How did you fair this year?

It is Tax Season, how did you first or second year drivers do and was it more or less than you expected? I am curious to see the highs and the lows

 

well I earned enough from my months at werner and Shaffer to actually owe something in taxes. Which is a first for me. But I did learn how much of a difference of .38 cpm vs .51 cpm is because my Shaffer pay in 3 months was almost half of my 6 or 7 months at werner

 

I'm retired. My situation is different. However I have spoken to a fair bit of drivers that say they made more in 2018/17 then 2016. Some are begining to see less coming back. Looks like I am going to be sending some in. I suspect by April there will be threads about this new law.

 

Im out of it for two decades, I am not a tax payer other than sales tax, fuel tax, electric tax, tax tax and god only knows what else.

Trucking was a interesting problem in taxes. My last year 2001 filing jointly showed a income of 67K for the two of us (34 something K each) and a perdeim close to 14000 dollars total against taxes. That resulted in a refund.

One thing we do each that most people DO NOT do, we send 100 to Uncle Sam and 75 to State each payroll week. That is 200 and 150 from the two of us that year all year. Over and beyond standard deduction. We learned to do this to protect ourselves from excessive taxation at which its really possible here in Arkansas mainly. And a way to force the company to pay out against a negative $0.00 payroll. The withholding has to be paid. If the check is a wash or negative, they still have to pay the 100 and 75 etc. It's not often that happens.

The following years refund 4 to 5 figures depending becomes the foundation savings for the new years trucking to solve problems and be added to. That way we always had the option that if we ran pretty hard we can and will go home for 4 months in winter. Let someone else deal with the stuff. We already made our pile for the year.

When you have savings small and large and easily accessed at any time for any problem, trucking is no longer a problem. You can focus on your work. Taxes become a form to be signed and electronically sent. It's done in a few minutes. No stress either way. That is why people with money do not seem to struggle. They just enjoy life.

 

I passed the CDL school 3rd week of Feb last year. Did my 6 week on the road training deal, then I started driving.

I haven't done my taxes yet so I can't give an '18 number... but if I keep avg what I avg right now it should be about 80k my first year. Might be a little more because I worked through some scheduled home time.

It was more than what I expected. So far my experience in trucking has been more than what I expected of anything in general. Regular jobs I felt let me down in general. So when I came into truck driving I felt pampered in comparison to other jobs that required education/people skills/fluent in 5 different languages and mind reading skills.

Truck driving I just show up and drive and make more. People deal with my flaws and don't make much issue of anything as long as I am on time most of the time. Previous jobs I'd be sent to HR and commanded to watch "educational" videos about stuff... I don't know I never really paid attention.

Lows, yeah I can't play computer games as much as I'd like because my truck will not charge my laptop. Also I am tired... A LOT. Fatigue hits more now more than normal. That's about it though. Its worth to me because I save most of my money so it doesn't matter. My labor isn't being wasted.

 

Well keep on trucking, it sounds like you are a positive so far, thanks. I have a CDL and a teacher for 10 years. I want to complete 30 years because the retirement is awesome, but I am not sure how much longer I will make it, sadly. The biggest problem is I have a 3 year old and a lovely wife so I can’t do anything irrational. I only drove for 6 months before I had to come home, but trucking has never left my mind

 

I did better than last year. Approximately 112K.
Expected due to rate of pay increase.
Filed return to beat shutdown and got my refund back already. It was more also.

 

110k this year, up from last year. Downside is I got back less.
But, that also means I didn't give Uncle Sam an interest free loan on as much of my money this past year.

 

But bottom line did you pay more, less, or the same on your federal taxes as a percentage of your gross wages and taxable benefits, 2018 versus 2017?

 

I "hibernated" away from the rest of the industry almost 20 years with a home daily regional job. I left in the middle of 2017 to go back OTR. In 6 months of OTR in 2017 I made almost exactly what I averaged per year in the lower paying job. 2018 is my first full year OTR and I made about 60% more than last full year sleeping at home. It's the most money I made ever. I'm glad I went OTR, picked tankers, and tankers are only 48 ft long. It makes parking so much easier. My company gave numerous bonuses and started to guaranee a minimum weekly pay that they didn't even advertise we would get at the start.