Magnum ltd - fargo, nd

This is the point I was trying to make on the conference call Wednesday night. As has been stated here, as of 1/1/18, truckers can no longer take the standard per diem tax deduction ($63/day spent away from home) like we could in the past. So, those that are getting per diem pay (up to 10 cpm here, I believe) will owe those taxes at the end of the year. Fair warning! I thought the company might quit doing the per diem pay option, but Chad didn't seem to have a clue what I was talking about.

 

According to an accountant with a public agency that specializes in truckers taxes, the meal allowance is still there, but made irrelevant by the increase in the personal deduction. It use to be, if you didn't have itemized deductions over a certain amount, then it was a waste to itemize. Now that limit is high enough that most of what we itemize won't add up to the standard deduction amount. The only ones that will still benefit from it are non-LLC/Incorporated O/O's who have enough other business related deductions that will exceed the standard deduction amount.

 

Tax reform bill leaves truckers' 80-percent per diem intact

 

So....about that conference call last night....

 

Cliffs?

 

Yea, about that.....

 

I had personally researched the new tax law, and read articles such as Tax bill likely sunsets meal per diem for drivers, cuts rates across the board and had concluded the deduction for meals/travel was eliminated for EVERYONE. After reading the article you posted, and going back over the new law, I have changed my opinion. I mistakenly assumed our meals/travel expenses were "Miscellaneous Deductions" (defined here), which have been eliminated through 2025 (Text - H.R.1 - 115th Congress (2017-2018): An Act to provide for reconciliation pursuant to titles II and V of the concurrent resolution on the budget for fiscal year 2018. Sec. 11045). The deductions we (trucking industry) are allowed are classified as "Unreimbursed Employee Expenses", and as far as I can tell, are still allowed at the 80% rate. Thanks for enlightening me!

However, I stand by my assertion that Magnum will benefit substantially from the new tax laws and could justify a raise like so many other companies have done! Just sayin'

 

While most of you that read and post in this thread or from the OTR division I came from the LTL side. More specifically I ran line haul out of if the Duluth terminal to the coon rapids terminal twice each night five nights a week.

Overall it was a decent job. The pay was low for the LTL world. But I still made 50K in my first year at magnum and would have been between 55 and 57 my second year which isn't terrible for a home every day type of job with weekends off. The line haul side also pays hourly after the first hour for any holdups. P&D pays hourly as well and they do pay OT after forty hours.

I will say it is a job for those that don't need their hands held. I was largely left alone to do my job and often I never saw or spoke with dispatch on my Friday night runs and never if I picked up a weekend run. Just grab the paperwork and get it done.

While I had a couple of mistakes on my pay checks they were always corrected on the next pay period. I also just looked at my last pay stub which will be payed tomorrow. I had absolutely no issues with my last check and they payed all of my remaining vacation and payed the holiday that fell at the begging of my last week as well.

If your interested in the LTL side I would say its worth giving a try. I was always treated fairly and if you enjoy it, a job at Magnum on the LTL side can be a great foot in the door of the LTL industry as a whole which with the right moves could possibly set you up for a six figure income pulling doubles for company's like Old Dominion and Fed ex Freight.

I personally have decided to leave LTL, and took a job pulling fuel tankers for another local company because I wanted a new challenge. but that takes nothing away from Magnum or the LTL industry as a whole.

 

Every corporation in the country will see a benefit.
Corporate tax rate cut.
Immediate expensing of purchased equipment, they are no longer are required to write off newly purchased equipment using depreciation. They can immediately write off entire purchase price of the equipment.

 

Yeah about that...