Per diem, yes or no?

........No

 

Ok can please explain Why ?

 

Depends on person to be honest it really evens out. Do you want more money NOW? or more money on taxes? Even on per diem i still took home on my refund around 2-3k. Which is what i got the year before too. PROBLEM with it? Some place's don't count your per diem as pay. So last year i made 65,000 i think 20 of that was per diem. It does hurt how much u pay into your SS and other benfits.

 

Works well if you have a hefty child support payment...for me it did at least. Everyone has differing opinions on the subject....what works for you is what is right.

 

No, just another get over the company gets on you

 

No. Except for tax time, then claim the deduction. My main objection is paying the company handling/management fees. Why do that?

 

If you are out enough nights away from home you will get $49????? A night as a write off on taxes, but it must add up more than your standard deduction to be better for you to use your own personal per diem deduction. You can claim your own per diem if the company doesn't pay you per diem. You can also claim the difference between the amount of per diem by the federal govt and the amount your carrier pays you.


Yes the company pays you a per diem, you don't pay tax on that money. It also lowers the amount of tax money the company pays. Social security and medicare tax. They give you 40 a day in per diem they save around 4 dollars a day in taxes to the government.

 

I like it. It works for me.

The one legit con I've found is that companies pay per diem by the mile. No miles = no per diem. If you're working for a company that sits you all the time, you'll fall behind the $59/day allowance fairly quickly. If they keep you moving, it makes for a nice take home on Friday.

Also, I guess if you're counting on that sweet $250 SS check every month to retire on, per diem would be a bad thing for you. That's assuming the program hasn't collapsed by then.

 

Usually, most companies on let you subscribe to or unsubscribe to company paid per diem once a year to ease their bookkeeping/accounting labor.
Initially, if you are starting out as a trainee and/or with low pay and cash now in each weekly paycheck is highly important then I would suggest taking the company per diem to maximize you paycheck during that initial transition.

After your first year or ASAP that you are making better money I would get off the company per diem, and file your per diem yourself on your year-end tax return ($59/day for each day you are away from home is a nice deduction) on form 2106 of your tax return. If you are out each month say 24-days then that adds up to $16,992.00 times 80% = $13,593.60 deduction.

The bad thing about company paid per diem is it reduces your gross wages thereby reducing the amount of social security and medicare you pay in, which will hurt you down the road at retirement (that is if social security is still around). And it will further hurt your chances when applying for loans such as a car or credit card, because most finance companies are looking at your gross wages.

But it is a personal decision on what works for you.

 

False. Or maybe I just picked the ten lenders who were okay with per diem when I shopped for an auto loan a couple years ago.

List per diem in the 'other income' box on the application.