Per Diem Legalities

Usual per diem thread, usual per diem ignorance. Only 3 posters here have clue and they're getting eviscerated.

And OP, if you're looking to buy a house in a couple of years, your employer just did you a favor ... Bo's right.

 

You aren't missing any income. Read my posts. I explained how it works

 

This explains it about as well as can be explained ...
Per Diem Pay for Truck Drivers

 

Not really ...

 

This is why you get someone called an accountant to do your taxes. They show you what's what and then you can be better informed.

 

Actually, you get the accountant BEFORE you make any tax related decisions like Per Diem. They don't "DO" taxes, they keep you from doing things that incur taxes if you use them wisely.

 

Don't take the per diem when you start a new job. Some companies are scamming their drivers on this. They say they pay you .30/mile but .14/mile is "tax free" go ahead and try to figure that out at the end of the year!!!!!
Take the full per mile rate they offer you and add up the days you were on the road. It changes every year so... but say it's $60 a day and you were out 300 days.
300x60=$18,000
You can deduct 80% of that $18,000
So
18,000x.80=$14,400
So if your taxable gross income is $50,000
50,000-14,400=35,600
$35,600 is what you will be taxed on.
But for financial purposes, you can show $50,000 as your gross to the bank. Because that's what they actually paid you. Instead of your pay stub showing you gross much less if you allow your company to "do it for you "
You don't need receipts to do this, just keep your logs if you ever get audited.
If you're electronic, ask your company for a copy of your logs every year and keep them. If a tax preparer tells you that you need a trash bag full of receipts, find a new tax preparer, because they are dumb!
It is normal for a driver to deduct $14,000 in per diem. It's not a red flag in the eyes of the IRS. It's normal. People and companies just try to scare everyone with the IRS horror stories. Or they are scamming you!

 

Very few drivers on per diem payroll plan have a choice on the matter. Most are forced onto it (it's not an option at most places that have per diem pay. It's go on per diem plan or work somewhere else).

 

While what you say is true, I do wish drivers would simply go somewhere else. If the company can't hire drivers then it will change it's polices or die.
And yes, i do understand why people put up with it. Getting a job now and putting food on the table or keep looking... Just would be nice for a few companies to go out of business "as an example"

 

Orly?

Who is to say that driver pay with perdiem included to me is .40? and I only want .36 without because I intend to claim Per diem for myself next tax time.

IF the carrier refuses to pay me .36 straight non perdiem I guess I continue to find another carrier to work for.

I had one company that tried to do that. I moved on after two weeks after I discovered that in the payroll stub. They asked why? I told em one more time what I told them in orientation when filling out pay forms. They did not listen.