Trucker Tax Tips & Deductions

Thanks. Well, my husband has been trucking for about 30 years, and in the past had his own trucks/business. For the past 2 years it's been a learning experience for me.

No, never had enough extra money. With all the problems we've had with breakdowns and other stuff...

Yes, we are running under our own authority. We started out 2 yrs ago in Florida hauling with a dump wagon locally. Then went long distance under a broker's authority for a month till we got our own. But after too many breakdowns on the road due to mechanic's errors (they wouldn't take responsibility, I got pics to prove it after Peterbilt fixed them), we decided to haul crushed cars for a friend in AL (between AL & TN). Then moved all our stuff up here (w/the reefer) and found a place to rent in TN, then put the reefer up for sale along with the dump wagon.
Got another truck and hauling logs till that got too slow and decided to put the reefer back on the road hauling corn to FL from IL. The older Pete got scrapped. One thing that gets me is that the friend's brother we hauled the corn for told me that they used to do it themselves but quit because they couldn't find loads OUT of FL. Well, thanks for telling me that NOW!

That's what my husband said.

You could PM me. I finally broke the 50 posts mark.

Well, we're going to sign on with a local trucking company. They're going to carry ALL the insurance! Plus, whatever hauls we have between us and the guy in AL he won't take anything from it. Just have to wait till Thursday and it'll be final.

If you need any help with the load boards, give me a PM. I'm usually here, so I don't mind helping anyone out if they need it.

We like it here, but being my husband is from FL originally, he can't stand the cold. : )

 

Do you have a picture of your ol' Pete?

Sounds like you guys, been there and done it like us. We had several trucks at one time and a gosh darn business going.

what threw us down, was making the mistake of owning a few trucks and putting drivers in them. They didn't care!
One blew an engine out in the middle of the country,
Never took care of the equipment , even though we took care of their needs and paid them well.
Our last straw was when we got Sued BIG TIME, because of a driver being charged for ROAD RAGE. He deliberately ran someone off the road and caused an accident.
It was because of headaches from drivers that put us out of business. But really that was my husbands decision, from all the headaches. We had no problem with Owner Operators. They know what it's like out there.

Florida is Produce Haven. Down in Omakalee, there's tons of Produce Brokers running off of farms.
I'm trying to talk my Husband into getting back into our own business again. Leasing onto Companies is the PITS!

I passed my mile marker, 50, too.
I'll pm you. My husband is still sitting down above Vero Beach , waiting to get out of there and back up here to PA.

 

The ole Pete is the one in my photo. My husband decided that he had no other choice and sold it for scrap to the guy we're hauling for because we were broke. He has his own scrap yard.

I'll PM you.

 

My driver that is leasing his truck from a company gordon owns,,,,,,and then in turn leases his truck and driving back to gordon.

Gordon gave him a 1099 misc. with his pay in box 1 for rents income.

Do I file a schedule C or will I need to file schedule E

Thank you in advance for an answer.

 

RE (Double Dear):
Its good to hear a story similar to mine. My brother and I owned a company out of Pa. Made the same mistake of Leasing several tractors from Valvo. and buying a couple of others. Had a similar experience where we were sued after we had let Valvo take a truck back, they never took our Name and MC # off of the door. They leased the rig to another driver who ran it with our stuff on the door. Ran into the back of a mini van of kids, and were still fighting it today.

Another driver dropped a trany on the highway,....

Had other drivers selling fuel on us!. So we closed the business. O/O's are the way to go.!

 

Does the Per Diem pertain only to O/O & Lease drivers? How about Company Team drivers?

 

Per diem is for all transport employees.

 

Technically, per diem is for any kind of employee who travels away from home. However, we always talk about it in reference to transport / truck drivers.

 

I am a new driver ..... the company I am going with told me my only pay option is them paying part of my cpm on a per diem basis (.10 CPM) ..... does this mean I do not need to save meal receipts ...... on my taxes, does the per diem cover all expenses or can I claim 'non-meal' expenses separate ......

 

The reason I refer to it that way is because there is a section devoted to transportation workers. These people receive a special deduction that allows them an easier method of tracking per diem.

Others as you state are eligible under the rules and figure theirs under the standard rates.