My lease adventure

So here are July's numbers. I have decided to put more focus on my personal life and business life so I will no longer post my numbers on here. I feel that I have proven that you can both make more money as a lease O/O and make one of these programs work. You just have to be patient, do your research, and work hard. I may update what's going on from time to time and will most likely give a breakdown of my first years numbers when that time comes. I want to thank everyone for the advice and well wishes. Everyone be safe out there.

 

Honestly I will most likely stay with this company for awhile. I make good money, get home a lot, and work one area most the time so things are pretty steady. I may not have control over my loads for the most part and get dispatched, but I really like the company and get along with the people there very well. Ultimately finding somewhere you can make a living and be happy is best for you IMO. Not many companies pay as high of a percentage rate on the west coast as far as I know. My company pays 79% if you use their trailer and 89% if you have your own.

 

So something happened to me that I think needs to be put in my thread so first a little back story.

When I was looking into hiring a CPA in my local area there were only two or three choices so I decided to go with the one I know personally. I grew up with the son of the owners and have been around this family the majority of my life. They have been doing my personal taxes for many years and I know they are also experienced in trucking taxes so I decided to give them a chance. That might have been a mistake.

Not one time did they sit down with me and advise me on what I can and can't right off. All they did was give me a printout list of things to write off. This list was just basic things for the truck like fluids, repairs, cooking supplies, etc. When I did my first quarterly with them and got a $6,225 bill I decided to get a second opinion. I started talking to some of my fellow drivers in my company to see who they use and called them up.

I just sat down with them Monday for over 2 hours just listening to them give me advice. There was so much information my first CPA did not divulge to me. So I have decided to hire them and they are fixing the mistakes I made due to listening to the first CPA. My company structure is now being put into an LLC rather than just a assumed business name. I have been advised of write offs I didn't know I had such as writing off part of my mortgage and utilities due to having a home office. Writing off my personal pickup payment and expenses due to using it for work purposes. I told the guy I just want to know what all I can write off that I am already paying for to lower my tax liability.

The only bad thing about this place is it's a 75 mile drive to go there but that is ok. The lesson I learned here was to not limit yourself to just a small area when you do business. Driving 75 miles every once in awhile saved me a ton. Also don't get just one opinion because you won't know if your getting duped. So as far as my truck goes things haven't changed. I am still making the same money and have not had any problems with the truck. I actually was able to take a few days off and still went over the $17k mark to the truck.

 

No I was given a figure of $6225 for what I owed the IRS my first quarter. They didn't charge me anything to do my taxes. $17k was my gross revenue to the truck and my mileage was just under 8800. The rate per mile to the truck was $1.93 all miles. My net to the truck was just under 7k. If you look at the numbers I posted through out this thread you will pick up on a theme of me making around those numbers every month.

 

Well I had my second break down. Luckily it happened pretty close to home and about 10 miles from the place I get my truck repaired at so I was able to take it there. Ended up being a bad turbo actuator and a bent belt tensioner. My company gave me a loaner truck so I let them keep the truck to get all the maintenance that needed to be done completed. I had them replace both belt tensioners and the belts. The turbo actuator was under warranty and they did a p.m. and valve adjustment. All this came up to just under $1,500

 

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