Per Diem/Workers Comp/Ugly companies

Which means, IF, your tax person charges per form to fill out, you get to pay that cost to fill it out to calculate the difference you'll get to deduct from your taxes!

Look at it like this. They are back into your pocket in another way! This circle is getting to be a little on the vicious side!

You ARE in this job to MAKE money not throw it away correct???

 

Just get paid CASH under the TABLE and all will be GOOD

 

As long as they are SINGING your SONG otherwise its the BLUES

 

BUT! This is how they spin the 2 penny charge.

Driver A signs on at .36 per mile with no per diem. Even after company tells him how much more he will have in pocket each week being on per diem.
Driver B listens to the spiel bumps his head and signs on at .34 under the per diem plan at .25 taxable and .09 non- taxable.

They are not taking .02 out of mileage pay, the payroll statement will not say .36-.02 fee. He is just starting out at .34 for the privilege of having all that extra loot in his pocket (so the company says) and will be eating shrimp and steak dinners all year while the guy at .36 eats top ramen. Plus they tell driver B that driver A will have to prove to IRS agent that he had $59 bucks a day in expenses while he will have not a worry in the world.

And here is another fact of per diem. It is mileage based. If you are layed over or not getting miles your per diem is lowered. If you are taking the standard deduction you get it every day you are on the road whether you are running or not.

And the .09 per diem is not considered secondary income for credit purposes. It is reimbursement by the company. The bank will only look at the .25 as income ( at least the 3 I deal with).

 

Driver A does NOT have to prove to the IRS that he has a $59 dollar a day expense, he just has to show that he was not at his home to get the FULL credit. IF i live in fontana, and spend the night in phoenix i get the full credit even if I spend only 2 dollars on food......

 

Bigblue: That is why you keep your log books! You count each day you are gone from home.

I did mine this way:

From off duty to on duty then the days out start when I put truck in gear and left home. From that minute on I start to count each day I am not at home. It doesn't matter if your 20 miles away because you ate something and you slept some where which will be in the truck or motel.
This keeps on until day whatever. Be it 2 days or 200! I do not keep any receipts unless they benefit me which are things like any fuel the company would not pay for, tolls, scale tickets, ink pens, log books, maps, safety shoes, gloves, window cleaner, paper towels used to clean those windows, or every thing I'm going to claim BUT I do not keep all those pesky restaurant or motel receipts because they are covered in the per diem. Besides all those restaurant receipts take up way too much room and trying to get the tip added in with some cashiers is not worth the hassle! Besides it could show up on the waitresses reportable and they don't make enough putting up with a bunch of irratiable customers to have to file them!
I keep counting those days untill I get home. At the end of each month I count every day that I did NOT lay my head on my pillow next to my wifes head! I write that on the front of my log book like this: Days out 25 and then enter that number in my tax work sheet I made with Excel to keep track of all my receipts which is a job I performed every day when I was scanning all my receipts and putting them in their safe home of the trip pak envelope.

The gooberment gives us a deduction of whatever the number is each year. Now if you are one of those who stays in a 5 star motel and pays for it out of pocket and eats 3 high dollar meals a day then yeah you'll want to forget the Per Diem or as it's still called by politicians who either want to slam you for it , tax it more or did as Bill Clinton did and actually take it away (yeah the idiot did and the ATA sat on their fat arses and did nothing to protect their drivers!) The 3 Martini Lunch which is the "fancy" name for it, but for most truckers the deduction across the board pays a lot better in the long run!

Your Uncle Sam is letting you deduct $59 for being away from your domicile which is actually a nice thing! Heck even the Military gets a "per diem" which when I was in was better at times than that big $485 a month pay check!