Driving For Owner Operator-taxes

You can deduct everything that has to do with work as an employee. You buy uniform, tax deductible, magazine subscriptions to stay on top of industry standards, tax deductible, you buy a tool to fix something on a truck and company doesn't reimburse you, tax deductible. It's literally 100% the same tax deductions. Being a 1099 isn't the same as being a business owner if you're just just driver. The only difference between 1099 and w2 is the worst the boss pays 7.5% payroll tax and taxes all the other taxes out before you get paid.

 

Do some research that's all I can tell you.

 

Employees can no longer deduct work expenses. The standard deduction was doubled instead.

 

Bingo.

 

If I were an employee I’d rather have work comp insurance and unemployment insurance than be able to take some deductions at the end of the year. Anytime I see someone misclassifying employees I also wonder what other corners are being cut.

 

If I was going to drive for someone I'd prefer to be a 1099 driver but I'd have to have full control of booking the freight and where I went and whenever I went home. No if's, and's or but's. If there was a revenue goal to be met give it to me in a contract and I would hit that but I'd want 35% to do it. That's the only way I'd be a "hired" 1099 driver driving someone else's truck. And technically that would be a perfectly legal scenario that would pass the IRS test and I would be a legit contractor.

Granted, no-one that I've seen out there actually offers this sort of 1099 opportunity and I understand why. Because most employee drivers just aren't up to the task and would run things into the ground fairly quick. Every 1099 "employee" I ever read about on the internet was somebody getting scammed by an owner trying to cut costs avoiding taxes and looking at some serious trouble with the IRS when they get caught misclassifying their employees as contractors.

 

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