per diem

Actually, you get back 8.5 cpm - not 8.

One of the only good reasons to do per diem is if you are expecting a wage garnishment, since the garnishment will be based on your gross pay before the per diem is added.

 

Per Diem PAID per month benefits NO DRIVER!It ONLY benifits the company!
As stated above you will be hurt in at LEAST 4 ways!
1- less paid into your Social Security! If it's still around then less is less and truxs6t me when I say less does suck! It's not SS I'm on but disability and it's about the same amount!
2- Unemployment- Less pain in the less you get if you qualify for unemployment!It's whats paid into your taxes!
3- Workers Compensation if you get injured on the job. Yes it's what is paid in to your taxes!
4- ANY LOAD! This is a motorcycle, car, pick up, road tractor or a home loan! Yes your pay stub shows a nice amount BUT your W-2 shows LESS! If you are "really" making $40.000 but you only paid taxes on oh lets say $35.000 you will NOT get the loan you want!

Here is who REALLY makes out on this per diem scam!
THE COMPANY!
WHY? You ask.

Easy!
They pay you less as that per diem for some reason come out to less than what you would actually make.
If they charge you a SINGLE penny for their "from the bottom of their heart" deal they've cooked up they made money off of you! Some of these BFI's actually charge you $.o1-.02 cents per MILE to FIGURE out your per diem pay! ROFLMAO! They CHARGE you for this?? Excuse me while I ROFLMFAO! One company out there that has about 7000 drivers in the fleet that does NOT let you opt out of this oh so fine system makes approximately, if they all got 8000 miles a month (this is a made up average ok?) if all 7000 do 8000 miles ...$1,120,000 off of their drivers! WOW! Just do the math! Take the number of drivers multiply by miles they drove and then multiply by $.02 cents per mile! That's quite a racket that the mafia would be proud of! NOT to mention the taxes they do NOT pay on you! That number I don't have a calculator big enough to figure out! Screw you and the gooberment and both of them are letting BFI do it to them! Wild!

All that money for the per diem using an excel sheet that will use only one box for the formula! I did it using easy calc! ONE BOX! Or that software writer will write with less than 15 numbers in code in their pay program! That's a ripoff and every driver that signs or thinks they're GETTING more money must be using good vaseline!

Get an accountant that is trucker friendly! Stay away from the big box once a year places! Get an accountant that is recommended to you by a O/O in your town! OR call OOIDA and ask them for a reference!
You will, at the end of the year, be able to do better on your returns claiming that government set rate for this year than that paltry pathetic amount that BFI is "giving" you!

You do NOT have to be an O/O or L/P to claim a lot of the thing available to truckers at tax time!

I would LOVE to see the government rake Big Blue and many others over the coals and charge them under the RICO Act on several different charges! Per Diem just one of them! If I were them I'd be refunding all those two centses back before someone decides that they were pushed just a little to far and believe me truckers can get pushed a tad bit too far! Go look at the new front door to the Capital in California and say it'll never happen!

Charging someone for the PRIVEILEGE to screw them! That's pretty good! How do these pissant CEO's sleep at night? Oh I forgot, warm and comfy or cool and sweet depending on time of year between silk sheets!

Now someone start the law suit against just one of them, get a few more in on it to call it a class action and watch the rest of these companies break their backs getting everyone they bend their money back before it falls on them!

They will keep doing this until drivers grow a backbone and just say NO MORE!

As to the above statement of garnishments; If you are paying child support through a government ordered garnishment why would you NOT support your children? If you do it to not pay that child's upkeep I'll be nice here and call you pathetic but there are others in here that will let you have it with both barrels! Any other garnishment why would you not get it freaking paid and get out from under it except that alimony! Yeah that I can see but hey I know you heard that song by Jerry Reed many years ago and you got married anyway? LOL!

 

It benefits the company and not you. I refuse to work for a company that forces you to take it. Where I work, we have the option to tale it if we want, but are not forced to take it.

 

Now the perdium you use at the end of the year on your taxes, is something totally different. You take every full day you spend away from home ( on the days you leave home or get home you can claim 1/2 a day, but not a full a day) I think this year the perdium rate is 80% of $56 dollars a day for everyday your out. What I usually do on a paper logs is at the end of the month is go back through my log book and figure out my days away from home and right this on the front of the log book, so that at tax time I can easily figure out the days im allowed to claim perdium for. I hope that hasn't confused you, and the daily Dollar amount your allowed to claim changes year to year. The IRS will add a few dollars for cost of living increases each year.

 

It is the same per diem.

If the company is paying per diem to you on the pay check, then you can only take the difference.

 

You get 80% of $59 a day. = $47.20

 

"Yes, Swift does off Per diem. It's a joke. They take away 10 cents per mile of your pay and pay you 8 cents per mile as a reimbersement (no taxes taken out). Whether you sign up for the per diem program or not, you can still claim per diem on your taxes and get the deduction that they are basically giving you in advance, and charging you for it. On top of that, because it is considered a reimbersement instead of pay, it lowers the amount you are contributing to Social Security (which you may or may not see anyway down the road) and also because it lowers your gross pay would effect the amount of unemployment you might be eligible for if you became unemployed.".......... Sounds like a real GOOD DEAL! (FOR THE COMPANY!) A better idea is to just pay the driver and let him or her deal with the taxes and deductions themselves! O but wait a minute..... We cant do that as the company wouldn't be able to charge the driver for this "COMPANY SERVICE" and enrich the company's bottom line! if the company pays the driver less the driver wont be able to aford to be able to get home to visit with their kids and will have to stay on the road longer and enrich the companys bottom line!

 

I used them last year, did pretty good. I brought in receipts to itemize, but he really didnt even look at them. I just rattled off what i bought, how much, and wrote it down. Then added up everything, and just put that number into the tax form. what i itemized basicly paid for my state tax, and i ended up getting everything back. $800 from state, then $3k from fed. That per diem sure helps out. =)

 

One thing we don't need is Dickydoo giving tax advise.

Your log book is all the receipt you need for the meal deduction for $47.20 a day. Cleaning supplies, tools, unreimbursed company expenses, cell phone, internet access, lap top etc.

Don't be a Dick get expert advise. NOT MINE EITHER! THAT IS WHY I HAVE A TAX MAN THAT KNOWS TRUCKING O/O OR EMPLOYEE.

 

Unlike most here, I get expert advice without paying for it.

I have done more returns than most will ever think of.