CRST Malone L/P from the beginning

Yes, since it is a lease the payments are 100% deductable. The balloon payment would be considered the purchase price and would be subject to depreciation. Per deim is $59/night away from home and 75% of that for partial days, then you take 80% of the total and that is your deduction.

Gotta be careful on deductions, a not so good accountant can get you in dutch with the irs. Shoes....only if they are steel toe work boots, flip flops or sneakers aren't deductable. Clothes...only uniforms, street clothes are not deductable even if you wear them while working. Sirius/xm, cb, phone are all communication expenses....but your dvd collection and tv are not qualified entertainment expenses (entertainment expenses only refer to entertainment used to get business ie. taking a client to a business dinner). Though if you do have educational dvs about the industry you watch then you can deduct the cost of those and the tv as an educational expense.

It's all very tricky and getting worse. I now learned that truck repairs can no longer be deducted all at once, they are going to be on a depreciation table like a truck purchase would be. So that $6k you spent on that turbo will be deducted at $2k per year over 3 years. This also includes tires. I heard the trucking accountant talking about it on sirius last week and what a nightmare it will be for o/o's.

 

Yep they are gonna make us do it with tires, depreciation over 3 years. If the tire needs replaced before the 3 years then you are allowede to take the balance of the value off at that time. It's stupid and just another way for the govt to squeeze the tit of the owners out there.

 

Yep, on another note...

I want to deliver an unbiased account of crst malone L/P program, so here is the account of my first dealings with maintenance, and it isn't pretty...

I call maintenance to get some work done on my truck over the weekend. I drop my truck off at 9am on friday at the Carlisle shop (1.5 hours from my home). The things I wanted done....

Shocks
2 of the 3 12v outlets in the sleeper don't work, want em fixed
opti idle is broke, want it disabled and the idle timeout disabled
There is an air leak in the tractor, leaks down to 60psi in about 10 mins when tractor is off
Power inverter install

I'm told my truck will be ready Monday. Monday rolls arounf and I call to find out it won't be done until monday evening. Tuesday morning I go pick up my truck. I find the front shocks were replaced. It fixed my horrible ride and I am happy. Then I find my power inverter still in the box on my bunk. I start the truck to build air pressure and the opti idle and idle shut off are still engaged, and if anything I think the air leak is worse. And the 12v outlets in the sleeper still do not work, they were never even looked at.

Their explanation: We are out of wire for the inverter install. The opti idle should have been disengaged, pull it around it only takes 5 mins (45 mins later I get out of the garage making me late for a pickup). We couldn't find an air leak. Blank look about the 12v outlets.

So far they get a D-, they only thing saving them from an F is they replaced the shocks.

 

I will be, getting things figured out. Just got a 550mi load no tarp paying $1,400. Getting me back to the shop, I got to get this air leak fixed before I get dinged.