would be calculated as a full day, whereas the day you return home would be calculated as a partial day. The appeals examiner today calculated my days using this method, which garnered me a larger amount.

AS always, keep receipts for everything, if possible including meals. Showers, not paid for on full credit, are deductible, but, this is going to be a per examiner/appeals agent deduction, and will have to be justified and explained.

 

If you have a dedicated phone line exclusively for truck business, is it fully deductible?

Does it make a difference if you're a company driver or O/O?

 

The phone deduction is variable by examiner. If you are a corp, the company can provide a cell phone for each driver, which is one way to end the discussion.

Any dedicated phone is fully deductible.

 

I'm a company driver, and drive for Uber/Lyft on the weekend, the recommendation of the Appeals examiner is that I get a separate dedicated cell only for business calls and Uber/Lyft use. It will be 100% deductible then. I'm contemplating a prepaid for this purpose.

 

Thank you for the answers.

Followup question: if you had a phone that you only used while in the truck, could you use it for personal calls? Example: If I have a phone that I use ONLY when I am on the road and claim 100% deduction for, could I use that phone to call my wife when I'm on my 10-hour break? Or would that disqualify the phone from 100% deduction?

 

That would disqualify for the 100% deductible. I can almost guarantee if audited, the IRS would want a copy of the calls list for that phone, as part of the audit paperwork, they will have your home number, so they will be looking for it.

 

Thank you for the information, striker!