Company Driver & Tax Time

You can avoid even sending your receipts to you tax preparer if you would just use a good spreadsheet to keep track of expenses. Just columnize the catagories and put the expense or deduction in the spreadsheet and have a running total based on (my preference) monthly. I even keep the running totals from the monthly in an annual spread. You can just print out the annual or send it to your preparer via an email. You must keep the receipts for any audit, but why pay for a preparer's time to go thru the mess. I also scan all my receipts to a PDF on my computer and then store the PDF's with my spreadsheets and tax returns on a 2 CD's (2 in the event one is unreadable) and stash them in a safety deposit box at my bank. No surprises. Even in an audit, the IRS is comfortable with having the receipts in a scanned format. Fact is, they like it better since they don't have to plow thru a paperwork mess. The whole process, filing and maybe an audit, goes smoother.

The key to all of this tax filing mess is to keep very organized and diligent about your records. Keep everything as painless as possible. Even a very good spreadsheet for doing this is FREE! Check out Open Office on the web. They offer a complete Office Suite that is comparible/compatible with Microsoft Office and they will give the complete package with no limitations to anyone for free.

No one can do a better job at any price in keeping things organized than yourself. I would only use a service for this if I was a total incompetent at keeping records. But then, I would question anyone's ability to run a successful business and not be able to keep organized records. It is responsible to get advise from a competent CPA or tax preparer early in the game, but once a person has done this for a while, knowing what records need to be kept and then keeping them organized is a simple process. Then, the tax preparation game is relatively simple. You can just use whomever you are comfortable with in doing the return and filing. I only use a CPA occasionally for questions. I do all the legwork myself (records and filing) myself and save a grip of money. I do the returns online using Turbo Tax online. Been doing it this way for several years now. No audits since 1985. Did it as a company driver and then as an O/O.

 

Great idea for scanning the receipts there cowpie! I have found that often, the ink fades out on them, making them pretty much impossible to read. I am going to be adopting that tip into my practices!

 

Easy enough. Here's MY question... does the per diem allowance need to be done with another form or simply in the deductions on the 1040 form?

I checked out the turbotax online because a buddy of mine (also a driver) said that it calculated the 80% and everthing automatically.... and when I followed up and did the math, sure enough it was right on the money (pun fully intended ).... but, I'd prefer to fill this all out myself and save the 30 bucks. I kept none of my reciepts this year, I rent, it's the Ex's year to claim the kid, and so the only deduction I have are my 211 days on the road. Every penny I can get back is my goal...obviously.